Organic beauty: maybe not as organic as you think

A US environmental group is currently filing a claim in court against 26 organic companies, including industry greats such as Jason and Boots. The accusation is that the companies have been mislabeling their products, as in, not managing to meet the minimum amount of organic ingredients to be considered organic; the law in California states that a product has to be made up of at least 70% organic ingredients before it can legally use the organic label, and obviously quite a few popular brands just aren’t living up to those standards.

Image via Daniel R. Blume

Where does that leave us across the pond? This may surprise you, but UK laws about organic labeling don’t actually cover beauty products. That organic soap you pick up from the health food shop could very well not be as organic as it’s leading you to believe. Then how can you be sure that you’re getting the most organic produce for your money? Check the label. There are quite a few different certifications out there, all of them with different percentages of organic ingredients:

• Ecocert (at least 10%)
• Soil Association (minimum 70%)
• Soil Association (95%)
• USDA “Made with organic ingredients” (at least 70%)
• USDA (95%)
• CosmeBio (95% of vegetable ingredients, and at least 10% of the finished product)

Confused yet? Paul Crawford, head of the regulatory and environmental services at the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association, would agree with you there. He says that a standardised system is currently in the works: “There are many private, commercial standards for natural and organic cosmetics, and one or two legal standards outside the EU. That’s why the CTPA supports the development of a common standard for natural and organic cosmetics by the International Standards Organisation. This will help cosmetics companies and ingredients suppliers compete internationally, providing more choice for consumers.”

However, don’t panic just yet. Water and naturally-occurring minerals are not actually classified as organic, meaning that a low percentage of organic ingredients could just mean that your favourite beauty product has a lot of water in it. Not that that’s necessarily a good thing,

Until then, the only thing to do is to keep a watch on those labels and hope that the CTPA manage to get their way.

Do you have any favourite organic beauty products you’d rec? Share them with us below!

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