Natural and organic beauty: the real thing?

Ingredients often found in antifreeze, floor cleaner, oven cleaner or car oil and ingredients banned in children’s food and toys are making their way into non-certified beauty products labelled as organic or natural due to a lack of industry regulation. Of course, these ingredients are regularly found in non-organic beauty products, but the Soil Association believes consumers are being misled when the health and beauty industry misuses terms like ‘organic’ and ‘natural’. They should be used accurately – or not at all. The Soil Association was formed over 70 years ago, but it was not until 2002 that we produced our first organic health and beauty standards. We were one of the founding organic organisations that came together to start talks about international standards for personal care products. This joint work led to the agreement on the international Cosmos standard for organic and natural cosmetics in 2010. So while we have been involved in discussions about the standards for genuinely natural cosmetics for many years, this is still a relatively new field for us, and we still have much to learn. We also have a lot of work to do with our partners to continue to improve the Cosmos standard – which will replace our Soil Association standards after 2016. Existing Soil Association certified products will be able to continue until they are reformulated. The Soil Association believes organic health and beauty products represent the best possible method of production, and the safest, most environmentally friendly products for consumers. Organic herbs and plants are grown in ways which avoid the use of almost all chemical sprays, and also avoid all manufactured fertilisers which weaken a plant’s natural immunity. Avoiding fossil fuel based manufactured fertilisers makes a huge contribution to fighting climate change. Organic farming prevents chemical pollution, is better for the climate, provides the best animal welfare, nourishes rather than destroys wildlife, creates more jobs in farming and protects cherished landscapes. Cosmetics made from organic ingredients represent all of these positive values.

Protecting the skin

Our skin is the body’s largest and one of our most sensitive organs, and people are rightly sensitive about the products we put on it. It is clear from the number of companies that are moving to organic health and beauty products, that this sensitivity is widely acknowledged in the industry. In 2012, despite the continuing recession, UK sales of certified organic health and beauty products increased by 5.6%, to £31.8 million. Market leader Neal’s Yard Remedies increased organic sales by 12.9%. However, it is not just the positive attributes that organic ingredients bring to health and beauty products that are driving this change in the market. For many consumers, probably the most important thing that organic health and beauty products deliver is the absence of nasties – avoiding chemical ingredients that people would prefer not to use on their bodies. I think a third factor will become increasingly important – transparency – certified organic products have to be transparent – honest – about the ingredients they use. For example, many non-organic health and beauty products contain petrochemicals, ingredients derived from oil, gas and coal. Exploiting finite fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change. Petrochemicals are used as preservatives artificially to extend product shelf life, and as detergents to create a foaming effect, but they can cause allergic reactions and skin irritation. They have been associated with eye problems, intestinal damage, kidney and liver malfunction, breathing problems, cysts, skin spots, rashes, premature ageing and hair loss. They are not permitted in organic health and beauty products, with a very limited number of exceptions, and we promote the use of natural alternatives such as vegetable oils wherever possible. Some petrochemicals are of real concern when used in cosmetics, in particular, parabens and phthalates, neither of which is allowed under organic standards. Parabens are artificial preservatives found in a very wide range of products including shampoo, moisturiser, hand washes and deodorants. They are used to prevent bacterial and fungal growth in cosmetics and artificially to extend shelf life. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says that parabens can be absorbed through the skin, blood and digestive system. Although parabens are biodegradable, a number of studies have shown their impact on human health to be of concern – particularly when parabens appear in products which are designed to be left on the skin. Phthalates are found in moisturisers, eye shadows and other makeup, perfumes and hairspray. A key use in cosmetic products is artificially to slow down evaporation and make scent last longer. Although this may sound useful, the majority of fragrances are artificially created and often contain ingredients – not stated on the label – which can cause allergies, so the longer they hang around the greater the risk. Natural fragrances are generally a safer choice. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics recommends that consumers steer clear of all health and beauty products which are labelled as containing a ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum’ with no further details, as this can be an indication that phthalates are present. Like parabens, phthalates may mimic hormones and could also have negative impacts on human fertility and foetal development. Greenpeace and other environmental groups have been campaigning against the use of phthalates in children’s toys for nearly 20 years, and they have been banned in the US in all toys and products aimed at children under the age of three, and there are similar bans in many other countries. Boots are phasing out phthalates from their own brand products, and EU cosmetic regulations ban the use of two phthalates widely used in cosmetic products. There is no doubt that the use of phthalates will eventually be banned in Europe, and Denmark is leading the way, with an announcement that they intend to ban four more phthalates. These are real horrors, and while they are some of the worst examples of nasty chemicals widely used in non-organic health and beauty products, they are certainly not a complete list. Indeed cosmetics can also contain ingredients often found in antifreeze, floor cleaner, oven cleaner or car oil. So it is not surprising that there has been a huge growth in marketing claims suggesting that products are organic, biological or natural. Are these claims trustworthy? Under European law, if anyone wants to describe food as organic, it has to meet European legal standards – as an organic farmer I know these are both strict, and rigorously and regularly enforced. The European Union does not have its own standards for health and beauty products, so here the general law of the land applies, that labels should not be misleading. There is no doubt that many products claiming to be organic or something similar are, quite simply, misleading consumers. Under Soil Association standards, to use the word organic in the product name, it must contain over 95% organic ingredients, excluding water, and in the Cosmos standard, that 95% is of the whole product.