Several existing natural cosmetics labels in Europe have come together to launch “cosmos“, a new common standard that covers natural and organic cosmetics.
The founders – BDIH (Germany), BIOFORUM (Belgium), COSMEBIO & ECOCERT (France), ICEA (Italy) and SOIL ASSOCIATION (UK) – have determined the requirements and common definitions for a common organic and/or natural cosmetics label in Euope “COSMOS”.
The principles that the new standard is based upon are:
- Promoting the use of products from organic agriculture and respecting biodiversity;
- Using natural resources responsibly and respecting the environment;
- Manufacturing processes that are clean and respectful of human health and environment;
- Integrating the concept of “Green Chemistry”.
They furthermore seem to be taking an overarching life cycle and precautionary approach and state from the get-go that animal testing is out.
A schedule of commonly defined terms has been created and the criteria for five key ingredients found in most cosmetics have been set (you can download the full standard here). The final result will be two labels – COSMOS- ORGANIC and COSMOS-NATURAL. The founding organisations have until Dec 31, 2014 to implement the standard.