Questions from Readers #4

I'm convinced organic cosmetics is the best choice what do I do now?

Spreading the word: There are still so many people who don't realize what conventional products are doing to their health and the earth.  You can help them by using facebook, twitter, blogs, etc to make people aware that they have choices!  If you offer a person a product that is made with petro products and one that is natural, and the prices are close, they will probably choose the natural one.  It's just getting people to realize that they actually have options available to them.

Questions from Readers #3

Should we pay more for green/organic cosmetics than conventional cosmetics?

The price of an organic cosmetic (or paint!) should be reasonable.  It will never be dirt-cheap, since organic farming produces less yield than conventional farming, driving the price of ingredients a bit higher.  However, we proved that you can produce cosmetics (which are marked up really high) for a reasonable price.  An organic eyeshadow should be under $20.00; in fact, all of the products should be under $20.00.  If it's higher it could mean that the company may be taking advantage of people's desire to purchase green products.

Questions from Reader #2

Why are organic cosmetics and green products better?

Simply put, they are made with real ingredients, not petroleum products.  A  mineral pigment (please go to the FAQ section for information about minerals at Colors of Nature's Blog) comes from the earth; most of the colorants in conventional cosmetics come from burning petroleum at super-high temperatures.  Petroluem ingredients (mineral oil, paraffin, azo-dyes, etc) are comedogenic (clogs pores) and can aggravate skin conditions or cause them, like contact dermatitis.  The chart on this paints refers to has more adverse effects of some of these ingredients.  The other important point about organic cosmetics is that they should be vegan...i.e. no animal testing or animal ingredients.  See either animal policy on our sites for more specific information.

Questions From Readers #1

 What does 'organic' mean in the green industry?

It means that a products fulfils some of all of the criteria for 'earth-friendly'.  Go to Colors of Nature's Blog, which is also our company, for a list of criteria that makes a product 'green'.  It's in the FAQ section.  You may want to consider talking about our watercolor paints as well for fashion sketches, as an alternative to conventional paints which are made with synthetic petroleum products.

Organic is a method of farming; it means that a plant is grown without using synthetic chemicals.  If an ingredient in a cosmetic is 'certified organic', which is the only way we can be certain that it actually is organic, then it was farmed without synthetic chemicals.  Many cosmetics are 'certified organic' which means that most of it is made with certified organic ingredients and only has some small amounts of synthetics.  If it's 'organic' then about 70% is made of certified organic ingredients.  'Natural' means a bunch of things.  It's really about what the ingredients are.  You will notice that on our website www.organicmakeup.ca we have a chart with ingredients to avoid.