Soil Association, a UK organic product certifier, has named and shamed eight cosmetics brands that it believes are culprits of greenwashing.
The companies accused of misleading consumers through labelling on specific products include: Boots, Rituals, Dr Organic, The Organic Pharmacy, Korres, Aloe Pura, Faith In Nature and COOLA.
The organisation conducted an investigation into uncertified products that use the term ‘organic’ on their labels.
It published the results in its Come Clean About Beauty League Table (below), ranking brands and their products, and scoring them out of 25 (with 25 being the worst).
Soil Association also asked consumers how misled they feel by labelling in beauty.
In a national independent survey, 76% of consumers said they feel misled by some labelling on beauty products, while 72% said they would lose trust in a beauty brand that made misleading claims about being organic.
Cosmetics Business approached the brands in question and this is what they had to say…
Rituals Cosmetics
“Our Rituals Heavenly Hammam revitalizing bath oil has been mentioned in the recent greenwashing report organised by the Soil Association.
“This report details the name incorrectly (Rituals Heavenly Hammam revitalizing bath oil), and at no point do we make any 'organic' claim in relation to the product itself. Rituals traditionally provides direct visibility of two key ingredients on our products across the various collections produced.
"As such listing two ingredients on the Hammam bath oil is not unique; we have listed 'organic argan oil', which is indeed from a certified organic source and 'eucalyptus', which is eucalyptus oil. By revealing our ingredients on this product as with the others and in this case organic argan oil, it is by no means our intention to suggest
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