Greenwashing in the person
al care industry is a common trend as companies know that consumers are looking for safer products. Greenwashing is when a company makes claims, such as organic, natural, paraben-free, on its label to appeal to consumers when in actuality these claims aren’t true. The problem lies in the fact that due to little regulation they can make claims on labels that simply aren't true.While labels on food are regulated by the FDA, the reality is that the FDA is not actually regulating the claims on labels of personal care products. The USDA has set standards for when a personal care product can call itself organic or say it has organic ingredients, but the government is not always checking to confirm that companies are following these standards.
I often get asked, how does someone really choose safer products? I love the Environmental Working Group as a resource to find safer brands, but this also has it’s downfalls. Currently, there are more than 5,000 personal care items in EWG’s Skin Deep database (
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep) that either claim to be organic or contain organic ingredient, but yet they actually contain hidden, harmful ingredients ranked poorly by the organization.Don’t panic just yet! As a consumer it does take a little work to find brands you can trust, but once you do, your work gets easier. And, while I love Beautycounter for all that it stands for I’m always here as a resource to help you find safer products.Beautycounter just released an article that talks about the 5 biggest label offenders for greenwashing that we see in the industry. It's a great summary!
http://www.beautycounter.com/…/greenwashing-and-what-5-pop…/Enjoy your Wednesday!
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al care industry is a common trend as companies know that consumers are looking for safer products. Greenwashing is when a company makes claims, such as organic, natural, paraben-free, on its label to appeal to consumers when in actuality these claims aren’t true. The problem lies in the fact that due to little regulation they can make claims on labels that simply aren't true.While labels on food are regulated by the FDA, the reality is that the FDA is not actually regulating the claims on labels of personal care products. The USDA has set standards for when a personal care product can call itself organic or say it has organic ingredients, but the government is not always checking to confirm that companies are following these standards.