Tried & True

Why we love beauty certification label NATRUE

Beauty product shopping can be confusing, often marred by conflicting advice, claims and information. But a Belgium-based group who are passionate about keeping it real for consumers are separating the honest from the promised.

And as their 10th anniversary approaches, NATRUE (True Friends of Natural and Organic Cosmetics) are mindful of the fact they have a lot to celebrate: an ever-widening reach, a reputation for being trustworthy, and the knowledge that their non-profit certification label has become a globally recognised ‘seal of approval’.

Greenwashing begone

We know all too well that lotions and potions marketed with words such as ‘natural’ and ‘green’ are eye-catching to the consciousliving consumer. But frustratingly, some products have little or no credibility behind these claims. It’s this type of misleading information, or ‘greenwashing’, that drove NATRUE to create a higher standard.

“Product packaging, colours, images and claims can all contribute to people assuming a product is more natural than it actually is,” says Francesca Morgante, NATRUE label and communication manager. “Our certification differentiates companies which are truly engaged and serious about accountability and transparency for the sake of their customers, from those who prefer easy self-declarations of lesser value.

“It’s very common to include a few ingredients of organic origin in a formulation which contains artificial ingredients, just to give a sort of ‘green’ appearance,” Morgante tells us from Brussels. She adds that some brands like to draw attention to the recyclability of packaging or other initiatives such as carbon footprint reduction. Such initiatives are good, of course, but say nothing about the actual formulation of the product.

Home truths

Two much-loved local brands, Aucklandbased Trilogy and Christchurch-based Linden Leaves, are loud and proud about their affiliation with NATRUE and the reasons why they sought certification.

Lisa Wilson, international communications manager of Trilogy, says the NATRUE certification goes further than any standard so far established in terms of consistency and complete transparency. “The natural skincare category has become increasingly crowded since Trilogy launched 14 years ago, and with no legal definition of what constitutes 'natural' we wanted to help eliminate the grey area and offer our customers further confidence and reassurance that what they are buying is authentically natural.”

Says Brigit Blair, founder of Linden Leaves, “I think consumers were becoming sceptical of claims and misrepresentations, and we thought there was a need for clarification through a certification process of an exacting standard.”

Little label, big power

The symbol pictured below was never on the ‘business’ agenda and NATRUE certainly had no intention of “introducing an additional label in the jungle of certification seals”. However, it became apparent that no existing standard was both international and stringent enough. Once created, the growth of the label was impressive. In 2009 there were only about 40 brands using the NATRUE seal; today it appears on more than 5000 products worldwide.

Trilogy has seen increasing benefits to having certification, especially as people have become more aware of the prevalence of greenwashing in the skincare industry.

“Given we were early in gaining independent accreditation, we’ve had to work hard to educate both media and customers about what NATRUE stands for,” says Wilson. That hard work is paying off now, however, as other brands follow suit to undertake the process themselves. This move, Wilson says, is “good for both customers and the industry alike.

“Delivering the best natural skincare that works is the cornerstone of our business. And achieving NATRUE certification was a natural extension of our commitment to offer reassurance that our customers are choosing authentically natural products.”

Passion and process

It was very important for NATRUE to not be ' the certification organisation', but rather define and update their standard for natural and organic cosmetics (see sidebar), and then hand over the rigorous testing to a third party. “By using independent testing, we guarantee integrity of our standard,” says Morgante. “That standard is established with the input of a scientific committee (made up of half of NATRUE’s members and the other half external experts), all of whom are not necessarily from the natural sector.”

The process to get a ‘pass’ is not only thorough from a certifier perspective, but also requires a huge investment of time from brands wanting to put their beloved products through the paces. Linden Leaves provides all formula reports with supplier information, so all aspects of the ingredients can be traced and checked.

“An ingredient which may appear to be natural might not pass the strict criteria because of the way the oil or extract is released from the plant,” explains Blair.

“For example, if alcohol has been used as the solvent to extract the ingredient, or an ingredient has been irradiated to kill bacteria, it cannot be used.”

Committed to the core

There are no shortcuts to gain certification, and if a company is serious about gaining the label, then it needs to be prepared to reformulate a product.

Explains Blair, “We have never used microbeads as an exfoliant for the damage they do to the environment, so had chosen ground apricot kernel [as the ingredient to gently exfoliate]. Initially, it seemed an acceptable ingredient, however upon deeper investigation [we found] the apricot kernels are irradiated to kill bacteria and therefore not acceptable for NATRUE. We decided to begin the formulation again – and now use jojoba beads which are 100 per cent natural spheres.”