Most 'Organic' Cosmetics Labels Mislead Public -
Certified Organic is your only guarantee of
synthetic chemical free products which are truly
non-toxic.
WASHINGTON, DC -Scores of "natural" cosmetic
companies will be in Washington, DC September 5-7 for
the Natural Products Expo East, the largest natural
products trade show on the East Coast. While most
companies that sell increasingly popular "natural"
soaps, shampoos and skin creams in natural supermarkets
such as Whole Foods and Trader Joes do not claim their
products are "organic," an increasing number of these
brands, such as Avalon Natural Products, JASON, and
Nature's Gate, are misleading consumers into thinking up
to 70% of such products are in fact "organic."
The body care companies in question claim that
"organic floral waters" are somehow key functional
components of their products. However, floral waters,
that are also called "hydrosols," did not exist as an
ingredient in body care formulations until companies
started to use them to make fraudulent, inflated
"organic" claims. Not only is the presence of these
hydrosols largely inconsequential, their actual organic
content is minimal since they are mostly ordinary
distilled water. Nonetheless, various so-called
"natural" body care manufacturers are using these waters
to green-wash their products and make organic label
claims, even though their formulations are in fact
largely composed of the same conventional synthetic
cleansers, conditioners and preservatives found in
mainstream products. These companies assert "70% organic
ingredients" on their labels and advertising to mislead
consumers into thinking that they are buying mostly
organic products when they assuredly are not.
Similar to an infusion or tea, which is made by
boiling botanical material in water, floral waters are
made by steaming plants, and then cooling the steam back
to water. Products made with infusions or teas cannot
count the water in such teas or infusions as organic in
calculating organic content under NOP food standards.
However, it has become distressingly common practice to
use "Steam Tea" as the main "organic" ingredient in many
personal care products by misleadingly counting the
ordinary water in such "Steam Teas" as organic. .
The fraudulent practice of counting such water as
"organic" in some major companies' body care products
has been getting a lot of attention in mainstream press,
from The New York Times and Los Angeles Times to
Consumer Reports. The OCA has demanded that organic body
care standards should mirror the standards for organic
food products. This means that:
