Certification of Natural Beauty Products

Today, we want a cleaner, greener, natural beauty products

So we can take better care of our health and the planet.

We want more transparency and know what constitutes natural when it comes to what we are putting on our skin.

And we want beauty products that are genuinely more sustainable, that we can trust implicitly.

The following certifications meet stringent criteria for ingredients that are cruelty-free, vegan, non-GMO, and more.

Natural beauty products certificates

The following organisations are those that are making some headway in laying down stricter guidelines for the “Naturals” market:

Natrue

This is a Brussels-based international non-profit association that was founded in 2007. It is committed to promoting and protecting Natural and Organic Cosmetics worldwide, and they have high standards of quality and integrity.

Their labels indicate that ingredients come from renewable resources and that the products are produced and packaged to reduce carbon footprint and do minimal harm to the planet.

Ecocert

This certification is very similar to NATRUE. Products that fall under this certification must ensure that at least 95 per cent of their ingredients come from natural origins.

They cannot contain GMOs, parabens, PEG, synthetic dyes, fragrance, silicones, nanoparticles, or animal products other than honey.

Environmental working group

This company ensures that personal care products are in line with their Skin Deep database classifications. To receive this verification, a product must be free from the ingredients they consider unacceptable on their database and must list all the ingredients on the label.

Leaping bunny

This was formed by a coalition of eight international groups: The animal alliance of Canada, The humane society, and Beauty without cruelty. When you purchase a natural beauty product with the leaping bunny logo, you know that both the ingredients and the finished product have not been tested on animals, including birds, fish, and reptiles.

Usda organic

This certification indicates that ingredients used are 95–100 per cent organic; they must be organically farmed without pesticides.

Soil association

In 2002, the Soil Association launched the standard for organic natural beauty cosmetics. Their certification is rigorous; they review the entire manufacturing process from sourcing ingredients to formulation procedures, packaging, and the premises where the products are manufactured.

Conclusion

In 2012, when I first wrote this article, there was a lot of uncertainty around what constitutes an organic or natural personal beauty product.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), stated:

“It is unclear how consumers understand organic claims that describe nonagricultural products, and how marketers of those natural beauty products substantiate the claims”.

The Commission lacks a basis to guide the use of organic claims for products. It has also avoided defining the term natural, which is a claim increasingly used to describe cosmetics and beauty products. So, like the term organic – or clean beauty, for that matter – it has no legal meaning.

Each organisation certified cosmetics and personal care products differently and their policies were all unrelated, especially when it came to percentage requirements, and allowance of certain ingredients and processes.

Fortunately, today, the COSMOS-standard now defines the criteria that each company has to meet; this ensures consumers that their beauty products are genuinely natural or organic, and produced to the highest possible standard.