Skin care products

What you need to know about buying organic products:

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Companies know that people are becoming increasingly aware of how harmful synthetic and toxic ingredients can be in personal care products. Unfortunately, many of them are trying to trick people by cutting corners and “greenwashing.”

This means that on their product labels and in their marketing, they claim terms like “organic" and ”natural". However, on reading their ingredient labels you will see that they can also contain many synthetic and toxic ingredients.

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Because the personal care products industry is not very well regulated, products can contain just one single organic ingredient among many artificial ingredients, and companies can still claim them as "organic".

Many products put things like "made without harsh ingredients like parabens, phthalates or synthetic fragrances"  on their labels, yet they can still contain other toxic ingredients you wouldn't want to put on your skin.

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What are the standards organic products need to have?

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EU standards: 

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There are two levels of certifications in the EU - natural and organic. To meet the definition of a natural cosmetic product, the formulation has to comply with the minimum levels of natural substances and the maximum levels of derived natural raw materials. 

Organic cosmetic has to comply with the criteria for natural cosmetics as well as with the additional requirement that at least 95 % of the natural substances of plant and animal origin and derived natural substances contained in the product come from controlled organic farming and /or wild collection.  The additional 5 % have further strict conditions.

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USA standards:

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For a product to earn the right to be USDA Certified Organic, every single ingredient in it has to undergo a rigorous independent review process – from the farms where the plant-based organic ingredients are grown to the manufacturing facility where they’re made. And it means the product must be independently certified to contain 95% or more truly organic ingredients – and the remaining 5% must be on a strict list of safe ingredients.

To qualify as USDA Certified Organic, the product must also be 100% FREE of synthetic additives, including pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and artificial dyes. In addition, the product must NOT be processed using industrial solvents, irradiation, or genetic engineering (non-GMO).

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Australia/NZ standards:

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ACO certifies organic cosmetics under the Australian National Standard, National Organic Program (USDA), and COSMOS standards.

As for the ACO certification: The amount of non organic ingredient(s) will affect the type of organic claim :

100% certified organic content, label can state “100% organic” + bud logo

95%-100% certified organic content, label can state “certified organic” + bud logo

70%-95% certified organic content, label can state “made with certified organic ingredients”, cannot use bud logo but must indicate certification number 

<70 % certified organic content cannot make any certification claims, can only list ingredients as ‘organic’, cannot include certification number or bud logo