According to various studies, women use an average of 9 cosmetic products on a daily basis, not including makeup, which alone has over 100 chemically produced ingredients. Think about it: all this has been going into your skin for years, and most the long-term effects of this daily use remain unclear. If you think of cosmetics as skin food, would you feed GMOs and harmful chemicals to your skin?
If your answer is no, you might be one of the many women who have turned their attention to a healthy, green lifestyle and are increasingly looking for organic food, clothes made from natural fabrics, and natural cosmetics.
Compared to traditional cosmetics, which contains many artificial ingredients and might have been tested on animals, organic products provide a higher standard of safety to both you and the environment.
Generally speaking, organic beauty and makeup products contain only natural, biological ingredients which are grown without artificial fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or are wild-growing and harvested in environmentally friendly areas. The methods of cultivating organic raw ingredients aim at preserving the environment and the quality of soils and groundwater.
Organic cosmetics don’t have two of the most harmful ingredients used in skin care – parabens and phthalates. They don’t use synthetic substances or products from the petroleum industry, which may damage the skin’s barrier, and they are free of ingredients of animal origin or genetically modified organisms. Artificial preservatives, which may damage skin cells, are substituted for a variety of essential oils, resins and waxes.
So how do you know what’s safe? There are a lot of products on the market that say “organic” on their labels. Our advice is to read the ingredients label very carefully, because the term can be abused. You’ve probably seen popular products by huge brands that say “ORGANIC” in giant letters, but if you take a closer look at the ingredients, you’ll find a long list of confusing names in Latin that stand for a bunch of artificial preservatives and chemically produced oils. One ingredient of organic origin does not make the whole product natural, and the label alone is not a guarantee of any sort.
That said, all organic products need to pass through a special certification process and get a characteristic stamp or logo which guarantees they are genuinely organic. If you don’t see such an indicator on the packaging, along with the name of the company that issued the certificate, this means that the product is not organic. There are even certification organizations that issue certificates for the organic production of raw materials such as rosewater, lavender water or beeswax.
When you are buying organic products, the best you can do is opt for something that was produced locally, because this means it was specifically developed to be applied in the conditions you are living in, taking into account factors such as air and water quality. If you’re unsure about a product, it is a good idea to look it up in online cosmetics databases. That will give you a detailed idea of what you’re putting on your skin and how it might affect it. Remember that the fact that it’s organic doesn’t make it completely harmless, so think wisely and choose carefully.