Cosmetics Design Releases Special Newsletter Covering Beyond Beauty

There are several articles of interest, but one that struck my fancy – as it was a presentation that I missed – was the one that covered the conference on the European harmonization of organics and naturals. It’s been a long time in the making, with certifications in Europe being inconsistent, disjointed, and downright confusing.

But here's what they say:

The European wide system, the specifications of which are to be released in June 2008, will be a two level specification system: natural and organic…Although many of the details still remain to be decided, a two tier system of natural and organic certification appears to have been, primarily at least, accepted.

What is accepted? How do we define natural and organic? Natural means that at least 95 percent of its ingredients must be “of natural origin.” Organic, according to the article, is way more complicated. The main barrier is good old H2O. Water, the uncertifiable demon, is a big liability in cosmetics products – as are some mineral extracts and salts. The only ingredients that can be certified organic are of vegetal origin. Of these, they’re shooting for 95% organic, and also working on “green chemistry”, which uses accepted solvents and chemicals (non-petrochemicals, for example) and non food-grade preservatives.

Good things are a-comin'.