Thirteen Lune vs Credo Beauty: Where Do I Shop Indie Beauty?

If you’re tired of buying the same beauty brands over and over at drugstores or big-box stores, shopping online or at an alternative store provides an opportunity to explore and discover new brands you may have never heard of. Two of these significant online beauty retailers are Thirteen Lune and Credo Beauty.

But which should you turn to for your indie beauty needs?

Let’s take a look at Thirteen Lune vs Credo Beauty, two online beauty retailers, discover what makes them special, and which would be best for you.

	Thirteen Lune	Credo Beauty
Best For	Diverse global brands	Natural, clean beauty
Types of Products	Skincare, haircare, fragrance, makeup, bath and body	Skincare, haircare, fragrance, makeup, bath and body
Number of Brands	160+	130+
Focus	Founder-led brands across the world	Non-toxic and sustainable beauty
Physical Stores	One location	Fifteen locations

Thirteen Lune

Best for diverse global brands and founder-led products

Thirteen Lune was launched in 2020 as a store and online platform where diverse, founder-led brands could be featured to beauty consumers who may not have known about them before. 

The curators at Thirteen Lune are interested in offering innovative beauty brands with unique stories and regionally rooted ingredients for distinct products unlike anything you could find in your local drugstore. This includes sourcing haircare, skincare, and makeup from all over the world, including local finds from LA and independently owned brands in Seoul and Nairobi.

What really sets this brand apart is its focus on diversity and inclusivity, specifically platforming BIPOC-owned brands. Commercial makeup brands in the US are infamous for having a limited shade range and focusing on a specific type of customer, so opening up to a wider market allows for a multitude of products to suit every unique need.

There are a few options when it comes to purchasing products from Thirteen Lune. You can purchase products either online or at their flagship brick-and-mortar location in Los Angeles, where they also offer professional makeup application services. 

Products

Thirteen Lune offers a full range of beauty products sourced from all over the world. Most of their products fall into a few main categories, including skincare, makeup, haircare, fragrance, bath and body, and gifts.

Some of their most popular products available now include:

• Relevant’s ONE & DONE 4-in-1 Daily Moisturizer with SPF 40
• DMH Aesthetics’s Light Shield
• Meloway’s Hi-Rise Matte Lipstick
• Danessa Myricks Beauty’s Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder
• Charlotte Mensah’s Manketti Oil Conditioner

Brands

Thirteen Lune, originally named for the 13 brands the shop featured during its inception, now offers products from more than 160 different brands worldwide. These may not be Sephora-level numbers, but it’s pretty good when you consider that they’re indie brands from all over the world.

One advantage of curating brands from across the globe is that it serves their mission to provide inclusive beauty products for underserved markets. Many of these brands are founder led and BIPOC owned, which is important not only for representation but also for ensuring every individual skin type, hair texture, and skin tone is covered when it comes to beauty products.

Although some are no longer listed with Thirteen Lune, the original 13 brands were:

• Afropick
• Beija Flor 
• Bomba Curls 
• Buttah 
• Charlotte Mensah
• Dehiya Beauty
• Gilded Body 
• Hyper Skin
• Lauren Napier Beauty 
• Liha Beauty
• Marie Hunter Beauty 
• Skot Beauty 
• The Established

Since Thirteen Lune expanded, some of the many additional brands featured on the website now include 4AM Skin, LolaVie, Ami Colé, Dezi Skin, Maude, and more.

Pros

There’s a lot to love about Thirteen Lune, with many of the brands representing the unique focus on worldwide inclusivity in an industry that often seems to cater to paler complexions and a small percentage of hair textures. Ninety percent of Thirteen Lune’s brands are BIPOC owned.

Plus, Thirteen Lune is always expanding this list, regularly adding new products and brands that align with their mission. The product curation doesn’t stop with diversity, either; the professionals at Thirteen Lune hand-select a curated list of high-quality, high-performance beauty products.

Another huge selling point here is the sheer variety of products offered. For a site with a specific focus, Thirteen Lune features everything from skincare to makeup, haircare, fragrance, and more, with options for every price point and frequent sales. 

