Sustainable Industry Standards), which claims to be the first United States “organic” beauty care
standard, “deliberately misleads” organic consumers who are looking for a reliable indicator of true,
organic product integrity in personal care.
“The OASIS standard allows a product to be labeled outright as ‘Organic’ (rather than ‘Made with
Organic Specified Ingredients’) even if it contains hydrogenated and sulfated cleansing ingredients
like sodium lauryl sulfate made from conventional agricultural material grown with synthetic
fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, and preserved with synthetic petrochemical preservatives like
Ethylhexylglycerin and Phenoxyethanol. [Reference: OASIS Standard section 6.2 and Anti-Microbial
List],” noted Organic Consumers Association in its April 2008 statement.
Doesn’t this seem like a clear case of legitimate organic angel dusting? Today, many products with
the word “organic” on the label have as little as 5 percent organic ingredients, and some contain a lot
less. Even if a manufacturer uses a 1 percent concentration of organic grape seed extract, it can
proudly put “organic” on the product, and now it has an “organic” standard on which to base its
claims. Allowing synthetic cleansing ingredients and preservatives to be spiced up by a few
“organic” water extracts literally dilutes the whole meaning of organic, since body washes and
shampoos are 85 percent water anyway.
Granted, it’s impossible to follow the strict guidelines developed for the food industry when you
make a shampoo or lipstick. The current list of allowed synthetic ingredients under the U.S. national
organic standards was developed specifically for food products. Some beauty products, such as body
oils and balms, can meet those food-grade standards, but certain types of skin care and hair care
products cannot physically be made without additional synthetic ingredients. Nearly all sunscreens
rely on titanium dioxide or zinc oxide to block the sun, and most peptides and vitamins are synthetic.
But any organic consumer worth her olive oil body scrub has the right to expect that ingredients in
products labeled “organic” are made from organic, not conventional, agriculture, are not
hydrogenated or sulfated, and are free from synthetic petrochemical preservatives.
Green or Greenwashed?
Organic is a hot word in the cosmetic business. Manufacturers constantly look for possibilities of
legally placing the word “organic” on the label in any way they can. How about “Totally Organic
Experience,” a famous slogan of Herbal Essences body and hair products, which contain nonorganic
fruit juices and herbal extracts heavily diluted with sodium lauryl and laureth sulfates,
cocamideMEA, synthetic fragrances, and coal tar–derived dyes?
Using a drop of organic essential oil to justify the word “organic” on the label is the most common
greenwashing technique in the cosmetic industry. Beauty greenwashers usually spend money on
promoting themselves as environmentally friendly or green rather than spending resources on
formulating toxin-free, environmentally sound products. To jump on the green bandwagon, beauty
greenwashers usually change the name or label of a product to give the feeling of nature, for example,
by putting an image of a green meadow on a bottle of harmful chemicals or babies playing on a green
lawn on a packet of PEG-loaded baby wipes.
Here are the most popular claims that appear on greenwashed beauty products. Let’s take a look to
see how these claims damage the reputation of all things organic, natural, and ecofriendly.