The rise of organic beauty

How can we, conscientious shoppers, find truly safe makeup and other products?

I guess the same as those who are into food with no nasties, get to know products, the different names they come under, learn how to read labels,be aware of the words cosmetic companies use (same as food labels that have lite on them), join groups of like minded people and not rely on companies or trusting them when it comes to marketing and words such as natural/ organic.
I guess they can use those words so long as one of their products is organic 🙁

I recently got an order from Mukti Organics. For a few years I`ve tried switching mostly to natural skincare/cosmetics. So far Im loving everything that Ive tried:
Antioxidant Serum
Aloe Moisturiser
Gentle Foaming Cleanser
Rosehip Eye Gel
Those are must haves for my skin type which is combination with dehydration. I also recently had an insanely bad breakout across my forhead after having a mandelic acid peel and people usually say it will get worse before it gets better but in this case the little lumps of congestion werent going anywhere and I was so sick of people asking me what happend to my face. :(( So after using Mukti products, Ive noticed that it definately has calmed down and it is slowly but surely starting to clear up.
Moral of the story: Be careful trying new peels. Dont fix it unless its broken! Also I would love to hear if anyone else is a Mukti user and how are you finding the products after some time if you have used it for a while?

Congrats on discovering Mukti. I`ve learned that they`re one of the best certified organic skincare ranges worldwide which is great considering they`re Australian made & owned. I think it was actually Melmeko that introduced me to them. Their Balancing Facial Creme is hands down the best facial moisturiser i`ve ever used. That stuff is like liquid gold in my eyes. And although I thought it seemed pricey at first, it`s soooo much cheaper than other organic brands and any other face cream that seems to work for me.

That sounds very annoying Ally, i`m glad to hear that the reaction has cleared up now. That`s the trouble with peels and masques, it can go very badly. I try and be careful now of what I use too as my skin is really temperamental.

I recently got an order from Mukti Organics. For a few years I`ve tried switching mostly to natural skincare/cosmetics. So far Im loving everything that Ive tried:
Antioxidant Serum
Aloe Moisturiser
Gentle Foaming Cleanser
Rosehip Eye Gel
Those are must haves for my skin type which is combination with dehydration. I also recently had an insanely bad breakout across my forhead after having a mandelic acid peel and people usually say it will get worse before it gets better but in this case the little lumps of congestion werent going anywhere and I was so sick of people asking me what happend to my face. :(( So after using Mukti products, Ive noticed that it definately has calmed down and it is slowly but surely starting to clear up.
Moral of the story: Be careful trying new peels. Dont fix it unless its broken! Also I would love to hear if anyone else is a Mukti user and how are you finding the products after some time if you have used it for a while?

I am seeing a fair bit of savi organics advertising on here tonight :-/

Hey Blessed 🙂
You poor thing with super-sensitive skin 🙁 I suffer from very reactive skin & I buy all my skin care from Eve organics – they`re an australian company stocking lots of different skin care ranges, all 100% natural. It`s the only 100% natural skin care boutique i know of – great for ppl like us with sensitive skin! – http://www.eveorganics.com.au Good luck!xx

I agree! Sometimes organic skin care ranges are so expensive that it does not seems to be worth the change over. I used to love naturalsource but its getting out of my budget. I tried natural instinct but I don`t really like the smell of it. Lush is really good. So far, its the only place I get stuff from that I am not allergic to. Some natural/organic products still caused me to get rashes.. But Lush is really expensive 🙁

Hi brettc,
One of my fave sites for 100% natural skin care is eve organics – they also have a lot of info on the difference between organic, natural, certified organic etc – really helps to explain things. That post is here = http://www.eveorganics.com.au/blog/what-is-the-definition-of-organic/

Hi Tracey,
I think it would be really good if you would be able to do an article on natural / organic / botanical products. Is it hard for us to figure out what is organic and what really isnt, especially with misleading lables and not knowing what guidelines these companys have to follow in order to use the word natural or organic. I have heard it needs to be 70% but cant be sure of it, this was still surprising as I originally thought organic meant all organic. I cant trust the labels really, one example of why is that I`m trying to avoid Sodum Laureth Sulphate and I`ve seen this ingredient get replaced with Coconut extracts. So it would be great if your team and your investigative ways could provide with a few answers on this topic. Cheers

I agree Melmeko, i`ve seen a few companies do this and they obviously don`t care about their customers at all if they`re willing to mislead them like that. “”Organic”” is the new buzzword for companies to put on labels to try and get money from people wanting something natural, and instead get a product that has nearly the same chemicals as a cheaper product that isn`t branded as “”natural”” or “”organic””.

For those interested, I set up my blog and hope to have some reviews up over the next few days. http://earth-friendly-beauty.blogspot.com

I am not personally concerned with my products being certified organic, as often I find you are paying more for this label 🙁 I do however know of heaps of good brands that have mostly all natural ingredients and they are honest about what is in their products. As for fake contenders that just include naturals or organics on their label but are full of nasty ingredients, they deserve to be taken down for fraud, because all they are doing is misleading innocent consumers who don`t know any better 🙁

Thanks 🙂 I`ve set up a blogger account but still need to think of a name before I start writing up anything. The only one that i`ve seen that covers natural beauty products is http://www.girlygreengirl.com but she`s based in America so a lot of the products she recomends are very difficult/impossible to get here. I`d like to do something similar that gives tips on being eco-friendly and have beauty reviews for natural products because it has taken me so long to find natural products that I like to replace my chemical laden ones. I have so many reviews that I could easily write up in like a day but I know i`d have to pace myself and i`d like to set it up propery first too 😛

The next step for me will be finding a good mineral makeup brand as I still use mainstream chemical brands like Covergirl, Rimmel, etc.

I think that part of the reason for the big price difference between natural and organic is that there isn`t as big of a market for certified organic skincare as there is for natural products with some organic ingredients.

I just found my receipt for the lip balms I bought yesterday…$7 for each one! and that was the discounted price :S One is certified organic though by USDA and the other is just natural with organic ingredients.

I buy natural products because I find they perform better and you are putting much less chemicals on your skin, even if the ingredients aren`t organic. Most of the products I use contain mostly organic ingredients though. If you want to make sure that there are absolutely no possible chemicals in the products you use, then certified organic skincare is the way to go (if you can afford it) but my opinion on it is, I don`t even eat organic food so i`m not fussed about a product being 100% natural/organic. Mostly natural is good enough for me.

I forgot to say before, I also love Ecotools bath and body products, they`re between 95 to 100% natural too

I grabbed a couple of natural lip balms today too so I picked up an Organic Essence Vanilla lip balm in a biodegradable tube (really cool and surprisingly still practical) and an Alba Pineapple Lip gloss. Loving both so far and prefer them over the Burt`s Bees one.

I`m thinking of starting a small blog to review the natural/organic products that i`ve tried because there aren`t many reviews for most of them online and it could help people realise what products are out there. Being natural and “”eco-friendly”” isn`t as unglamourous as most people think.

That`s a really good idea actually! I have not seen any blogs on natural products to be honest. I am happy I`m using my natural products now then after reading this. I think less fragrances, dies and chemicals like SLS and parabens can make a difference to irritation etc. My hair prefers SLS free actually. My face hates fragrances. Well I`ll stick to buying these brands though as I don`t think I can afford things like Miessence in the end. The certified organic can be really expensive. I wonder what other brands are certified organic and cost a lot? Or whether there are any cheaper ones. I doubt it though unless they are mislabeling right.