Cons

For all its beauty, there are a few snags and drags to Thirteen Lune, though the products themselves are positively reviewed more often than not.

The return policy is one of the strictest I’ve seen, but I guess it could help consumers be more intentional with the makeup they buy. Returning an item requires a shipping fee of $7.95, and the products must be unused, unopened, and undamaged within 21 calendar days of your order ship date.

On shipping, we have another con. Though the products featured are international, there is no international shipping outside the US available.

Credo Beauty

Best for non-toxic and sustainable beauty

Referred to by some as “the Sephora of clean beauty,” Credo Beauty is a powerhouse when it comes to offering healthy, clean beauty products that are free of harmful or ecologically damaging ingredients.

Credo Beauty only features products that meet their strict ingredient requirements (which we’ll get into shortly) and avoid their “Dirty List”—a list of ingredients that are prohibited in their products, including aluminum powder, animal-derived products, BHA, BHT, chemical sunscreens, cyclic silicones, EDTA, ethanolamines, formaldehyde, parabens, PFAS, and more.

To make sure they do this, brands must provide complete ingredient disclosure using standardized ingredient names, both on product labels and online. If anything about the formula changes, they’re required to notify Credo Beauty.

Beyond the ingredient guidelines, Credo Beauty has stringent requirements for the brands and products they feature on their site and in their stores. The brands must:

• Maintain ingredient and supplier documentation
• Comply with applicable regulations, including the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act
• Conduct product safety testing appropriate for the formulation, including stability testing, compatibility testing, preservative efficacy testing, human safety testing for relevant new or reformulated products, and contaminant testing (when applicable)
• Maintain lot and batch traceability

Products

Credo Beauty has a huge variety of products available across many different subcategories of beauty. While they’re most popular for natural skincare and hair products, they’re also a go-to destination for clean makeup, bath and body products, and even fragrances.

All of Credo Beauty’s products are high quality and toxin free, including some of these popular products:

• SOSHE Beauty’s Waterproof Precision Eyeliner
• Biotyspa’s Body Sculpt Kit
• Bonjout’s Le Balm Skin Savior Solid Serum
• Finding Ferdinand’s Delicious Balm

Brands

Like I said before, the brands offered on Credo Beauty’s site and in their physical stores go through extensive vetting and stringent requirements when it comes to product safety testing and documentation. This allows customers to rest assured that whatever they find at Credo will have gone through thorough research and analysis.

Credo Beauty features more than 130 brands, big and small, including popular brands you may recognize and some you don’t, like ILIA, Innersense Organic Beauty, Maison Louis Marie, Marie Veronique, Nécessaire, and more.

Pros

The most obvious sell here is that the site only features clean, toxin-free products with a thorough vetting process and requirements for all of the brands and products they sell. This includes a huge variety of products including skincare, haircare, beauty, fragrances, and more across 130 small and large brands.

Aside from health, there’s a focus on sustainability, including sustainable packaging guidelines to improve recyclability and reduce waste. They also require ethical labor practices, all of which are rarely a guarantee in the beauty industry.

The advantage Credo Beauty has over Thirteen Lune is a more relaxed return policy. Credo Beauty will accept gently used products within 30 days for a $5 return fee, or you can bring them into one of their physical locations at no cost for a full refund.

Cons

Unfortunately, Credo Beauty has gotten a number of negative reviews citing slow shipping and poor customer service online. In-store customer service seems to be fine.

Because of the nature of the strict guidelines for brands featured on Credo Beauty’s site, the products often come at a higher price point. You typically end up paying a premium for the fact that everything is clean and non-toxic.

Where Should You Shop Indie Beauty?

Where you shop for your next favorite indie beauty brand or product depends on your priorities as a consumer.

Check out Thirteen Lune if you want access to global indie brands with a focus on founder-led, BIPOC-owned brands that offer a huge variety of products with a focus on inclusion. Try Credo Beauty if you’re focused on finding clean beauty that’s free from toxic ingredients and focuses on sustainability and health. 

Whatever you choose, trying indie beauty from a trusted, curated site is a great way to grow your arsenal—and maybe even find your new favorite product.