Amid the flood of cosmetic products labelled “naravno”, “organic” and “clean beauty” the question keeps arising of what these terms actually mean. Consumers are increasingly aware, and want transparency in the information they get about the cosmetic products they choose, yet the market is confused, because there are no single agreed definitions in this area.

The key differences between natural, organic and clean beauty cosmetics

Broadly, the definitions can be set out as follows:

Naravna kozmetika

Vsebuje sestavine naravnega izvora, that is, raw materials that can be found prisotne v rastlinah ter drugih naravnih okoljih. The raw materials are minimally processed, so identical to those in the environment. That does not necessarily mean they are also organically grown or entirely free of synthetic additives. Nor does it mean they genuinely originate in natural material, that is, that they were extracted from plants. They may have been made in a laboratory, only chemically identical to what we would find in nature.

Sam the term 'natural cosmetics' can be used quite freely — in general there is no universal definition setting out what percentage of natural raw materials a product must contain before it can describe itself as a natural cosmetic. Most products consist to a very large extent (60 % or more of the whole product) of water which, expectedly or unexpectedly, also qualifies as a natural raw material. Kaj pa preostanek?

Organic cosmetics

Uses ingredients that are grown without pesticides and without genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and are certified by organisations such as COSMOS, Ecocert ali USDA Organic. 

This is a better defined term — organic cosmetics look to the way the raw materials were grown. With organic cosmetics we really are dealing with raw materials that come from nature and were not made in a laboratory. The conditions under which they are grown and extracted are set out by the individual certifications. It is worth familiarising yourself with the requirements of each certification, because on that basis you can then understand what raw materials any given organic product contains.

Clean beauty

Focuses on ingredient safety, and excludes potentially harmful raw materials, regardless of whether they are said to be of natural or synthetic origin. 

There are numerous online databases where you can enter an individual raw material (the INCI names found on the packaging of every cosmetic product) and get information on whether it is held to fall within the 'clean beauty' definition or not.

A degree of caution, or critical judgement, is warranted here. The cosmetics industry is a high-profit industry, like many another. After years and decades of using certain entirely safe, effective and industrially cheap raw materials, room has to be made for new earnings — that is, new raw materials, new inventions, and new things to sell. You can see it in cosmetic trends which, much like clothes, turn with fashion. This year retinol is in; next year bakuchiol, and retinol is apparently ineffective. The year after that something else again appears, said to be better than both. Is any of it true? It may be, or it may be no more than promotion, designed to keep users faithfully and regularly changing the cosmetics they use — usually for trends that cost more every year.

It is much the same with the term 'clean beauty'. Cosmetic products do not contain only these headline actives (retinol and bakuchiol among them), but also many supporting technical raw materials that are essential to a product's stability and efficacy and are talked about far less. Emulsifiers, preservatives and pH adjusters belong here. Every so often word goes round that one raw material or another is 'dangerous' or 'un-clean' — even where there is no particular evidence or reason for it. The purpose is often purely psychological: to frighten the buyer into replacing their entire range of cosmetics containing that raw material, and into buying something new. The story then repeats endlessly, and the earnings turn with the trends.

How do you fend off needless fear of 'harmful cosmetics'?

Every cosmetic product that can be bought on the EU market is subject to strict regulation and mandatory testing. There is also a list of substances tested further still, which have long held the status of entirely unproblematic — meaning that for years or even decades practically no harmful effect from their use has been reported or scientifically established. Thanks to well-ordered legislation and inspection bodies, a cosmetic product containing anything harmful does not reach the EU market.

The real problem in this area is increasingly cosmetic products imported from China, where the legislation is not well ordered — but that is a subject for another time. 

Whether you choose the more expensive cosmetics with many certifications, labels and assurances that they are natural, organic or clean, or can only afford the cheapest own-brand cream from the chemist, you are in no danger whatsoever. 

Nor does it mean the cosmetics you have chosen are of poorer quality — not infrequently the opposite. The effect of a cosmetic has long since ceased to correlate with its price, and less still with trends. All that really counts is how your skin responds when you apply a product, and how you feel using it.

