Organic goods are sweeping our stores and these days, they are not just for eating, but for smearing on the face and body too.
Research house Euromonitor International predicts that natural and organic ingredients, which were all the rage last year, will continue to be one of the top trends in the cosmetics and toiletries sector this year, with organic skincare becoming even more mainstream.
In Singapore, even the annual trade show for the beauty industry, BeautyAsia, dedicated a special section to natural and organic products this year.
The same desire to avoid putting harmful chemicals into the body, which drives the organic food industry, is also behind skincare, though in this case, the chemicals are absorbed through the skin or inhaled.
According to Ms Vanessa Soh, who sells the Australian brand, Miessence, an organic product is 'grown, cultivated and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals such as insecticides, herbicides and fumigants'.
ORGANIC, OR JUST NATURAL?
According to Associate Professor Roy Chan, director of the National Skin Centre, skincare products can be classified broadly into 'natural' versus 'synthetic or artificial'. Natural products would contain ingredients from natural sources such as plant or vegetable extracts, while synthetic products do not have any natural ingredients.
But natural products may not be what consumers imagine them to be, said Prof Chan.
'While the sources may be natural, some of the ingredients may be isolated and purified by chemical processes before they are incorporated into the formulation,' he said.
'There is currently no official requirement for the proper definition of natural or organic skincare products,' he adds.
Though the terms 'organic' and 'natural' are used interchangeably, they are not the same. A product can call itself natural if it has only one natural ingredient whereas a product is considered organic only if 75 to 98 per cent of its ingredients are organic.
'Applying the term organic in agriculture to mean free of synthetic pesticides, fertilisers or sewage sludge, 'organic' skincare products would be taken to mean a line of all-natural skincare products containing plant-derived ingredients grown and processed without artificial chemicals,' said Prof Chan.
When choosing organic skincare, look to see if it is certified organic by a reputable organisation, as this gives quality assurance.
Organisations which are dependable are the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Australian Certified Organic (ACO) and the UK's Soil Association Certification Ltd.
Certified organic products must comply with stringent international standards that cover all aspects of the processing chain, from seed, growing, harvesting, storage, transporting and processing through to the finished product.
If the product is not certified, read the label, don't just look at the packaging, said Mr Kervin Tan, director of Botanic Source LLP, a natural products distributor.
Before he decided on the product ranges to sell in his store, Purely Botanic, he spoke to over 100 manufacturers and read every single ingredient in the product line.
Organic and natural living followers say this is quite easy to do. Divide the ingredients list into three parts. The top third usually makes up 90 to 95 per cent of the product; the middle 5 to 8 per cent; and the bottom third just 1 to 3 per cent.
If all the 'natural' or 'organic' ingredients come in the bottom segment it means the product contains very little natural stuff, even if the packaging screams purity.
Ms Karen Behnke, the co-founder of Juice Beauty organic products, advises consumers: 'Read labels and try because it's organic, but use because it works!'
