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78% of women believe that “natural” is a real, meaningful term when it comes to beauty products. But that’s not true. Not yet, anyway.According to CosmeticsNews Weekly, Burt’s Bees is trying to address this situation by establishing a new globally recognized, standard defi

78% of women believe that “natural” is a real, meaningful term when it comes to beauty products. But that’s not true. Not yet, anyway.

According to CosmeticsNews Weekly, Burt’s Bees is trying to address this situation by establishing a new globally recognized, standard definition of the term “natural” as it applies to cosmetics.

Mike Indursky, of Burt’s Bees, states they’d like to see cosmetics be certified before they can claim to be natural. The certification process would involve making sure that the product is free from “parabens, synthetic preservatives, sulfates, animal products, or anything with suspected potential human health risks.” Furthermore, he says that natural products should contain a minimum of 95% natural ingredients.

While we applaud the effort to educate women about the products they’re using, we’re concerned that this initiative may be driven more by marketing than by objective science.

Cosmetic ingredients natural AND synthetic should be thoroughly researched to ensure they’re safe for use. But natural certification shouldn’t be confused with safety testing. (Plenty of natural ingredients aren’t safe!) And, the certification process raises several questions: What is the definition of natural? Who decides which ingredients get certified and which don’t? Who documents that any given product reaches the magic 95% level?

But perhaps most concerning is the implied notion that “all natural is good” and “all synthetic is bad.” Such a simplistic approach only serves to spread misinformation and fear. We’d rather see an educational program geared toward documenting the safety of chemicals used in cosmetics, regardless of their source.

www.thebeautybrains.com

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