Your Guide to understanding Natural & Organic in skincare

The Terms Used

Organic

Grown, produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other artificial agents.

Organic Cosmetics

The Soil Association classes products with a minimum of 95% organic ingredients as ‘organic’. Those with 70-95% organic ingredients can be labelled ‘made with x% organic ingredients’.

Natural

Existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by man.

Natural Cosmetics

Any product that contains any ammount of natural ingredients.

But can every ingredient in skincare be Organic?

Not in every case no - if it is not a grown produced product then it cannot be. For instance - dead sea salt and Himalayan mineral crystals are 100% natural but are not classed as organic as they occurred naturally. This is why you get differing organic percentages on many labels.

Who Certifies a beauty product as Organic?

Most countries have an agency to certify GENUINE organic products eg Ecocert- France, BDIHGermany, Soil Association - the main UK one. The problem is that they have no unity in policy although, there is hope this will happen.

If the bottle says its Organic or the maker implies this on there marketing., do they have to be certified?

No and therein lies the problem. It is a voluntary process and the products will only pass if they are genuinely organic. Most natural organic cosmetics you see would not meet the standards of the suppliers I use in my treatments, but there is no real body patrolling the situation in the UK or abroad. There is for food but in beauty you can get away with anything.

Currently, skincare manufacturers could produce a beauty product with 3% organic ingredients and call the brand ‘natural and organic’ and nobody will stop them. So you have to be careful when shopping!