It is little known that organic skin care is not legally regulated in the same way as organic food and drink. Skincare and toiletries can be called organic and natural, even if they contain a tiny percentage of organically grown ingredients and / or are mostly synthetic. The only way to be sure that the product you are using is genuinely organic is to use products that are certified by a recognised and independent organic body. Watch out for fake logos too!
All of our products are certified to Soil Association organic standards, which are among the strictest in the world for organic health and beauty products. Indeed, only a handful of companies have achieved these standards for skincare products and we were the first company to make a Shampoo certified for its organic ingredients!
The Soil Association's organic standards correspond to our philosophy that health and beauty products should be ethical, free from toxic ingredients and as organic as possible. In particular, the SA ensures that any products carrying its logo not only use organically grown ingredients where available, but also do not contain the substances that we are strongly against and never use (see below).
- How do you obtain organic certification? -
To obtain organic certification for a product, a minimum of 95% of all ingredients must be certified organic. Where insufficient organically grown ingredients exist, the Soil Association will approve products that contain at least 70% organic ingredients (such as our Shampoo) but they cannot be labelled "organic". The remaining ingredients, however, are also bound by strict guidelines. Substances suspected of being toxic to humans or the environment are not allowed, neither are genetically modified ingredients.
There is a significant time and organisational effort in being certified organic, but we believe it is worth it for the independent quality guarantee it offers.
We must provide the Soil Association with certificates of organic status for every single supplier we use during the year. To be accepted by the Soil Association, suppliers' certificates must either be issued by the Soil Association or by a body that the Soil Association has investigated and recognises as equally rigorous in its testing and certification. This means that there is wonderful traceability – you can follow each ingredient in a certified organic beauty product back to the field it was grown in.
We also have to provide the Soil Association with declarations from every supplier of a non-organic ingredient (where organic is not available) to prove that it is GM-free. Our formulae, labelling and production methods are examined regularly for quality and integrity. Every year the Soil Association inspects our production facility and audits our use of organic ingredients.
So you can see that it can be a quantum leap in purity and organic content between a product that claims to have natural or "certified organic ingredients", and one that bears a (e.g. Soil Association) logo indicating the whole product has been independently certified as having a certain organic content and being free from suspect substances.