The shelves of upscale grocery stores and pharmacies are crowded with so-called “organic” and “natural” cosmetics and skin care products. Even supermarket chains are getting in on the act, with attractively – even seductively – packaged products that put forth convincing claims of goodness or greenness.

The market for such products is getting bigger by the year, with good reason. High quality organic skin care products – made with ingredients in the form nature intended and without synthetic or genetically modified substances – are simply better for you and the environment. Just as you would not eat anything you knew to be potentially harmful, so you would not put something on your skin that had the same potential. Most mainstream personal care products contain a range of highly processed, adulterated and/or synthetic ingredients. Over time, these substances accelerate the aging of the skin.

Before you spend your money on that “95% organic” herbal shampoo or that “all-natural” moisturizer, you need to do your homework. Take the time to really learn about what makes a product organic, and how to read labels so you can be sure you getting is the real thing.

For example, there are no regulations, federal or state, in the United States for the labeling of personal care products as “organic.” The term “natural” has no legal definition at all. The USDA is developing a formal certification program for organic products, but in the meantime cosmetic companies have free rein to label their products “natural” or “organic” even if they contain little that is either. The door is wide open for all kinds of misleading claims. You could pick up a shampoo, for example, that’s labeled organic and find that it contains a small amount of organic essential oils or flower water – plus a laundry list of synthetic compounds that are no better for your hair than the stuff in the cheapest supermarket brand.

Simply being natural – or derived from something occurring in nature -- doesn’t automatically make a substance benign. For example, many products contain cocamide DEA, which is used as a foaming and emulsifying agent in shampoos and bath products. It’s derived from coconut oil, so technically it is natural. What the labels don’t tell you is that cocamide DEA generates nitrosamines, which are carcinogens known to penetrate human skin. Other components you might see on a label are parabens, which are used as preservatives in cosmetics and skincare products – and which can have a disruptive effect on the body’s endocrine system.

You have only one body, and your skin is all that stands between your body and environmental toxins. Learn to be a wise consumer – read the labels carefully and educate yourself – and learn to recognize and choose authentically organic personal care products.

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