How to navigate through Organic & Natural beauty products

In 2019, the organic and natural beauty market was worth an estimated £106.4m, and in a survey conducted by media brand Professional Beauty, 79% of respondents said that they were more likely to buy a beauty product labelled ‘organic’.

Although 2019 seems a long time ago, there's been no change in the fact that you could produce a beauty product with 3% organic ingredients and call your brand ‘natural and organic’.

Read on to see how you can shop more savvy

1. BECOME A ‘BOTTLE - TURNER'

Don’t take too much notice of the front of the bottle as brands can often put whatever they like on the front of the bottle or box. Labelling products with Organic or Natural is not regulated here in the UK. The only place they have to legally tell the truth is the ingredient list- so become a ‘bottle turner’ and look there first. You'll be surprised to know that several skincare companies that have 'organic' in there bsuiness name actually dont have any organic ingrediants in there products.

2. DON’T TRUST THE HYPE

Remove all your preconceptions about what natural or organic look like. Do not trust brands just because they are green, white or beige in colour; or have leaves or flowers on them or have names which appear to tell you they are botanical and, therefore, are clearly natural.

3. CHECK FOR NASTY PRESERVATIVES

These days we are more aware of what food we put into our bodies than ever, but not so much on the skincare.

Check the shelf life. A certified organic skincare product will have a batch date and a best before date just like food but this is unlikely to be over 18- 24 months. If it is higher than that then start to ask some more questions about what is preserving the product for such a long time. A non- organic cosmetic will have in the last line of the ingredients- ‘methyl paraben, ethyl paraben’. They will be in nearly every product in your bathroom and if you apply most of them every day or twice a day then you are drip feeding yourself a dose of paraben toxins. They would make you seriously ill if you drank them so why spend a lifetime absorbing

4. CHECK THE INGREDIENTS

The only real way to know if something is what it says it is on the label is to check the ingredients and to learn which ingredients to look out for. As a good rule- if you can not decipher a word then question whether you want it on your skin with the potential to be absorbed into your body then? if in doubt google.

5. LOOK FOR CERTIFICATION

Look I know we all haven't got time to research the back of every product on the shelf. But next time your thinking of buying a new product maybe look out for certification.

A genuine Organic certification standard such as Soil Association on the bottle is a great indicator.

For me, offering treatments to clients this is the only way to really trust a skincare product. Beware, product houses have started to make their own logos stating ‘Free from Parabens’ etc but this does not mean they are organic and they have no governmental authority.

As a last word I'm going to be real here, not every product you use can be 100% organic. Some ingredients such as dead sea salt and Himalayan mineral crystals are 100% natural but are not classed as organic as they occurred naturally.

Then we have to look at suppliers, the cost of goods and the making process, but ill save that one for another blog.