Ingredients & Substances

ENSURING QUALITY & TRACEABILITY

VS&Co nominates a vast majority of our lingerie and apparel raw materials suppliers to ensure quality control. Our finished goods suppliers are required to use raw materials sourced from nominated raw material suppliers. This allows us to achieve our high-level requirements on quality and gives us visibility and compliance control of our lingerie and apparel supply chain.

We are committed to increasing transparency of the ingredients in our products. We are working to develop our ingredient glossary to share the purpose of the ingredients in the products our customers love. 

FORMALDEHYDE

Formaldehyde is found naturally in the environment and is widely used in many consumer products. You could expect to find it in dollar bills, medicines, wood furniture, baby wipes – even fresh fruits and vegetables.

Personal Care Products

Very low levels of formaldehyde may be found in personal care products as a result of the use of certain preservatives. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not set limits for the use of formaldehyde, our personal care products may contain low levels of commonly used formaldehyde-releasing preservatives consistent with industry standards. These levels are within safe-use limits as determined by the independent Cosmetic Ingredient Review and meet the European Union limits.

Apparel

Victoria’s Secret & Co. does not add formaldehyde to our branded apparel, including bras. In fact, multiple independent tests have confirmed that our bras are formaldehyde-free or contain insignificant trace amounts, which are substantially lower than the thresholds allowed by the most stringent textile guidelines in the world. For more specific information about these claims and about formaldehyde, please visit Our Responses.

LIPSTICK

In an article published in the July/August 2009 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Cosmetic Science, FDA scientists reported that they had developed and employed a highly sensitive and rigorous testing method to analyze the total lead content in a broad selection of lipsticks sold in the U.S. and found the any present lead levels are safe and well below recommended limits set by international regulatory and public health authorities. Like other leading lipsticks on the market, some of L Brands’ lipsticks contain insignificant trace amounts of lead.

ACCESSORIES

Victoria's Secret & Co. is in full compliance with all legal requirements regarding lead in consumer product.

MICROBEADS

Victoria’s Secret & Co. branded products do not contain microbeads (any intentionally added, 5 mm or less, water insoluble, solid plastic particle used to exfoliate or cleanse).

PARABENS

Parabens are considered safe and approved for use in many of the major international markets including the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Victoria’s Secret & Co., like many other personal care companies, use parabens in some of our personal care products (such as hand lotion) because they help keep the products free of microbial contamination.

PHTHALATES

Phthalates play an important role in everyday life and are used in a variety of products, including cosmetics. Phthalates have existed for decades and, as a result, are one of the most extensively studied and well-understood families of chemicals. Government data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrate that human exposure levels to phthalates are far below minimum safety levels set by regulatory agencies. All of our products comply with any regulatory standards that have been established for phthalates.

ELIMINATING RESTRICTED SUBSTANCES

Victoria’s Secret & Co. supports a harmonized approach among leaders in the apparel industry to control potentially hazardous substances. We have adopted the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) and the Oeko-Tex® 100 Standard harmful substances value limits as our Restricted Substances List (RSL) to guide us and our suppliers in environmentally responsible product design, development and manufacturing.

All the raw materials used in our lingerie and apparel products must be certified to Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 or tested to VS&Co’s restricted substance list (RSL) by a third-party laboratory to ensure the absence of any substance on the VS&Co RSL. In addition, all our products have to meet all requirements of our internal regulatory standard including chemical limits, flammability regulations and fiber content limits.

As a values-driven company, Victoria’s Secret & Co. is committed to continually improving. The company is committed to evolve its chemical management program to comply with the above-mentioned MRSL and RSL as updates are made.

In addition to meeting all relevant laws and regulations where our products are manufactured and sold, including REACH and ECHA, we require our suppliers to adhere to several rigorous policies and standards governing chemical management, including:

For lingerie and apparel suppliers:
  • ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (MRSL), a list of chemical substances, including detergents, dyes, and finishing agents, which are banned from use in textile operations. We actively verify MRSL compliance of the chemicals used by approximately 90% of our wet-processing suppliers (e.g. dyeing mills & laundries).
  • Our proprietary Global Apparel Chemical Policy, a guidance document for suppliers outlining our expectations around the use of chemicals. The document requires suppliers to keep an inventory of chemicals used, treat wastewater prior to discharge, possess required permits, and more.
For accessories and beauty suppliers:
  • Our Accessories and Gifting manual which outlines quality and regulatory requirements, and testing standards for all accessory items.
  • Our beauty product formulas adhere to our extensive Global Ingredients Policy and Flavors Policy, which outlines for all of our vendors outlining our expectations of ingredients in our formulas, including the listing of restrictions, and banned materials which go beyond what is mandated by regulations.

Additionally we:

  • Restricted the use of formaldehyde-releasing preservatives in new formulations since 2021, and we are committed to removing these ingredients from existing formulas by 2025. 
  • Introduced formulas using alternatives to parabens and sulfates to provide customers with more options. 
  • Limited the use of dyes in our products. 

SILOXANES

Siloxanes have been extensively studied and safely used for decades in a wide variety of consumer products, including personal care products such as sunscreens and shampoos.

Victoria’s Secret & Co. uses siloxanes for important product performance-enhancing benefits such as the silky, smooth texture such as our lotions and moisturizers.

The Canadian government, along with the industry, is currently studying the potential environmental impact of siloxanes. Because Victoria’s Secret & Co. is committed to environmental safety as well as consumer safety, we will monitor the findings and continue to make ingredient decisions based on solid scientific data.