Healthy(ish!)

WITH SUSANNAH TAYLOR

friends often ask me, ‘Sus, have you used this product? It’s totally natural.’ ‘Natural?’ I reply. ‘That brand is no more natural than industrial loo cleaner.’

This week is Organic Beauty and Wellbeing Week, a sector that’s grown 14% in the last year. Without doubt, 2019 has been the year of climate change emergency, and any beauty and health brand worth their environmentally friendly reputation is jumping on the bandwagon, emblazoning the words ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ on their products. But don’t be fooled by wording – not many brands are ‘natural’, let alone 100% organic. This is ‘greenwashing’.

I recently co-hosted a talk on this at Daylesford organic farm in Gloucestershire with Georgia Barnes, senior business manager at the Soil Association. The issue we have is that the organic cosmetics industry is unregulated. Brands can get away with containing a very small amount of organic ingredients (as little as 1%) and call themselves organic. This is shocking, but the Soil Association exists to try to bring order and clarity. Their stamp is proof the products have been rigorously tested. They scrutinise everything from ingredients and how they’ve been grown to formulation procedures, brand premises and packaging. The stamp ensures a product contains no GM ingredients, parabens or phthalates, controversial chemicals, synthetic colours, dyes, fragrances or nano particles. And now there’s another stamp, COSMOS, which was created by German, French, Italian and British organic associations, who’ve teamed up to establish a harmonised standard.

Organic products are one thing, but it’s also important not to be fooled by the word ‘natural’. There’s no clear definition of what natural is, and terms such as ‘from nature’, ‘naturally derived,’ or ‘inspired by nature’ are a wishy-washy way of saying that, once upon a time, a petal may have been involved. COSMOS are onto this, too, and now have a natural certification that guarantees the majority of ingredients used are from nature, that no endangered plant species is used and there are no GM ingredients.

I have other ways of telling the credibility of a so-called ‘natural’ product. Scent is always a giveaway – if it smells like an ice cream or air freshener, it’s definitely not natural. If it has unnatural colouring – a sickly pink lip balm or a sanitary product with blue wings – then I’d question which exotic plant they grew from. Also, texture – if it foams, fizzes, or changes temperature, you can presume it didn’t grow in soil.

If you are serious about reducing the chemicals you use on your skin or put into your body, read a product’s ingredients. The Soil Association have a list on their website of those that wouldn’t make their organic cut. They have also launched a ‘One Small Swap Can Make a World of Difference’ campaign, which is about choosing brands that promote integrity, provenance and transparency. Suddenly the ‘greenwashers’ may be looking a bit green around the gills. @susannahtaylor_