What makes a beauty product natural or organic, and why should we be using them?
Melissa M. emailed us at expert@sweetspot.ca, and Bill Baker, the General Manager of Consonant Beauty, answered:
When it comes to natural and organic beauty products, confusion seems to be the order of the day. I recently saw a body wash with 'obsessively natural' flashed on the front, but a long list of synthetic ingredients listed on the back. I also saw a body lotion that was 'certified organic', but had only 12% organic ingredients by concentration.
So what gives? Natural clearly doesn’t mean all-natural, and Certified Organic doesn’t necessarily mean a product is even mostly organic.
But does it really matter? In a word, yes. In four words, it matters a lot.
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest certain ingredients commonly found in cosmetics and skincare are harsh and irritating at best, and tied to serious health issues at worst.
So a strong case can be made for choosing more natural products, assuming these natural products are made without those harmful ingredients.
Theoretically, organic skincare products should offer further assurance of purity over even natural products, because the botanical ingredients are produced without pesticides or herbicides in a gentler process that helps retain nutrients. But this also assumes those harmful ingredients aren’t present in the formulations.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. For example, parabens and synthetic perfume (listed on the label simply as perfume or fragrance), are common in both natural and organic beauty products and are both known to have unhealthy side effects.
So with no clear labeling guidelines for natural and organic skincare in Canada, it is ultimately up to us as consumers to make informed choices at the counter. If you read the labels of the food you eat, you should read the labels on the beauty products you buy. Learn which ingredients are beneficial, learn which ones are potentially harmful, and then make your decision.
Beauty products are supposed to make us look good; making smart choices means they’ll also make us feel good.
Bill Baker is the General Manager of Consonant Body Organic Skincare. In addition to leading the company’s innovations in natural skincare and beauty products, Bill campaigns for greater industry and government oversight of cosmetics ingredients, manufacturing, and labeling.
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