Natural Cosmetic Products
Emiro Khury
After events such as the Brazilian Cosmetology Congress, it is quite interesting to watch market reactions on the issues that have touched participants the most. At ABC, the Brazilian Cosmetology Association, we have observed such reactions through questions sent to our library by our members, questions voiced by students attending courses offered by our organization, and through requests for lectures or comments sent in by participants at these events regarding the impact caused upon orders placed at raw material suppliers for certain ingredients.
This year I was surprised by some questions, as well as by the absence of others. One absence I would like to stress is the lecture by Chantra Eskes, from ECVAM – the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods on the adoption of alternative methods to animal testing in the European market.
Nobody seems to have noticed that this will soon be a very important issue in our market as well. But in the meantime, we will continue to watch the fire burning in our neighbor’s backyard. From my personal point of view, the issue of clinical testing on animals deserved as much attention as is currently being given to it in Europe and the United States, mainly due to the importance that organized consumer groups and society in general in these markets are giving to the topic. The pressure has been strong enough to lead to huge investments, both by companies and by governmental organizations (ECVAM is one of them), allowing for progress in techniques that substitute animals as biological models for ingredient safety tests or for testing finished cosmetic products.
Another topic that – contrary to the first one – received a great deal of attention from participants, leading to several consultations in our library, was addressed by our Chilean colleague, Maite San Miguel, who talked about organic and natural cosmetic products. Maite’s timely presentation highlighted the importance of this issue at present for cosmetics users worldwide.
We wish to draw our readers’ attention to the fact that highly aware and organized consumers are a common denominator in both topics we have chosen to highlight in our editorial.
The week right after the Congress, I was invited to speak about the same topic – Organic and Natural Cosmetic Products – to one of the major Brazilian suppliers of cosmetic product ingredients. We, the experts, tend to view such opportunities as a way of learning more about interesting topics that have not earned enough space on our reading list thus far.
I quickly accepted the invitation and, once I plunged into the necessary literature review on the topic, I soon found out there is a striking lack of harmonization among several important aspects related to the issue. During interviews with representatives from certification companies, we confirmed that, not only do they have different certification programs for the many stamps they issue, but also their definitions for organic cosmetic products are not exactly the same. They depend on interpretations adopted by some countries for classifying ingredients that are genuinely the result of organic cultivation, harvesting and extraction, and other ingredients that could be included in the formulations, but whose use would be restricted in percentages that would not jeopardize the adoption of the ‘organic product’ attribute. Etoxilated ingredients, oil and silicone derivatives, synthetic fragrances and colorings – among others – would be considered banned from the arsenal of cosmetic formulators.
Another interesting point is the importante of the certification process for both ingredients and finished products as a way of granting consumers the probity of such an attribute.
If, on one hand, we noticed a lack of uniformity among guidelines and rules for the development and manufacturing of this type of product, on the other hand we confirmed a high level of interest of consumers from many countries. Such an interest – as stated by Maite in her presentation – is due to greater awareness among consumers regarding environmental, social and ecological issues, as well as a strong concern vis-à-vis their own health and well-being.
After the lecture was over, there was still the desire to go even further on this topic and serve the interest of our affiliated members. To that end, the Executive Board of ABC is establishing contact with certifying entities currently active in Brazil, inviting them for a seminar to be held in the near future, together with some organic ingredient suppliers and organic or natural cosmetic product manufacturers. We feel confident that such an initiative will contribute to clarifying the questions of our members and to the technical qualification of our professionals, preparing them for times to come, when our society and our consumers will demand that environmental, social and, why not, political issues also be taken into account more seriously.