Next week is the
first Organic Beauty & Wellbeing Week held in May. The Soil Association have previously
dedicated a week out of their ‘Organic September’ to organic beauty but this
year things have got even bigger and better and ‘OBWW’ quite rightly stands
proud in it’s new May slot.
Organic Beauty
Week has always been about focusing on real organic beauty and providing
clarification to what that actually is.
The Soil Association recognise the problem of the many brands trying to
elude to being organic and natural when in reality this is often far from the
truth! This practice is known as
‘greenwashing’ and although many may consider this unethical, unfortunately it
is perfectly legal.
The problem
stems from the fact that it is legal to use the word ‘organic’ on a beauty
product no matter what the product contains!!
The same standards that apply to our organic food do not apply when it
comes to organic cosmetics. As things
stand, there is no real definition for what ‘organic’ is or should be within
the beauty industry and it is grouped along with other broad terms such as ‘natural’,
‘pure’, ‘botanical’ etc… The sad reality
is that a beauty product labeled as ‘organic’ could in fact contain only 1% organic
ingredients plus a whole host of harsh chemicals!
So what can
consumers do to stop this and protect themselves from being misled? Firstly you can sign the Soil Association
petition to urge beauty brands to #ComeCleanAboutBeauty here:-
The other thing
to do is to only purchase organic beauty products displaying a genuine organic
certifying symbol. But beware of the
fake logos out there! Brands cannot
certify themselves but they are savvy enough to realise that logos win consumer
trust so be warned that you may come across some rather misleading icons on beauty
products…!
At Totally
Organic our commitment to and belief in genuine organic beauty is such that we
only stock certified organic, cruelty free skincare which is also either vegan
or vegetarian - making shopping for green beauty as easy as it should be.
Genuine organic symbols to look out
for
If you live in
London and are keen to discover more about certified organic beauty there will
be a pop up shop next week (15th – 21st May) at Protein
Studios in Shoreditch. You will be able
to meet the best organic beauty brands of the UK, watch products being made, pick
up samples and even do a spot of yoga!
Genuine organic symbols to look out
for
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