Paper: Sunday Times, The (London, England)
Title: The ethical dilemma – Beauty
Author: Lorna V
Date: December 3, 2006
Section: Features
Page: Style 46
Just how green is your lipstick? Buying fairly traded, environment-and animal friendly cosmetics, without a huge carbon footprint, isn’t easy. But things are improving for those who want to look good and feel good about it. Lorna V reports
Is your lipstick cruelty-free? Does your moisturiser contain shea butter that properly rewards African farmers? What about the carbon footprint of your shampoo? And is your bath oil’s packaging recyclable?
The concept of ethical beauty isn’t new -it has been around since the Body Shop first opened its doors in the 1970s. What is new is the extent to which these issues have become an important selling point.
Take Aveda: its mission is to “set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility”.
Consumer power is such that cosmetics manufacturers are now keener than ever to follow ethical guidelines. But what are the good and bad practices in the industry, and who can we trust?
NATURAL AND ORGANIC
The market for these products in this country has more than doubled since 2002, thanks largely to consumer concerns about chemicals in toiletries, but natural and organic cosmetics still have only a 2% share of the market. It is certainly not a cheap option -certification is lengthy and must be renewed annually, on top of which producers sometimes pay as much as four times more for organic ingredients.
There is also confusion in labelling: some companies are certified by the Soil Association, but the logo isn’t apparent, while some products contain certified ingredients, though the product is not necessarily classed as organic.
Finding organic alternatives to essential ingredients is the hard part of going green, according to Charlotte Vohtz, the founder of Green People. Her company aims to create organic formulations that match mainstream products. In some cases, they simply aren’t available. Preservatives, for example, are a big headache, “but you don’t want products that go off or become contaminated. Any skincare product contains water, and any product with water will have bacteria”. Thankfully, Vohtz is as stubborn as she is
passionate. It took her three years to produce a formulation for an organic lipstick that performed like any other. “It was stupid, but I really wanted to do it.”
The effort has paid off for the Organic Pharmacy, which has received Soil Association certification for all its products, having been assessed on whether the contents are ethically sourced, sustainable, fair-traded and cruelty-free. Another fast-growing brand is Spiezia, a 100%-certified organic skin-and body-care range created by the Cornwall-based husband-and-wife team Mariano and Loredana Spiezia, who are helping the Soil Association set standards for the beauty sector.
Spiezia’s marketing manager, Julia Azopardi, says that customers value not just certification, but the feeling of security that comes from a small, local company making handmade products. “The public feels there’s an honesty in what we do,” she says.
ANIMAL TESTING
“The beauty industry is always looking to sell us something new,” says Ruth Rosselson of Ethical Consumer magazine, “and the casualties of this innovation are the animals that new ingredients are tested on.”
It used to be the case that all the ingredients in beauty products were tested on animals. This is now illegal in the UK, although all too often the big players get around that by buying from agents abroad. Some companies have agreed to adopt a fixed cut-off date (which goes on the packaging) to indicate that, thereafter, no new ingredients have been tested on animals. So a product with a cutoff date of, say, 2005 is more ethical than one with no date at all. What’s depressing is that none of the global companies has
signed up to the scheme.
The good news is that animal testing for beauty products in the EU will be banned in 2009, and for toxicity tests, 2013. This will make it easier for the consumer to work out what’s what. Until then, Rosselson advises seeking out smaller UK companies that take a stand against animal testing, and products approved by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV). Its bunny logo appears on brands such as Dermalogica, Hard Candy, Urban Decay and even the Co-op’s own label cosmetics.
CARBON FOOTPRINT
Calculating a beauty company’s carbon footprint -the amount of carbon emissions it takes to manufacture the products -is so new that few do it yet. Exceptions include Louise Galvin’s Sacred Locks hair and body range, and the Scottish skincare company Love the Planet (from Beauty Naturals), while Faith in Nature is currently working on its carbon emissions, having just launched a paraben-free skincare range. Buying local is one way to cut down on carbon emissions, as the product and its ingredients have not been flown halfway round the world. If there is an ingredient that cannot be sourced locally, then ideally you should at least look for the fair-traded option -but don’t be fooled into buying from a multinational just because one ingredient is fair-traded. The rest won’t have been.
