Home > Organic > The Cosmetics Industry
The term Organic is legally defined under European Law, and food and drink production is regulated to this standard, so if food or drink is labelled Organic, you know it has been grown or produced under specific conditions.
However, the same rules do not apply to cosmetics. If you see 'natural' or 'organic' on skincare or cosmetic products this doesn't necessarily mean what you might think - under current law manufacturers can label skincare and cosmetics as 'natural', providing that just 1% of the ingredients are from natural sources.
Manufacturers may also label a product as containing an organically produced ingredient (e.g. lavender oil), however this may be just a few drops among a cocktail of chemicals and petroleum-based ingredients.
If you consider that up to 60% of what we put onto our skin may be absorbed into our bloodstream, it follows that we should be just as concerned about the products we put onto our bodies as we are about the food we put into them.
There are manufacturers of skincare products out there that really do produce natural cosmetics, and exclude the use of chemical and petroleum ingredients, some of whom are now (voluntarily) becoming certified organic. We have included links to many of these in our Shopping / Bodycare & Cosmetics section.
For a list of the most common chemicals to be avoided in everyday cosmetics click here.
Note regarding essential oils
Something you should also consider when choosing natural bodycare products is where do the essential oils included in many formulations come from?
You may not be aware that many wildharvested essential oils (such as Sandalwood and Rosewood) can only be collected by felling mature trees, and as a result many of these species are now endangered.
For more information you may wish to look at the article Spotlight on the trade in wild
plants by Chrissie Wildwood.
For a list of endangered wild-harvested botanicals click here.
Please note that some of the companies listed in our bodycare pages do sell products containing these oils, so if this concerns you you may wish to avoid these particluar products.
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