Source: pearltrees.com
The organic trend has been growing rapidly this past few years. Especially recognized within the food industry, people tend not to realize how it has become also viral among cosmetic products. The global organic skin care market is actually expected to witness a 10% rise from 2017 and 2024. People are indeed more and more sensitive to what laboratories put in their products. In France, 45% of the population buy at least one organic product per year according to La Quotidienne. The goal of this particular purchase? Buy healthy products by avoiding chemical ingredients that are aggressive to the skin. On one hand, big retailers, acknowledging this trend, develop entire alleys of organic skin care products. It is actually impressive as you can see on the picture! On the other hand, if specialized stores, only committed to this organic trend, are becoming also famous and attract more consumers, this raising popularity is also due to the e-commerce industry which makes products more affordable and accessible.
Organic skin care product alley in a Carrefour store in Nice
Indeed, while studies point out dangerous chemical ingredients, people are now willing to pay more expensive products for the “certified organic” label on a cream, moisturizer or oil. Big brands with a large portfolio tend to embrace this trend by developing organic sub-brands. L’Oréal with Sanoflore, L’Occitane with Melvita or Nuxe with Bio-Beauté by Nuxe are famous examples. It is also famous among smaller brands which develop themselves only around this trend like Belle & Bio in France or Lavera Naturkosmetik in Germany. All of these brands put a particular emphasis on the storytelling and the traditions in terms of cosmetics making with natural ingredients. Their entire brand identity is therefore based on organic, natural and traditions. A relevant example would be L’Occitane en Provence, internationally successful with its brand identity based on natural and organic ingredients from the south of France. Although, sometimes, even when they don’t only focus on it, some brands have at least one organic product to offer.
However, it seems that sometimes brands use it to play with their perceived identity. But how so? The packaging is definitely a start. In the consumer’s mind, “green” means organic. Therefore, brands put it everywhere to be identified with it. However, be careful, if it is a first indicator, it can also be misguiding and confusing for consumers. Indeed, brands know about this healthy trend and seem to play with it to sell their product. They want people to like their “responsible” identity and use a “greenwash” branding approach to make consumers think that their products are natural or organic. It is a way for them to promote in a good way the brand, its identity and its image. They only use words, colors but also slogans to do so which are not regulated. Unfortunately, a lot of consumers seem to get confused and fall into the trap. “Pure”, “Natural”, the green color or even the “0% phrase” do not mean “organic”. If you flip over the product and look at the ingredients, many times, nothing in it is organic. Yves Rocher or The Body Shop are often mentioned as examples but others exist. Indeed, with their green color, their logo and their shop atmosphere, they are often mistaken to be exclusively natural and organic by consumers.
Hopefully, labels are here to help us. If they are also a start and give some guarantee, studies have shown that they may not be as reliable as we think. Indeed, national various labels like “Ecocert” or “Cosmébio” exist and if they all have the same basics with some forbidden ingredients, they also tend to meet different standards to give the organic certification. Most of the time it corresponds to a minimum percentage of organic or natural ingredients. Therefore, you should not expect to find 100% of organic ingredients in all these certified products. Surprising no? Different countries equals different labels as well. Some of them are thus stricter than others, which is a good thing for international brands.
The new international norm ISO-16128, implemented at the beginning of the year, aimed at defining which ingredients could be considered as organic and natural on an international scale. Thus, ingredients such as silicone or GMO were said to be natural, even though they were previously considered as dangerous. Labels warn that it would only encourage brands to “greenwash” and mislead even more consumers on what is organic or natural. This all proves that packagings can be tricky for consumers especially for those who are not used to buy organic cosmetics. It may only put shade on the reputation of what an organic product is. What we may wonder now, is how the consumer will be able to completely trust brands with what they put in their “organic products”.
The arrival of new apps on smartphones which grade and give the different products’ properties when scanning their bar-code may be the solution. Hopefully, consumers will be able to truly know what their skin care purchases are made of. Besides, brands will be challenged and force to do things right while promoting their products, revealing their true identity when needed. Not bad, right?
References :
Research and Markets (May 25, 2018) “Organic Skin Care 2018: Global Industry Forecasts to 2024 – CAGR Expected to Grow at 10%”, CISION PR Newswire (Online), retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/organic-skin-care-2018-global-industry-forecasts-to-2024—cagr-expected-to-grow-at-10-300654926.html
“Cosmétiques Bio: qu’est-ce que ça vaut” (October 2, 2017), La Quotidienne (Youtube Video Online), retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvMSW_i1uaY
“Cosmétiques bio : une nouvelle norme trompeuse ?” (June 11, 2018), La Quotidienne (Youtube Video Online), retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YONNU05TWQE
Alexandra Bresson (November 28, 2016) “ Cosmétiques : comment ne pas se laisser avoir par les faux produits bio”, BFMTV (Online), retrieved from https://www.bfmtv.com/sante/cosmetiques-comment-ne-pas-se-laisser-avoir-par-les-faux-produits-bio-1064370.html
“L’Occitane”, 1001 Pharmacies (Online), retrieved from https://www.1001pharmacies.com/loccitane-m68
Charlotte Jouhanneau (April 16, 2018) “Gare au greenwashing en cosmétique”, Maze (Online), retrieved from https://maze.fr/style/04/2018/gare-au-greenwashing-en-cosmetique/
Cos' we care ! 