Choose organic products, too, because they don’t contain the harmful chemicals that create carbon emissions, and steer clear of excess packaging. The Soil Association also certifies production processes.
PACKAGING
Neal’s Yard sets the benchmark for ethical beauty packaging with the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle”. It uses glass bottles and jars that can be recycled or returned, blue PETG fully recyclable plastic bottles (though, ironically, the UK does not yet have the facilities to fully recycle them), aluminium tubes with no plastic liner, 100% recycled paper and soya-based ink for catalogues, as well as cardboard outer packaging that can be collapsed and reused.
Some companies have problems with labelling, as Louise Galvin explains. “The next step for me is to reduce my packaging and get rid of the cardboard box, but I need to find a way to list all my ingredients on the the bottle itself.”
The Organic Pharmacy even had to forgo a certification logo because redesigning the packaging would be too costly.
WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT?
Overharvesting in the name of beauty has taken its toll on the rainforests and other ecosystems. The production of palm oil, for example, used as a base for many beauty products, is not sustainable because it is grown in ecosensitive areas. The Body Shop has signed up to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which means that the company uses only sustainable palm oil and ensures that none of its wood products are from forests with a high conservation value.
WHO’S DOING WHAT?
Ethical Consumer believes that “something is always better than nothing”. Yet while Aveda and the Body Shop both run admirable sustainable and fair-trade initiatives, their parent companies, Estee Lauder and L’Oreal, do little. The independent companies, meanwhile, are resolute about staying independent. “When money is the driving force, things get diluted,” says Green People’s Charlotte Vohtz. 1 For more information on ethical beauty, visit www.ethical consumer.org or www.buav.org
SO WHO ARE THE GOOD GUYS?
1 The Organic Pharmacy (020 7351 2232) Gorgeous, effective, Soil Association-approved products made with organic, fair-traded ingredients. The King’s Road store also stocks Jane Iredale (the best mineral cosmetics on the market) and has become a mecca for organic-loving celebrities.
2 Skincare Cafe (www.skincarecafe.com) Aims to give women the range of products they want, including anti-cellulite lotions, but without the harmful chemicals. Approved by the Vegetarian Society and the Vegan Society.
3 Green People (www.greenpeople.co.uk) All-round chemical-free range, including self-tanning, sun protection and cosmetics. Approved by the Soil Association, the Vegan Society and the Organic Food Federation.
4 Neal’s Yard Remedies (0845 262 3145) Neal’s Yard has led the way for 25 years on every ethical front, with its natural, wild-harvested, glass-bottled products mad using fairly traded ingredients. Approved by the Soil Association and the BUAV.
5 Spiezia (www.spieziaorganics.com) Award-winning 100% organic skin-and body care products from Cornwall, all packaged in glass bottles. Great for healing and nurturing. Soil Association-approved.
6 Moor (0845 130 6768) A BUAV-approved spa brand based on therapeutic moor water.
7 Dr Hauschka (01386 792642) Highly respected German holistic range of skincare and make-up that’s been around since the 1960s. Approved by the German BDIH, which certifies pure natural ingredients not tested on animals.
8 Beauty Naturals (www.beautynaturals.com) This family-owned mail-order company specialises in ranges that are natural or organic, cruelty-free and vegetarian, including the carbon-neutral British brand Love the Planet and the American cult fave Burt’s Bees.
9 REN (0845 225 5600, www.renskincare.com) A high-tech natural range with an extensive range of products, offering all the performance of a big brand without the chemicals. And it’s British.
10 Living Nature (01794 323222, www.livingnature. com) This range from New Zealand is made to exceptional ethical standards and was judged Best Entirely Vegetarian Cruelty-free Body and Skincare range by the Vegetarian Society last year.
11 Eyre Biobotanics (www.mankind.co.uk) Yes, it’s best to buy local, but we can make an exception for this outstanding ethical Australian range for men.
12 Comfort & Joy (www.comfortandjoy.co.uk) White witch Merri Mayers handmakes this 100% natural, animal-and insect-friendly range at her home in Gloucestershire.
Author: Lorna V
Section: Features
Page: Style 46