What Does ‘Organic’ Really Mean?
The standards and requirements for each country are quite different–it comes down to how each government believes products should be labeled. In the U.S.A, the umbrella body is the Organic Trade Association, which grew out of the organic food movement. Internationally, there are various certifying bodies, including the Soil Association in the U.K., and BDIH in Germany. The French Ecocert label signifies that 100% of the ingredients are of natural origin, and this label is the only organic certification for colour cosmetics. That is not to say only products sold in France bear the Ecocert label; in fact, some products that are sold in the US, such as Physicians Formula’s Organic Wear line, carry this certification. One very high standard accreditation is the German NaTrue label, which is more rigid than most others. Details can be found in English at www.natrue-label.com.
It is still possible for any brand to claim their product is ‘natural’, however, so long as it doesn’t contain any artificial ingredients or colours, and is minimally processed.
Even better than certified organic are Biodynamic Cosmetics. This label means the farms that grow the organic ingredients for the product are focused on emphasising the development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, and animals as a self-nourishing system without external inputs. While there is very limited ability to verify such ingredients, quite often Biodynamic products far exceed organic standards for purity and care for the earth.
Differing Views
While some believe that the only way is organic, there are advocates of synthetic compounds who argue that not all natural and organic products are good for you. Even Liz Earle, known for her ‘natural’ skincare range puts some synthetics in her formulae, on the grounds that not everything natural is good: “Cyanide and arsenic are natural and are poisonous, of course.”
Still, the jury is also out on the safety of synthetic preservatives. There was a regulatory body to review the safety of parabens in 1984 and found they were safe to use in cosmetics up to the level of 25% (most of the creams and lotions contain 0.01 -.03%). But a study published in 2004 detected the presence of parabens in breast tumors, and while parabens in one cosmetic may be at ’safe' levels, if you layer on different cosmetics that contain them, several times a day, your paraben level goes up dramatically. No wonder they’re banned in the European Union.
Liz Earle justifies her use of preservatives by stating that non-preserved products can really grow some nasty bugs and become more harmful than those containing synthetic preservatives. “I have bought non-preserved products in the past only to find they have grown some pretty nasty bugs. I bought one ‘natural’ skin cream only to find that a couple of months after opening it grew asperillus niger, a green toxic mould that causes the deadly farmer’s lung disease.”
While this may be the case, if you use your products in good time, this should never happen.
Know Your Products
If a key natural component of a product is water (aqua), you should realize there will be a preservative, which could be natural (like citric acid, for example) or chemical (like parabens). How do you know if the product is safe? Unless it bears a label like the NaTrue, EcoCert or Certified USDA Organic seal, it’s hard to say. If you can’t pronounce or understand half the ingredients on the bottle, it’s probably not organic. Any ingredient that is identified by the prefix, word, or syllables “PEG,” “Polyethylene,” “Polyethylene glycol,” “Polyoxyethylene,” “-eth-,” or “oxynol” is synthetic, and possibly harmful in some way. There are several apps on the market, like Cosmetic Maze or Dirty App, that allow you to enter ingredients of a product or scan its bar code, to know what’s safe and what’s not, and there are some good articles in Eluxe that walk you through the worst chemicals in cosmetic products. Memorize the top 10 worst ingredients, and avoid!
The Bottom Line
So, what’s the difference between natural and organic beauty products? Generally speaking, organic ingredients are those which are grown without pesticide or herbicides, and they must also be GMO free. To carry an official ‘organic’ label, certain standards for health and safety must be carried out–‘natural’ cosmetics will not follow those safety guidelines, and because their ingredients are so harsh, they are likely to test them on animals for safety, too.
Natural just means ‘derived from nature’. While, as Liz Earle points out, it may be true that some ‘natural’ ingredients can also be harmful, certified organic labels are not at all likely to carry such ingredients. Moreover, while any cosmetic can contain some natural or even organic ingredients and still be bad for you (think a harsh shampoo, loaded with chemicals, but which also has a touch of Argan oil, for example), to have a certified label on a product saying it is ‘organic’, the vast majority of ingredients have to be so.
The bottom line is, do your research. If a company cares enough to use organic ingredients, they’re not likely to use harmful synthetic ones, too. But as with any product on the market, buying safe grooming products is a case of ‘buyer beware.
This article was originally published on www.eluxemagazine.com. Read the original here.
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