use them or not. The problem comes when a company presents itself as natural while they aren’t.”
The bottom line is this: a truly natural beauty product should be safe enough to eat. It may not be
delicious, but it should be safe and wholesome. Vodka, as harsh as it is, can make a wonderful
warming compress that may soothe your cystic acne overnight. At the same time, all you’d expose
yourself to is alcohol derived from wheat. It can get you drunk, it can make you perform the chicken
dance at a corporate party, but it won’t make you ill unless you grossly overdo it or drive under the
influence. If you choose to pick just one piece of advice from this book, make it this: anything you
apply to your skin ends up inside your body just as if you had ingested it. So whenever you put
something on your skin, think: would I really want to eat this?
Anything you apply to your skin ends up inside your body just as if you had ingested it. So
whenever you put something on your skin, think: would I really want to eat this?Are You Confused by Organic Labels?
How many times have you purchased an “organic” shampoo only to discover the same old sodium
laureth sulfate, triethanolamine, and parabens among its ingredients? This happens because organic
labeling in the United States is pretty much in disarray. Current labeling techniques used by most
popular organic personal care products allow placing virtually any claim on the label.
To help define what’s truly green when it comes to cosmetic products, the U.S. Organic Consumers
Association (OCA) conducted an expansive consumer survey in 2007. The survey was taken by more
than 5,500 consumers who regularly purchase organic products. In fact, they said that most or “a good
portion” of their personal care products contained organic ingredients.
You may think that such green connoisseurs would know their stuff. Not true! Nearly half of the
survey respondents incorrectly believed that a product labeled as “made with organic ingredients”
meant that “all” or “nearly all” of the ingredients were organic. In reality, there are no federal
regulations requiring personal care products labeled as “made with organic ingredients” to contain
any particular level of organic ingredients, and most personal care products using this label are made
up of 70 percent or less organic ingredients.
In any store, in any period of time, 95 percent of shampoos, creams, and body washes are not
organic enough to meet the criteria required to use the USDA organic seal. These products, which
often contain multiple conventional synthetic ingredients, simply list a certifying agency for the
organic ingredients contained in the product. Even if a product contains certified organic aloe vera,
this doesn’t mean that the rest of the ingredients are organic as well! The OCA survey revealed that
consumers are confused by the listing of the certifying agency or wording such as “contains certified
organic ingredients” and falsely assume that it means the whole product is organic.
One thing seems certain: the overwhelming majority of organic beauty shoppers believe that a
product with a derivation of the word “organic” in its brand name should either be 100 percent
organic, or, at the very least, should not contain harmful synthetic detergents and preservatives. Many
believe that products with only a few organic ingredients in the formulation should also bear a
warning: “This product also contains synthetic ingredients.”
Many organizations certify organic products and ingredients. They set a number of strict standards
for how the plants are grown, harvested, stored, processed, packaged, and shipped. Such standards
vary slightly from country to country but are generally the same: the farmer or producer must avoid