Structured audit
What matters most
Ownership
**Burt's Bees is owned by The Clorox Company.**
Brand claims
Burt's Bees markets itself with language like "nature-powered," "naturally beautiful," and claims of "99% natural" formulations.
Ingredient reality
Synthetic preservatives (phenoxyethanol, potassium sorbate) — not inherently dangerous but not "natural" under strict definitions
Burt's Bees is one of the great American natural brand stories. Burt Shavitz was a beekeeper in Maine. Roxanne Quimby was selling beeswax candles at craft fairs. They joined forces, built a product line from what the hives produced, and eventually created one of the most recognized natural personal care brands in the world.
Then Clorox — the bleach company — paid nearly a billion dollars for it.
If that feels like cognitive dissonance, you're not wrong. Let's work through it.
The Brand's Claims
Burt's Bees markets itself with language like "nature-powered," "naturally beautiful," and claims of "99% natural" formulations. Their signature beeswax lip balm is the product most people know — and it genuinely has a short, recognizable ingredient list.
The brand positions itself as an accessible entry point to natural personal care. It's sold at Target, Walmart, CVS, and most grocery chains. The intent is to be the natural option for mainstream consumers who aren't shopping at Whole Foods. This mass-market positioning is both a strength (accessibility) and a red flag (the pressures of mass-market retail on formula quality).
Burt's Bees also markets heavily to parents — baby lines, children's personal care — which makes the accuracy of their "natural" claims particularly important.
Who Really Owns It
Burt's Bees is owned by The Clorox Company.
Clorox acquired Burt's Bees in 2007 for approximately $913 million — at the time, one of the largest acquisitions in the natural personal care space. The deal made strategic sense for Clorox: they were trying to diversify away from their core bleach and cleaning products business, which faced secular decline as the "natural" movement gained momentum.
The irony is stark. Clorox's core business is chemical cleaning products — bleach, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Formula 409. These products represent the opposite of what Burt's Bees consumers think they're buying into. Clorox doesn't make "natural" products; they make powerful industrial cleaning agents and then also own a natural personal care brand as a portfolio hedge.
Roxanne Quimby, the co-founder who built the business, sold well before Clorox. Burt Shavitz himself was famously bought out of his stake much earlier and reportedly received far less from the brand he helped create. The "Burt" in Burt's Bees is today a legacy character with no operational connection to the company.
What's Actually in Their Products
Burt's Bees products range from genuinely clean to adequately conventional, depending on which product you're looking at.
The good stuff:
The original Beeswax Lip Balm holds up. Ingredients: Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Lanolin, Tocopheryl Acetate (vitamin E), Rosemary Leaf Extract, Peppermint Oil, Stevia Leaf Extract. This is a clean, functional product with a short, recognizable ingredient list. It's what built the brand's reputation, and it hasn't changed dramatically.
Many of their facial oils, body oils, and natural lip care products similarly use plant-derived bases without problematic synthetics.
Where it gets murky:
The expanded product line — face washes, moisturizers, makeup, baby care — contains more complex formulations. Some products include:
- Synthetic preservatives (phenoxyethanol, potassium sorbate) — not inherently dangerous but not "natural" under strict definitions
- PEG compounds in some formulas — synthetic emulsifiers that raise clean-beauty concerns
- Fragrance/parfum — a catch-all term that can hide synthetic compounds under natural branding
- Petrolatum in some lip products — petroleum-derived, explicitly "not natural"
The "99% natural" claim is calculated across ingredients by weight — which means a small percentage of synthetic ingredients is permissible within the claim. The math can obscure meaningful synthetic content.
Certifications: Some Burt's Bees products carry the Natural Products Association (NPA) seal. No products carry USDA Organic or EWG Verified status across the board.
The Verdict ⚠️ Mixed
Burt's Bees is the textbook case of a brand that is simultaneously better than it could be and worse than it claims to be.
Better than it could be: under Clorox's ownership, the core products haven't been reformulated into obvious garbage. The beeswax lip balm is still a clean product. Some of their natural lines are genuinely functional and reasonably clean. Clorox had the good sense not to tear the brand down.
Worse than it claims: "natural" as a marketing claim is doing significant lifting for a brand that includes synthetic preservatives, PEG compounds, and petroleum-derived ingredients across its expanded line. The mass-market pressures of Walmart distribution don't typically push formulas toward more expensive natural ingredients.
Our recommendation: Evaluate product by product, not brand by brand. The lip balm and simple beeswax products? Generally fine. The sophisticated skincare, makeup, and some baby care lines? Read the ingredients carefully before assuming "Burt's Bees" equals "clean."
And know that every purchase goes to Clorox's bottom line — a company whose other products are emphatically not natural. If that matters to you, it's worth knowing.
Related: Who Owns Your Clean Brands? The Complete Guide — full ownership data on 60+ brands in our directory.
FAQ
Questions shoppers usually ask
Is Burt's Bees natural?
Burt's Bees products are generally formulated with natural ingredients, and they maintain a '99% natural' claim on many products. However, 'natural' is not regulated, and some products contain synthetic ingredients. The claim applies to the ingredient sources, not to whether every compound is entirely unprocessed.
Who owns Burt's Bees?
The Clorox Company has owned Burt's Bees since 2007, when they acquired it for approximately $913 million. Clorox also manufactures bleach, Lysol competitor products (Pine-Sol), Hidden Valley Ranch, Kingsford charcoal, and other decidedly non-natural consumer goods.
Did Burt's Bees change after Clorox acquired it?
Long-term customers and some ingredient analysts have noted formula evolution in certain Burt's Bees products since 2007. The brand has expanded its line substantially under Clorox, and newer products tend to be more commercially optimized than the original beeswax-focused formulas.
What are the best natural alternatives to Burt's Bees?
For lip care, consider Badger Balm (independent, USDA Certified Organic) or Sierra Bees. For body care, look at Weleda (independent, biodynamic certified), Dr. Bronner's (independent, Fair Trade certified), or small-batch indie skincare brands.