What does organic mean anyway?

Organic everything is more popular than ever. We’re buying everything organic now from our fruits and vegetables, to organic skincare… even our tampons are made from organic cotton. But what does the word organic mean anyway?

The word organic is a complicated term.

What we know as organic in this country means that the production of the product, whether it’s food, clothing, or skincare, was produced in a completely natural way free of pesticides and any chemicals that might have been used in the production process.

For example, an apple that is organic was grown without any pesticides. An organic tampon is made from unbleached cotton. As for your organic skincare, every ingredient in it must be organic to be considered 100% organic. To call yourself organic in the US, you have to be certified.

In order to be certified organic, the FDA has to approve the growth process of your production (food, cotton). This can be a lengthy, expensive process for farmers. Many farms are growing completely organic fruits and vegetables on their farm, but if they are not certified as organic, they are not allowed to sell their produce as such. This is why organic can be expensive.

That being said, the word “natural” on certain foods in the grocery store, pretty much means nothing. There are no FDA regulations on the word so pretty much anyone can use it.

So what does this mean for natural and organic skincare?

You would be hard pressed to find a skincare line that is 100% organic. This would mean every single ingredient in the product had to have been certified organic. This task can be very tricky for the skincare manufacturer because not every ingredient we may use can even be found organic. It is more likely, however, you will find a product that is a certain percentage organic.

For example, Alchemy Holistics skincare products have a lot of organic ingredients. The percentage varies from product to product and you can see which ingredients are organic on all of our labels, as well as our website.

When it comes to getting an organic facial, that would just mean every product the esthetician is using has organic ingredients, and the product as a whole is natural.

 In short, don’t make your decision on every product based on whether it says “organic” or “natural” on it.

Organic food? Yes. Organic cotton? Yes. Tampons? Hell yes, you don’t want bleached cotton, do you?! Skincare? Just make sure you are buying something that is free of parabens, Phthalates, fragrance, and sulfates and you should be ok.