If you have chosen the wrong product, only your own skin can tell you so.

Biotechnology-derived ingredients in cosmetics: is 'laboratory-produced cosmetics' still natural?

What exactly are 'biotechnology-derived ingredients', and why does understanding the term matter?

Biotechnology makes it possible to produce ingredients that are identical to natural ones but are not obtained directly from natural material (they are not, for instance, pressed straight from a plant, but produced in the laboratory. So popolnoma enake tistim v naravi, only obtained by a different route. This often raises the question of whether such ingredients are still “natural”.

Examples of biotechnology-derived ingredients in cosmetics

• Hialuronska kislina: Synthesised by bacterial fermentation rather than extracted from animal tissue. The production route is considerably cheaper and far more humane.

• Bakuchiol: A natural alternative to retinol that can be produced by synthesis, with a lower environmental burden and better stability of the raw material as a result. 

Most biotechnology-derived ingredients are genuinely more sustainable than traditional extraction methods (they avoid over-exploitation of plant sources, for example), which means such cosmetics are technically less damaging to the environment and more defensible ethically. Not infrequently it goes hand in hand with the fact that a product which would otherwise not be vegan becomes vegan.

Are 'natural cosmetics' free of chemicals? What does the word chemical actually mean?

Resnica o “kemikalijah” v naravni kozmetiki

We often come across claims that a given cosmetic is “brez kemikalij”, which is misleading, since every substance is a chemical — water and vitamins included. The term “chemical” is a technical termdescribing the chemical composition of any substance; it says nothing about its purpose or about any harm to people. The real question people are asking, when they want to know about 'cosmetics without chemicals', is rather whether we can formulate cosmetic products entirely free of synthetic additives.

Glavni izzivi 100 % naravne kozmetike

100 % natural cosmetics, as imagined by a buyer not well acquainted with the term, effectively do not exist. And rightly so, because they would have more negative effects than positive ones.

Product stability

Ingredients from nature that have not been purified of allergens and impurities, or controlled during growing and formation, would mean a high risk of allergies and irritation. They are also not adequately preserved, which means harmful bacteria proliferate in the product.

Microbiological safety

Without proper preservatives a product would become a breeding ground for bacteria and moulds, which would break down the skin's natural bacterial flora and acid mantle.

Efficacy

Synthetic ingredients in some cases deliver better results than natural alternatives, precisely because of their purity and the absence of impurities.

The practical answer is to use ingredients permitted in natural cosmetics but controlled in the laboratory, and to choose minimally processed yet stable ingredients that are identical to those present in nature. Which is what natural cosmetics does take into account, and that is a good thing. The raw materials in natural cosmetics are still chemicals, and still controlled or made in a laboratory.

Kaj pomeni izraz ‘greenwashing’?

Greenwashing is a marketing tacticin which companies exploit the popularity of natural and sustainable cosmetics without their products actually meeting those standards.

Or else they do meet the standards, but exploit the uninformed impression a buyer has of what green cosmetics is really supposed to mean.

The signs of greenwashing in cosmetics are often nejasne oznakethat mean nothing in themselves — “natural”, “green” and “eco”, brez uporabe ustreznih certifikatov. The percentage of natural ingredients is minimalen — it contains only a small proportion of raw materials matching those claims (or the main 'natural raw material' is water), yet it is promoted as entirely natural.

Often there is also excessive emphasis on a single “star” ingredient — a product might contain a small quantity of a popular ingredient (npr. arganovo olje), while the formulation is otherwise largely synthetic.

Natural cosmetics are enormously popular, but the definitions and standards are not always clear. Biotechnology opens up a sustainable future in which natural and laboratory-produced ingredients work in synergy. At the same time, consumers and companies alike need to watch for greenwashing, and to demand transparency and quality when choosing cosmetic products.

Above all, it is worth remembering that 'unnatural' cosmetics mean no danger whatsoever, and no lower quality of product. If they mean anything, they mean only a lower price.