You enter to the market. You can already see the healthy food shelf from afar. On the products visible inscriptions: bio, eco, veg, gluten free. Many of them bear a name or brand close to nature or natural origin. Even the very names of the products refer to this. After all, corn flakes, which are inherently gluten-free, bear the large inscription: "Does not contain gluten." You enter the next store - this time a drugstore. And what do you see? The same markings. The ones you just saw in the food aisle are again visible on cosmetic products. Eco, bio, veg, natural, organic. Again, these terms are most prominently displayed on packaging.
In fact, after leaving the stores you can start thinking ... What is all this about? How is eco different from bio? What is this veg? Why is one product natural and the other not? What is then in their composition? And why do we have natural and organic products? Are these synonyms?
We have already got used to the terminology used in the food industry and it doesn't impress us much. We know that you have to pay 2 to 5 times more for eco or bio. We have a chance to get a better product. But the same labels, signs and marketing messages in cosmetics? So what and where else will we see described as eco? Why is something described as bio? What is natural and what is not? What lies behind the organic slogan? Have you ever wondered about this?
BIO and ECO
You can long look for the definition of bio and eco for cosmetics. In fact, by searching the internet, trade magazines or analyzing cosmetics certification organizations, one can come to the conclusion that they are connected by the fact that they are created with respect for the environment. There are no legal regulations regarding this terminology and should be treated as a marketing trick. We can assume that they should be made of natural ingredients, and their acquisition should be done without harm to animals and the environment. Packages should be biodegradable, and ideally recycled. However, do we have a formal description of what is a bio cosmetic and what is an eco product? We were unable to find a known institute, association or other organization granting the certificate, a sign that the cosmetic is bio or eco. What's more, there are cases when companies themselves create characters imitating certificates and place them on product labels to imitate the naturalness of a cosmetic, thus misleading the customer.
NATURAL and ORGANIC
Things are a little different with natural and organic cosmetics. Here, the COSMOS organization, bringing together the largest cosmetics certification bodies, came to the rescue. It quite clearly defines certain regularities. Natural cosmetics are generally cosmetics containing a minimum of 75% ingredients of natural origin. Natural ingredients are understood as raw materials of plant or mineral origin, the least processed. In natural cosmetics, the use of beeswax and lanolin is also allowed, however, only if they have been obtained without harm to animals. The rest of the ingredients can be of synthetic origin. Organic cosmetics, on the other hand, are products consisting of a minimum of 95% raw materials of organic origin and a maximum of 5% of synthetic origin. However, will every cosmetic containing 95% natural ingredients get all certificates of organic cosmetics? We will write about the details in a week's next blog. If you do not want to miss it - like the GoNature page on Facebook, and you will definitely get a notification about a new blog article.
WEGE
The least problem is to define veg products. You can easily transfer them from vegetarians and vegans who in their diet do not eat meat properly or do not consume any animal products. So how does this term apply to cosmetics? Vegan cosmetics are those that not only do not have animal substances in their composition, but also do not contain animal products, even such as bee honey or lanolin. Of course, just like the cosmetics mentioned above, they also have their certificates. The best known is the certificate issued by the VIVA Foundation!
So what should you pay attention to if you want to buy a product of good quality, without unnecessary chemistry, good on the skin and hmmmm how not to call it in the context of the above information - natural? In fact, we probably have one option. Analyze the composition of INCI cosmetics and / or choose cosmetics due to known, verified and above all verified by us certificates.
