Time to give safe cosmetics companies props

In promoting natural and organic personal care, we frequently focus on the negative aspects of non-natural or organic personal care. We highlight potential dangers of conventional beauty ingredients and call out “faux naturale” companies, products and practices.

It’s a classic case of, to learn what to do, you look at what not to do. But what about the astounding number of personal care manufacturers that do use safe ingredients and sustainable practices and have done so for a long time? We can’t forget to give them due props.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics aims to do just that. The nonprofit organization announced in late January that it will sunset its Compact for Safe Cosmetics this summer and publish a complete list of companies that are compliant with its safety and transparency parameters. Since launching the compact in 2004, more than 1,500 companies have signed it and 250 companies have met its guidelines. Hundreds more are currently working toward compliance, a recent CSC press release stated. The sunset is a way to honor those compact-signing companies, CSC leaders say.

While in other sectors, a non-government group’s pledge or independent agency’s seal may not carry much clout (unless we’re talking about books and Oprah), personal care is a different animal. With the absence of unified, universal regulations, the push to clean up cosmetics and create toxin-free skin care and hair care has come from groups like the CSC, retailers, consumers and pioneering manufacturers who really care about these issues—and their efforts are paying off. The proof is in the numbers of compact signees, for sure, but also in the sheer number of clean products available today and the wide range of places from which to buy them.

Way to go, clean companies. You probably don’t hear that enough.