What actually goes into organic cosmetics? : Hippyshopper

Organic cosmetics are growing in popularity as people realise that health isn’t only skin deep. The health scares and question marks that loom over the chemicals we have come to regularly apply to our bodies have made people think twice when using them. But what actually goes into organic cosmetics that make them better? Well, what's more important is what doesn't get into them. Here is a little lowdown on the Soil Association’s criteria for giving a product their certification.

For starters a minimum of 70% of ingredients must be organic. This doesn’t include water and if any ingredient is available in an organic alternative it must be used. These two basic rules knock out a lot of the cheating that many ‘natural’ products rely on.

The big NOs that aren’t allowed include: no parabens (which have long been at the centre of health debates) and no detergents like sodium lauryl sulfate or its cousin sodium laureth sulfate (which are found in almost all shower products and toothpastes). The lauryl/laureth pair have been accused of introducing carcinogens during the manufacturing process. Also no ingredients derived from petroleum are allowed, such as mineral oil, which sounds natural enough except when you know its Latin name, paraffinum liquidum. It’s a huge byproduct of petrol production and is sold mainly as baby oil, but can also be taken orally as a laxative amoung other uses. Further, the purfumes of any product must contain only blends of natural essential oils. This is important since synthetic products can contain anything up to 200 chemical ‘notes’ to give them their scent, none of which have to appear in the ingredients by law in order to protect fragrance companies like Channel from giving away their secret concoctions.