What determines a quality organic skin care product? I don’t usually get this question directly, but rather, indirectly. What are the determining factors that make an organic skin care product valuable to you, the consumer?
Or a better question might be, what questions, as a consumers can I ask, that will help me determine if a product is a quality organic skin care product?
These are some questions I would ask to make the determination.
1.) Where are they made? This directly relates to quality and freshness, not to mention carbon footprint. Are they made in the U.S.A? Or are they manufactured overseas?
2.) Who makes the products? Are they made by the actual company, like our are and many of the very small companies or are they made by a private manufacturer. This brings up several issues. First, if you do not make your own products, you are not really in the skin care business, you are in the marketing of skin care products business, not that it means anything terrible, however, I would prefer to buy from the people that actually make it. Private manufacturer make up hundreds of thousands of products and it can often mean you are buying the same product, no matter which company you buy from. Also, meaning that, you certainly do not want to pay a premium price for a run of mill product. In addition, they cannot be made up fresh. I also want to buy products from real people who are involved in the process and love and respect what they are doing. I would look for companies that make up all their own products in house.
3.) When were they made? Freshness counts in skin care, especially, if it is agriculturally derived, just like it does with food!
4.) How far did they travel to get to me? There are some nice international lines out there, but they usually have to put extra preservatives in them to get them to the U.S. and I think us Americans have the good old know how to give our fellow Americans what they need. In addition, look at the carbon footprint issue.
5.) How do I know they really are green, Earth or Eco-friendly or sustainable? That is an excellent question. You know they are green, Earth friendly, Eco-friendly and sustainable if they are USDA certified organic growers! You cannot be more green than an organic grower!
Organic is not a fashion statement it is a methodology of agriculture! It really means products grown from the Earth, agriculturally. USDA certified organic means, that you have a third party authorized by the government or the government themselves in our case, the Colorado Dept. of Ag. coming out and checking that you really do what you say you do! This is HUGE and a great undertaking, especially for small companies.
So, how do you know if a product is really green, Earth friendly, Eco-friendly and sustainable? Look for a USDA certified organic logo. It is the gold standard!
This is a good starting point.
-Lily