It's no surprise that we're collectively becoming increasingly concerned with the ingredients in our beauty products and what they mean for our overall health; newspapers tell us every day that our shampoo or lipstick can cause cancer, or that our body washes are enriched with damaging chemicals. Although the majority of the stories are developed with the sole purpose of scaremongering, it has lead us as consumers to be more aware and start making better choices. Organic, natural and 'free from' are buzz words we hear every day, but there's a significant lack of clarity around what they really mean. Unlike organic food, there is (rather shockingly) currently no legal standard in place to protect shoppers against fake or misleading organic beauty claims; this flourishing green market is becoming increasingly confusing and hard to manoevre as marketing teams get more and more clever at giving the impression that their products are filled with organic goodness. Whether that's through product names that give the impression of organic ingredients, the addition of a few green leaves to a pack, or little nuances that subconsciously make us believe the formula will be better for us than the alternative, it's confusing noise that hides what's really going on.
The Soil Association is the UK's leading certification body that aims to make this process clearer, certifying brands and products in order to provide consumers with the tools they need to make informed purchas...