Who knows how many natural and organic cosmetic standards are out there, they look all the same at first sight. Consumers tend to trust a green logo that says organic or natural even though there can be significantly different criteria behind the green cosmetic standards, some more stringent and others more open.
Unless you have a good technical or scientific background it would be difficult to know the difference among a beauty product certified with
- Soil Association,
- Ecocert,
- ICEA,
- NaTrue,
- BDIH,
- Oasis
- Ecocert Cosmos
- Soil Association Cosmos
- USDA
- Cosmebio
and the list goes on. However something is happening in Germany that can potentially ignite a process of natural selection for all the natural and organic cosmetic standards that are around today. The trade show Vivaness has in fact created a positive list of allowed standards for beauty brands that wish to exhibit. Major cosmetic standards such as Ecocert and ICEA have been left out. Beauty brands certified with these standards have to provide the INCI listing for screening to be allowed to exhibit in Nuremberg at this major trade show for natural and organic cosmetics.
It is not clear why this has happened, we can only guess this is message aimed at raising the bar of natural and organic standards. In fact ICEA approves Phenoxyethanol and sarcosinates which are not allowed by the other standards. When I heard the news, I have to say I was impressed with this approach. It will be very interesting to see how this event affects certified green cosmetics. What do you think?
If you are thinking of developing your own green beauty brand and of having your products certified we can help you choosing the one fitting with your needs and values.
