Category: certification

More on standards and certification of natural and organic products

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Recurring themes on The Style Page blog have been the standardization of what constitutes natural and/or organic personal care products and certification of products as “natural” or “organic.” I am not a purist, I write on these issues to inform consumers about the myriad standards and certification activities out there.

Standards and certification activities provide no information on how well “natural” and “organic” products perform vis-à-vis conventional products. Recently, I wrote to a woman who generously supplied me with samples from Miessence, a direct sales company from Australia, that I was disappointed with the performance of its foundation. While the Miessence foundation didn’t sting like the Organic wear™ 100% Natural Origin Tinted Moisturizer from Physicians Formula, the mixture of water, oils, and powder was not sufficiently blended into an agglomerate-free whole.

Monique of beauty girl musings published an article on standards and certification for natural personal care products announced by the Natural Products Association on May 1.

Separately, Christopher of Christopher Drummond Beauty, republished a letter that threatened to sue manufacturers and the Ecocert (which certified Physicians Formula’s Organic wear products) and OASIS certification bodies for their claims of “organic” products. Ecocert was singled out for including water as an organic product(!) The letter was written by David Bronner of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps and Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director, Organic Consumers Association (OCA). The letter is long and technical and refers to a survey that is apparently about consumers’ perceptions of what constitutes organic products.

Dr. Bronner’s and OCA has since filed suit against the manufacturers, Ecocert, and OASIS. The hyperlinked article from Cosmeticsdesign-europe.com notes what I have contended: The natural and organics cosmetics industry has long been suffering from the lack of an internationally recognizable, reputable standard

Standards-setting and certification for organic personal care products

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In several posts (here, here, and here) on The Style Page blog, I’ve highlighted various activities to set standards and certification rules for what constitutes “natural” or “organic” personal care products (note that “natural” and “organic” are not necessarily synonyms). Vendor participation in these programs is voluntary.

Mischo Beauty posted an article about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program, or NOP. According to the USDA,

The National Organic Program (NOP) develops, implements, and administers national production, handling, and labeling standards for organic agricultural products. The NOP also accredits the certifying agents (foreign and domestic) who inspect organic production and handling operations to certify that they meet USDA standards.

In another article, Mischo Beauty highlights another voluntary program to certify products as “biodynamic.”

Bottom line: Given the plethora of standards-setting and certification activities, an international voluntary standard that specifies what constitutes organic personal care products should be established through ISO.

North American certification for natural and organic cosmetics

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From Cosmeticsdesign.com comes this article Natural and organic certification developed specifically for cosmetics. Canadian organization Certech Registration Inc. announces certification of cosmetics products as “organic.” The certification rules have the same requirements as those provided by Ecocert, a certification body based in France.

Currently, the only products that Certech Registration Inc. has certified are eaurganic products from Canadian company d’Avicenna. This does not mean other products do not meet Certech’s requirements; it might mean that other companies have not submitted their products for certification. It would be interesting to know what certification costs: for example, a CEO of a small independent cosmetics company told me that one pays $10,000 per year for the Skin Cancer Foundation’s Seal of Recommendation. Certification or recognition therefore would be prohibitive for small companies such as hers.

NSF International, another product certification body, plans to roll out its own rules for organic products this spring, if these rules are agreed upon.

For other articles on The Style Page blog about organic cosmetics, see Who Needs Soy Lecithin? ‘S.T. Lawder,’ Naturally – WSJ.com and Work Initiated on American National Standard for Organic Personal Care Products.

In a subsequent article, I’ll review Organic wear™ 100% Natural Origin Tinted Moisturizer from Physicians Formula. The Organic wear™ line advertises itself as the first Ecocert certified Organic Line of Makeup in the U.S.