The dream to be green: natural cosmetics explained

Although green products only comprise a small percentage of the total market, it is a growing sector and much effort is being spent on developing raw materials and finished products to market in this area. This trend affects all ingredients used in the production of cosmetics and personal care products but has a major impact on the preservatives available for use in certified products. This paper will concentrate on restrictions of preservatives that will be imposed by developing products to meet these new requirements. The term “green” has no widely accepted definition although we all have our own idea of what it means. The green concept includes a raft of other terms also equally ill-defined, such as natural, organic, sustainable and ecofriendly. The lack of accepted uniform definition for these terms creates a huge challenge for chemical suppliers to develop and then position their products, and also for manufacturers of finished products to meet the requirements of this market sector. However, this very lack of definition is also manipulated by many suppliers to market their products through deliberate confusion or deception. These two factors, lack of definition and intentional deception, cause confusion and make it very difficult for purchasers to determine if the products they are buying are really the products they desire. The “green” term most commonly encountered for household cleaning products is environmentally friendly, or ecofriendly, and this mainly relates to the effect on the environment when these products are washed down the drain. Effects on aquatic life, and accumulation in the environment are obviously of concern. The US EPA took the green concept and developed the principles of green chemistry designed to improve processes in synthesis of substances.1 These are set out in Table 1. Rinse-off personal care products may have environmental effects as they are generally products used to clean the skin and hair and will end up in the environment during use. It appears though that the main push for personal care and cosmetic products is for “natural” or “organic” products. So what does this mean?

Organic

To scientists, “organic” has a very simple and defined meaning, but as the term is most commonly used, it means almost anything. It is generally taken as a substitution for natural but for serious users of the term it means derived from organic agricultural practices. This basically involves agriculture without the use of synthetic chemicals, such as fertilisers or pesticides and the more humane treatment of animals. There are many certifying bodies for organic agricultural products, however they all have variations in their requirements. The initial and main purpose of organic agriculture was for the production of food claimed to be a healthier option than food produced using modern farming practices. Raw materials such as botanical extracts derived from organic agriculture are the main ingredients for truly organic personal care products.