Personal Care
Standards are made to reassure thousands of consumers against ‘greenwashed’ or ‘nature-inspired’ products.
A harmonized standard for natural and organic cosmetics has, so far, just been a dream for many in the sector.
No official regulatory directive was existing, and we observed the proliferation of private standards providing different definitions. Each country had its own standard and its own definition of natural and organic ingredients.
The aim of COSMOS was to harmonise all these standards and to have an international standard for organic and natural cosmetics: The COSMetic Organic Standard. Since January 2017, COSMOS is now the most well-known label.
The COSMOS-standard AISBL is a not-for-profit, international association set up to own, manage and develop standard for organic and natural cosmetics. The cosmetics market and industry are both international, so consumers and companies are best served by a single standard. A single international standard is the only way to ensure the same clarity, integrity and consumer trust, as well as, manufacturing efficiency and sustainable development.
Any product certified COSMOS ORGANIC or COSMOS NATURAL (or conform to the standards) have been evaluated to confirm production and manufacturing have met the strict standards set forth. Since this industry is still fairly new and small, the standards have been set up to include progressive steps to ensure they are able to adapt and evolve as technology and industry growth increases. The guiding principles are to:
- Promote the use of products from organic agriculture and respect biodiversity
- Use natural resources responsibly and respect the environment
- Use processing and manufacturing practices that are clean and respectful to human health and the environment
These are very close to our principles
Croda has naturally turned to COSMOS standard transferring from Ecocert to COSMOS the approval of its ingredients. It’s manufacturing site Crodarom, expert in botanical ingredients, has also been certified as of 2012 to be able to suggest also organic certified ingredients
At Croda, two types of products can be found in the portfolio:
Organic certified ingredients: ingredients that contains a minimum of raw materials from organic culture.
Natural approved ingredients: ingredients that do not contains raw materials from organic culture but are in conformity with the COSMOS standard rules.