Importance of certificates in natural cosmetics branch

Since the awareness in that field is growing day by day, consumers choose to select products with certificates ensuring their quality and accordance with legislative.

Currently, Ecocert is said to be the most popular and trusted certificated concerning natural and organic cosmetics among the consumers. It takes into account both French cosmetic laws and EU Cosmetic Directives. The Ecocert Standard must be fulfilled in order to certificate the product with Ecocert certificate. The main objective of that French association is to define the quality level superior to the one defined by legislation on cosmetics. That sign will ensure us that the good was produced with respect to the environment and that the substrates were possessed from the organic agriculture. In practice the Ecocert means that:

•  Plant ingredients or ingredients from plant origin (also marine ingredient and ingredient from marine origin) which production and harvesting process in their natural habitat does not generate a degradation of environment. They do not belong to neither endangered species no GMO and obey the legislation. They were obtained during approved, ecological process. They were not extracted with petrochemical solvents as well.
• Mineral ingredients or ingredients from mineral origin that are extracted in such a way that neither contamination nor degradation of environment happened.
•  Animal ingredients and ingredients from animal origin are free from the substances possessed from the animals being at national and international lists of protected and endangered species. Their acquisition must not have a negative impact on natural balance, therefore they cannot be: part of the animal, caused stress, pain nor death and they must be produced naturally by animal.
• Basically they do not posses synthetic ingredients apart from some necessary preservatives and ingredients that have been positively attested.
• The water used in production process and in final product must be originated from spring water, osmosis obtained water, distilled water, sea water, water mains. Furthermore its treatment must be consistent with attested procedures.
• The natural cosmetic posses 50% (w/w) of organic plant ingredients (5% (w/w) must be certified)while natural and organic cosmetic posses 95% (w/w) of organic plant ingredients (here 10% (w/w) must be certified).
• All the ingredients must be known as unpolluted with contaminants and no nitrosamines may be present.
• The product does not contain propulsive gases.

Morover, as all the stages of production must fulfil the standard, several conditions when it comes to packaging are applied as well:

• All must be environmentally-friendly and therefore in recyclable forms and volumes.
•  The level of consumed energy must be low.
• Packaging must be made of recyclable materials such as  glass,  aluminium,  paper/cardboard,  PP,  PET, PE).
•  Packaging derived from dead animals or leading to the death of animals (leather, silk, etc.) are prohibited.

The other highly trusted across European Union certificates are: Demeter, Cosembio, BDIH, IHTK, Soil Association

Another factor that encourage consumers to by “organic” products is a fashion. It is a powerful tool in marketing of each good as it is basically free and lives its own life. Regardless the fact that fashion is unpredictable, the “organic” products (cosmetics, food, textiles) are highly unlike to fall off the wagon since it is fuelled by fear of diseases. The growing number of developing cancer or allergies makes us think more conscious not only about smoking, but any other thing that may cause the diseases, mostly identified with chemicals added in production procedure to food, cosmetics, fibers.

The philosophy of organic “products” it is not about being young for whatever it costs any more, as the wrinkles and a little bit of grey hair just started to be  “en vogue”. It is about being healthy and live in peace with your own conscience, knowing that we helped a little bit to preserve the planet.

All these factors make the position of the organic cosmetics on the market strong and still growing. As we are approaching the world’s economy improvement more and more people may decide to buy those products, as in the presence the price is still a significant restrictive factor.

That is why, many cosmetic companies makes attempts to design organic lines. As the commonly appeciated certificates vary among themselves, it may be usefull to take a closer look into them to find the one that is the most affordable for certain company.

Editor
Maria Rutkiewicz