What are the certificates for in natural cosmetics?
Natural cosmetics has earned a deserved niche within the beauty sector. Consumers are increasingly aware of protecting the environment and have discovered all the benefits that cosmetics of natural origin can provide. For this reason, more and more brands are deciding to create their own ecological and natural line. However, this can lead to some confusion. How to know if it is a natural cosmetic? Is this brand really vegan? To guarantee its naturalness, many brands resort to the certifications granted by some international organizations. In this post, we are going to tell you what the certificates are for, what requirements a brand must meet to achieve it, and what the certification process is like.
Why are certificates useful in natural cosmetics?
Since there is currently no common European standard that regulates natural and/or organic cosmetics, many brands turn to certifiers to guarantee that their products are of natural, vegan or organic origin. For example, Arganour is one of the most certified brands in natural cosmetics: natural, organic, vegan and cruelty-free.
These certifiers are private entities that, based on impartial standards (COSMOS, ECOCERT standard...) grant certificates or seals to brand products. Today, there is a wide variety of certifying companies, but in this case, we are going to focus on two:
ECOCERT Certifier
Ecocert is a benchmark in ecological labeling. To obtain its seal, this company analyzes and evaluates a series of its own social and environmental requirements:
- Use natural resources responsibly. - Promote the use of products from organic farming. - Opt for environmentally friendly manufacturing and production processes.
But, in addition, it is also governed by the COSMOS standard that we will explain to you later.
CAAE Certifier
CAAE is another of the leading certifiers in the organic, natural and vegan cosmetics sector. Its objective is for the consumer to be able to understand the formulation of each product and be aware of what they are consuming.
What is the COSMOS standard?
This standard classifies natural and organic cosmetics based on strict criteria that range from supply to marketing, without neglecting the manufacturing and control of products.
Based on this, the COSMOS standard classifies cosmetics as natural or organic. The first, COSMOS Natural, encompasses all products that do not contain ingredients of animal origin, genetically modified ingredients or synthetic ingredients. While the second, COSMOS Organic, refers to all cosmetics that have at least 95% organic ingredients.
How is the certification process?
There are four stages that a brand must go through to obtain a certificate or seal.
- Registration. In this first phase, the certifier is in charge of examining the documents that the brand has delivered and processes its registration. - Evaluation. The audit body evaluates the formulation of cosmetics, as well as other more secondary elements (labels, packaging...). - Inspection. The person in charge of carrying out the audit travels to the place where the brand has its facilities to audit a series of points. - Issuance of the certificate. If the brand has passed the audit, it directly obtains the corresponding certificate.
