Now what about "organic''?
"produced and involving production without the use of pesticides, artificial fertilizers or synthetic chemicals."
To me it seems rather elementary that when describing a natural skin care product as organic that the above is exactly what the customer would expect. However, to the marketing men this is not what they mean by organic. Lets delve a little deeper into this play on words.
To create Cocamide DEA, a foaming agent found in some shampoos, requires the addition of a synthetic chemical and known carcinogen, Diethanolamine – DEA, to the coconut oil.
It's therefore no longer natural, or even what you could call safe! If we look at the term “organic” on a label, we usually think it means “grown and cultivated without the use of chemicals” as stated above. That's the conclusion most "natural" skin care companies would like us to come to when they use the rather loose term organic and natural.
Unscrupulous skin care companies are cynically using the chemistry definition of “organic” – which is also defined in the dictionary as "a compound that contains a carbon atom" to confuse consumers. This is known in the trade as confusion advertising so the real picture becomes blurred.
Carbon is found in everything that has ever lived. Vested interests - by using this definition of organic, they're saying that a toxic petrochemical preservative called Methyl Paraben is “organic” because it was formed from natural leaves that rotted over thousands of years to become crude oil, which was then used to make this toxic totally un-natural preservative they put in "organic" skin care.
How absurd is this when consumers are looking for natural skin care products?
The play on the word organic gets even worse. An increasing number of companies are now claiming to use “organic” herbs in their products. But, what about the rest of the ingredients? Are they safe? Are they "natural" or from an "organic" source? Surely there must be an authority that governs the use of the term “organic” on labels?
The simple answer is NO.
What natural skin care products are actually "natural skin care products"?
The term “Certified Organic” IS governed by a number of internationally recognised bodies. In Australia the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA) is the largest. Searching for products with the logo of a certifying body on the label is the only way you can guarantee the organic authenticity and integrity of every ingredient in the product. This can then truly be called a natural skin care product.
Without the "Certified Organic" label, the organic claim means nothing, as it cannot be verified and most likely it is a complete hoax perpetrated by the marketing men and their hype
