Organic brands
Three companies in this guide, Greenscents, Bentley Organic, Sodasan, are certified as organic. Greenscents and Bentley Organic are certified by the UK’s Soil Association and Sodasan by EcoCert, a French organic label originally applied to food products but more recently certifying the ingredients of household products.
Toxic chemicals
We have rated all the skincare companies for their toxic chemicals policies. The companies which received a best rating had a policy because they had banned the use of parabens, phthalates and triclosan (see our feature on toxic chemicals for why we have chosen these chemicals) were:
- Greenscents
- Bentley Organic
- Bio-D
- Faith in Nature
- Earth Friendly
- Ecozone
- Lilly’s Eco Clean.
Animal testing
Although the testing of cosmetics on animals has been banned in the EU, this is not the case everywhere else in the world. The EU’s REACH legislation has also complicated the issue.
Ethical Consumer rates all companies selling cosmetics on their animal testing policy. Companies will score a best rating if they have a policy not to test on animals, have a fixed cut-off date (a date after which none of their products or ingredients will have been tested on animals), and are not selling to markets, such as China, where animal testing of products is required by law.
Greenscents, Bio-D, Faith in Nature, Earth Friendly, Ecozone, Ecoleaf, Lilly’s Eco Clean, Astonish, Method and Ecover all received our best rating for animal testing.
Palm oil
Palm oil and palm oil derivatives have become an important component in many personal care products.
The new ‘PO’ column on our scoretables shows how all the companies rank on their palm oil policy and practice. You can see the expanded score table if you are a logged in subscriber by clicking on the orange ‘More Detail’ box.
The only company which was palm oil free across all its products was Earth Friendly Products. Bentley Organics, Sodasan, Sonett and Ecoleaf got our best rating for using sustainable palm oil.
Vegan washing-up liquid
All the following brands of washing-up liquid are vegan:
- Greenscents
- Bentley Organic
- Sodasan
- Bio-D
- Faith in Nature
- Earth Friendly
- Ecozone
- Sonett
- Ecoleaf
- Attitude
- Astonish