for us?

I started Googling again.

There is no certification for organic products in the beauty industry. Your face masks, moisturisers and make up come under the food certification bodies. I guess that's ok, if it's organic enough to eat, then its organic enough for my skin, right?

Well, that depends on the way that you look at it. At the moment, to certify a product as organic, 95% of all agricultural products need to be certified as organic. The other 5% also have strict regulations on them, such as, they cannot be synthetic chemicals or artificial ingredients. According to many cosmetic companies, this is practically impossible to do. In most cosmetic products, the main ingredient is water. Usually more than 50% of the product you buy, is in fact made up of water (now, don't get me started on how much money I'm actually spending on plain old water) Because of the high water content however, the cosmeticians argue that it makes it even harder to ensure that 95% of the agricultural product is organic, there's so little of it in their products, after all.

The good news is, any cosmetic product certified as organic is definitely organic. The bad news is, the price reflects this, one of the cheaper certified organic facial moisturisers I could find, cost over $60 for 50ml.

But what's the good in organic? Why is the entire world (bar my t-shirt lady) jumping on the organic bandwagon?

A certified organic product means it has been produced with no artificial fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, growth regulators, hormone stimulants, intensive livestock systems, or antibiotics. That sounds good for the livestock and environment, but what benefit does it have on our bodies? Well, according to research, organic products are far superior in vitamin, mineral and nutrient content. And of course, there are no herbicides or pesticides floating around in there, just waiting to be soaked up into our bodies. Anti-oxidants, which are being added like crazy to all our cosmetics and creams are also generally higher in organic products.

Here's the bit I love however; as a person who somehow managed to never outgrow my dreaded acne completely, I use chemical based products packed full of salicylic acid. Who knew that when using organic products, they can have up to 6 times more naturally occurring salicylic acid in them?

Bugger the cosmetic industry, from now on, I'm just going to rub organic fruit and veg over my face.

Learn more about this author, Veronica Savvas.
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