Acure
Quick verdict: Acure is the price floor for clean beauty. Vegan throughout, sulfate-free, widely stocked, and cheap enough that switching costs almost nothing. If the barrier to shopping better is money, this is the least painful place to start. What it doesn’t have is certification covering the formulas themselves, or founders still holding the reins. Our rating: 3.7 out of 5.
Who they are
Kristy and Jon Guerra started Acure around 2010, after Kristy watched her grandmother go through a decade with breast cancer and went looking for products she could actually trust. It grew into one of the most widely distributed clean beauty lines in American health-food retail.
On ownership. The copyright line at the bottom of Acure’s site reads Better Planet Brands LLC, and it’s easy to read that as a bigger company having swallowed a small one. That’s not what happened. Better Planet Brands is Acure’s own operating company, registered in Florida in July 2009, and the state registry shows no name change since. Acure is the only brand it sells. The ACURE word marks are held directly in that name too.
So who’s actually in charge? Florida’s registry answers that, and Acure’s own site doesn’t. The managing member is HCG Management LLC, run by Steven Hudson and Peter Wright out of 699 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, which is Hudson Capital Group, a family office that backs private ventures and real estate. HCG Management was filed the same day as Better Planet Brands, with a document number 29 apart, so outside money has been in the structure since day one rather than arriving later in a buyout. Co-founder Joncarlos Guerra still shows up on the current filing as an officer. No conglomerate here, but no founder control either, and the rating sits in that middle position.
One more thing while we’re on it. Several sources name Better Collective as Acure’s owner. That’s a sports-betting media company, and a straight mix-up of two similar names.
What they get right
The price. Shampoo and conditioner around $10 to $12, serums similar. That’s conventional drugstore pricing for a line without sulfates or synthetic fragrance, and it makes the switch available to people the rest of this directory prices out.
Vegan across the whole range, with no animal-derived ingredients anywhere, which is rarer than it should be.
Properly wide availability, including Target and most health-food retail, so it doesn’t require a subscription or an online order.
The formulas work. Not salon-grade, but the argan and sea buckthorn products do their job, and for the money the value is difficult to argue with.
Where they fall short
Certification doesn’t cover the part that matters most. Leaping Bunny handles animal testing, and Climate Neutral certification, renamed The Climate Label in 2025, covers the brand’s carbon accounting. Both are real outside audits. Neither looks at what’s in the bottle. There’s no EWG Verified, no MADE SAFE and no organic certification, so the clean claims themselves are still the brand’s own word. Attitude sits at a comparable price with EWG Verification, and that’s the fair comparison.
Finding out who runs it takes a trip to a state registry. Acure’s site gives you a copyright line and leaves it there. Nothing on the about page names the family office that holds the managing stake, and a shopper who wants to know that has no way to get it from the brand.
Formulas are basic, the range changes fairly often with products discontinued without warning, and quality is inconsistent across the line: some products are excellent for the money and some are forgettable.
What they sell and what it costs
Shampoo, conditioner, cleansers, serums, masks and body care. Most items run $8 to $15.
Who it’s actually for
Anyone whose barrier is price, full stop. If the choice is between conventional drugstore products and nothing, Acure is a real improvement at effectively the same cost.
If you want verification at a similar price, Attitude. If you want performance, Innersense for hair or Versed for skin.
Deals and discounts
No affiliate program on our side, so nothing here earns us anything.
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
Is Acure actually clean?
The formulas leave out sulfates, parabens and synthetic fragrance, and the range is fully vegan. It’s Leaping Bunny certified and holds Climate Neutral certification, renamed The Climate Label in 2025. Neither assesses ingredients, though. What’s missing is verification of the clean claim itself: no EWG Verified, MADE SAFE or organic certification, so you’re taking the brand’s word for that part. At this price that’s a reasonable trade, and it’s still less assurance than Attitude gives you for similar money.
Who owns Acure?
Better Planet Brands LLC, and the useful detail is that it’s Acure’s own company rather than a parent group standing over it. Florida registered it in July 2009, it has never traded under another name, and Acure is the only brand it sells. Control sits with HCG Management LLC, the Hudson Capital Group family office in Fort Lauderdale, and co-founder Joncarlos Guerra still appears as an officer on the state filing. Be careful with other sources on this: several name Better Collective, which is a sports-betting media company and a simple confusion of two similar names.
Is Acure good for curly hair?
The sulfate-free formulas suit curls better than conventional shampoo, and the argan range in particular has a following. It’s not built for curls the way Innersense is, but at a third of the price it’s a reasonable place to start.
Why is Acure so much cheaper than other clean brands?
Scale and distribution. It sells in volume through mainstream retail rather than direct-to-consumer at boutique margins, and the formulas are straightforward rather than heavily researched. You’re getting fewer certifications and simpler products, which is the honest description of the trade.