Our philosophy since day one has been that if we would use a product ourselves and give it to our friends and family then we will recommend it, and if we wouldn't then we won't.
The area of natural and organic cosmetics ingredients is very complex and it can sometimes be a minefield for customers trying to work out whether products are as natural as they claim. It comes as a surprise to many people that the word organic is not legally protected in relation to cosmetic products in the same way that it is for food, which means that there have been lots of brands jumping on the green band wagon and making organic claims for products that contain very little in the way of organic ingredients.
On the other hand, cosmetic products are very different from food and we expect them to perform and last in a totally different way. You would not expect to open a pot of yoghurt, keep it at room temperature and dip your fingers into it daily and still expect it to be safe to use 6 months later, yet this is exactly what we demand from our skincare. Therefore, some technical ingredients are essential to preserve products, stop the oil and water based ingredients separating and also to make them foam in the case of washes and shampoos.
Generally, it is the number of these technical ingredients (which cannot be called organic as they are not farmed or grown) necessary to make an effective product that determine what % of organic ingredients the product contains.
When choosing whether to recommend products and add them to our website we make decisions on a case by case basis. We always take into account how technically difficult it is to produce an effective product to decide whether to accept a particular formulation onto our website.
For example, it is very easy to make a totally organic lip balm and many brands offer them so we would never recommend a lip balm product that was not organic. However, when it comes to hair styling products or nail polish things are a little trickier. These products are technically very complicated to make and since effectiveness is crucial, we do accept a far greater number of technical ingredients in these products. They are as natural as they can be for their product type, whilst still working effectively. Because who wants hairspray that doesn’t hold or nail polish that peels straight off, it’s pointless, even if the ingredients are pure. We will not recommend products that we don’t believe are good enough to do the job as it is very wasteful and bad use of the planets resources for customers to be buying and throwing away unused bottles of ineffective products.
Many of the products in our range are independently Certified Organic, when they are not, please be assured that we have vetted them carefully and considered that for their product type their ingredients are necessary and in line with our ingredients policy. If you ever have questions or concerns about ingredients, please get in touch, we love talking to people who love organic products and will be happy to assist you.