Redefining Organic Beauty Products

By C.A. Vargas

The definition of what is organic in skin care or personal products has been an ongoing dispute in the U.S that has created more consumer confusion than a chinese puzzle box. And despite the growing abuses by many companies that position themselves as “organic”, the United States still has no regulatory agency to prevent the defamation of the word organic.

The closest the U.S has come to form a regulatory body for anything organic has been the United States Department of Agriculture. However, those efforts fall short and only apply to organic foods. The USDA has no such standards for cosmetics or personal care items.

Therefore the cosmetic and beauty industry indiscriminately use words like “natural” or “organic” to market themselves, but have no standards to back-up their claims. The United States lack of regulations in this segment of the organic industry, beauty, cosmetics and personal care items, is in fact years behind its European counterparts.

France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Belgium have had standards in place for years. The result is a trust in its organic skin care labels that is lacking in the United States. The only thing that protects the consumer in the US is ones own education regarding the potentially harmful ingredients used in skin care products. Lacking that, the consumer must rely on the personal ethics of these companies and their standards for what they consider organic.

Some common ingredients that you should be aware are parabens, sulfate and petroleum based ingredients. A common rule of thumb I use is, if you can’t pronounce it or don’t recognize it, most likely its synthetic. This is not a very scientific method but it works when you are lacking a degree in chemistry.

For a fuller list of ingredients see the article “Harmful Ingredients In Skin Care”. The harmful ingredients mentioned in this article are common enough to be shun by any quality company that considers itself organic. Additionally, this is not a complete list by far and should only be used to increase your knowledge of potentially harmful ingredients in skin care.

In Europe, for example France, skin care companies can follow the standards set by EcoCert and consumers would have immediate confidence that it was organic. Similarly in the United Kingdom, the Soil Association certifies not only organic products but organic foods as well and any label it issues carries the assurance that it is organic.

This is one of the reasons why Joanna Vargas Skin Care carries mainly organic skin care products from abroad as they are following a set of standards that have been in place for years. These strict guidelines have proven themselves to be not only organic but also show results when used in the skin.

Although the United States has many good companies which create organic skin care products the industry seems to be still working out the kinks as to what is identifiably organic.

When choosing organic skin care products for use in the salon, Joanna Vargas has created unyielding guidelines that encompass many of those found in the various organizations in Europe such as the Soil Association, EcoCert and BDIH from Germany. In fact, Joanna Vargas is years ahead of the competition and has been using organic products years before the word “organic” itself became mainstream.

Visit our online store and BUY truly unique organic skin care.