Long gone are the days when you would have to hunt down the home-made carrot moisturiser tucked away at the back of the health shop, now the natural organic beauty industry is much bolder and is unafraid to show what it has to offer.
These days, there are so many natural, pseudo-natural, botanical, natural mix products, the average punter venturing out on the transformative road to becoming ethical, natural and organic, is likely to be baffled by the dazzling array and new ranges of natural organic skincare products.
Instant radiance, brilliance, shine, youthful; these are some of the promises many skin care product on the market promises. For more of us increasingly chemical-wary, we prefer to go back to basics disillusioned by the hundreds of anti-ageing, chemically produced creams and lotions giving us that artificial boost.
The skin care and organic beauty trend has turned into a craze. In Britain the organic market has almost reached 2 billion, with a 30 percent increase in the number of health and beauty licensees approved by the Soil Association; the New York Times recently highlighted sales of organic personal-care items reached $350 (176m) in America.
Celebrities are now keen to endorse organic skincare ranges driven by the ethical debate to live more naturally, organically and ecologically. Over the past seven months, Stella McCartney’s new organic skin care range Care, has dominated the sparkling glass counters of beauty floors of London’s large department stores.
Likewise, the organic skin care range Nude, another hot new organic skin care contender, asserts itself as luxury organic skincare range. The range has been created by Bryan Meehan, the co-founder of the British organic store Fresh and Wild, who after selling Whole Foods for $38m in 2004, directed his investor nouse to the natural organic skincare market. Bono and his Ali Hewson are investors, expanding their portfolio of planet saving activities. The Nude range is also backed by the model Christy Turlington, who herself had once backed her own Ayurvedic skincare range, Sundari.
So many organic skin care products are vying for our attention in the burgeoning organic beauty market – what do we know about what’s organic and what’s not? The answer? The main chemical culprits are glycol, parabens and sodium lauryl sulphates. The heads-up of the organic skincare ranges to look out for when you head off on your natural organic discovery; at the top of the natural organic skin care ranges is probably Nude and Care.
Older ranges are also of high organic standard: Dr Hauschka, Spieza, Ren and Britain’s Organic Pharmacy. Liz Earle is probably one of the leading organic skin care veterans with her range. The Australian, Jurlique and A’kin are top quality too. Also the Ayurvedic organic skin care ranges drawn from the Indian science of addressing dis-ease within the body are of worthy mention too, these being Sundari and the Bharti Vyas range.
Before you purchase any organic skincare products, ensure you check Sudha Kaviraj’s easy guide to avoiding harmful chemicals in organic skincare ranges.