Main certifications for organic cosmetics
The field of organic cosmetics is very confused because of the lack of a law that establishes the values and standards that companies must respect to produce cosmetics with this statement.
Today, anyone who wants to certify biological can refer to several certification bodies, each with its standard and its limits to values. Let’s look at the key certifications for organic cosmetics and what are their goals.
Nature and Cosmos: the two international private standards
Nature is an international non-profit association, based in Bruxelles that deals with organic and natural cosmetics on international territory. It has a high standard of quality and integrity. It has an independent scientific committee that evaluates which ingredients to accept and which no, also setting minimum thresholds to ensure natural and biological elements as natural as possible.
The Cosmos standard as well as Nature is run by an international non-profit association based in Belgium. The values of this certification are: innovative and stimulating criteria and progress for organic cosmetics to make them positive for the producer and the environment.
Ecological Cosmetic Certification AIAB
The AIAB biological cosmetics specification was created by the Italian Association for Biological Agriculture, which is named the standard. Adhering to this certification means guaranteeing in the products the absence of questionable ingredients not only ecologically regarding the list of ingredients but even for packaging.
This standard includes the absence of non-vegetable raw materials defined as risks, ie allergenic, irritating or harmful ingredients to humans, no animal testing, and no GMbOs. Only raw materials derived from organic farming are accepted.
Natural Icea Cosmetic Certification
The Natural ICEA has three objectives to be achieved to get certified with this organization:
· Establish correlation requirements between raw materials and products;
· Ensure respect for man and nature not only of product but also of process;
· Satisfy consumer demand for environmental sustainability of production;
In addition, the physical and chemical processes allowed by the standard are only those that allow the formation of biodegradable molecules, comply with the functional substances present in INCI and favor good waste management.
ICEA Eco Bio Cosmetics Certification
This eco-certified certification guarantees the use of raw materials derived from organic farming or spontaneous harvesting. It prohibits the use of questionable raw materials that can damage the environment, even from the point of view of packaging.
It is forbidden to use non-vegetable and allergenic raw materials, and only low-impact raw materials can be used.
CCPB Cosmetic Certification
Certification for CCPB biological cosmetics is one of the most complex but also specific. In fact, it has activated a standard scheme for which, once tested minimum requirements, two types of product are obtained based on the raw materials used from organic farming:
– Organic Cosmetics;
– Cosmetics with organic ingredients;
CCPB is the first certification body recognized by NATURE, the nonprofit organization we talked about just before.