When I go to the drugstore these days, it seems like every other bottle of shampoo and tube of lipstick is being marketed as “natural” and “organic.” Do any of those labels actually mean anything?
The Green Lantern feels your pain—she often finds herself standing glassy-eyed in the soap aisle, seduced and confused by the pretty pictures of exotic fruits. We can all be forgiven for being hypnotized by the hype: After all, beauty firms spend, on average, a whopping 20 percent to 25 percent of their revenue on advertising and promotion, compared with just 2 percent or 3 percent on research and development. The industry knows that green is hot these days, and it hasn’t been shy about exploiting it—between 2006 and 2007, the number of product launches that came with “natural” claims increased by 79 percent, while the number professing to be “organic” jumped 173 percent. As one savvy hair-care exec put it, the words “natural and environmental” used to mean “dried twigs and bark and herbs”; now they mean “juicy, alive and luscious.”
So how do you make sense of all the buzzwords? First of all, don’t expect phrases like botanical or natural or plant-derived—or the Lantern’s head-scratching favorite, nature-inspired—to mean anything. Though the FDA has the authority to reprimand personal-care product-makers whose labels make false and misleading claims, it’s never imposed standard definitions for these green-sounding terms. So a body cleanser with only trace elements of cucumber extract can legally call itself a “natural” product, as can a fully synthetic product engineered to smell like an apple orchard.
The word organic, on the other hand, can sometimes have real meaning—though the precise nature of that meaning depends on who’s using the term. The USDA began certifying organic bath-and-beauty products in 2005. (You can recognize these products by the circular “USDA Organic” logo on the packaging.) The government uses the same standards it applies to produce (PDF)—i.e., produced without conventional pesticides and by companies that put an emphasis on soil-and-water conservation—and offers three levels of certification: “100 percent organic” (meaning that a product contains only organically produced ingredients), “organic” (at least 95 percent organic ingredients), and “made with organic ingredients” (at least 70 percent organic ingredients).
There are at least four other new programs that purport to quantify the “naturalness” of American personal-care products. Two are already in use: the Natural Products Association standard (a green leaf logo) and Whole Foods’ in-house Premium Body Care label (a blue-and-green sprout sticker). Two more labels specifically dedicated to organic personal-care products, the NSF 305 logo and the OASIS seal, will start appearing on products later this year.
Don’t assume that OASIS’ “organic” means the same thing as the USDA’s—the definitions of each term vary from program to program. There’s also no way to stop a rogue greenwasher from forgoing the stickers and logos altogether and calling its 90-percent-synthetic body spray “organic” just the same. (The USDA does regulate the term organic when it comes to food labeling, but it monitors only the specific phrase USDA Organic when it comes to personal-care products.) Inversely, you shouldn’t assume that the lack of one of these five labels means a product has no green cred whatsoever. Since these certification programs are so new, and since there’s still a lot of confusion over what their standards actually mean, many companies haven’t yet decided how to get certified. We can only hope that the United States eventually takes a cue from Europe, where a number of certification bodies have recently joined up in an effort to harmonize organic labeling on cosmetics.
You also have to realize that most of these labeling efforts stem from consumers’ anxieties about the perceived health risks of artificial ingredients—not necessarily their concerns about big-picture eco-issues, such as sustainability or water safety. If cutting down on tongue-twisting chemicals makes you feel healthier, more power to you. (You can begin your research with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, though the Green Lantern suspects this activist organization overstates the danger of certain commonly used chemicals.) But when it comes to the health of the planet, plant-based products aren’t necessarily the better choice. To give just one example, Unilever, the maker of Dove soap, was recently lambasted by Greenpeace for its reliance on unsustainably farmed (though certifiably natural) palm oil.
As a rule of thumb, though, products that bear the above-mentioned labels will generally be greener than conventional drugstore choices. These programs are, at the very least, making gestures—if often frustratingly vague ones—toward sustainability. The USDA, NFS, and OASIS logos all promote organic agriculture, which is generally more sustainable than conventional farming. The Natural Products Association, in turn, stresses that ingredients should come from “a renewable resource” and that “companies should strive to maximize their use of recyclable and post-consumer recycled content in packaging.” Whole Foods claims its Premium Body Care products are “sourced and manufactured with respect for the environment” and designed to have “minimal eco-impact after use.” You have to trust that the programs are actually following up on these recommendations, but at least they’re stressing their importance.
Ultimately, making green beauty choices involves doing a little research before you head to the drugstore. But there are a few things you can do in those final minutes. Reduce your impact immediately by choosing products that come with minimal packaging, made from recyclable and post-consumer recycled content. (The average American woman uses a dozen beauty products a day—just think about all the shrink wrappers and plastic casings swaddling those soaps, lotions, creams, and powders.) Learn to love the refillable compact. Swap out your bottle of liquid body cleanser—particularly if it’s made of plastic that’s not the easily recyclable types No. 1 or No. 2—in favor of simply packaged bar soap. Try to steer clear, too, of products with triclosan and trichlorocarbon, two antibacterial agents found in soaps and deodorants. Scientists are only beginning to study the effects of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products in our water, and though the environmental and health consequences of these trace chemicals are largely unknown, triclosan and trichlorocarbon have been singled out for special attention.
Of course, you can always follow the green golden rule, by cutting down on your cosmetic consumption in the first place. Think carefully about whether you really need separate creams for your eyelids, cheeks, and neck or six different pots of brown eye shadow, half of which you’ll throw away before finishing. You’ll not only save the planet, but you’ll also have the added benefit of less goop at the bottom of your purse.
Is there an environmental quandary that’s been keeping you up at night? Send it to ask.the.lantern@gmail.com, and check this space every Tuesday.
