Ecocert
French certification body for natural and organic cosmetics and cleaning products. Checks origin and composition.
- Share of natural and organic ingredients
- Origin of the raw materials
- List of excluded substances, such as GMOs and most petrochemicals
- Natural doesn't automatically mean hypoallergenic
- No social or fair-trade criteria
It sets the bar for "natural"
Without a label, anyone can put natural on a bottle. Ecocert turns it into a number.
How Ecocert tests
Ecocert is an independent, third-party certification body. For cosmetics it certifies against the international COSMOS standard (COSMOS ORGANIC or COSMOS NATURAL); for cleaning products against its own Ecodetergents standard. Auditors review the recipe, raw materials, manufacturing, packaging and labels, with at least one on-site audit a year, possible unannounced visits and lab samples. A separate certification officer, not the auditor, decides whether the certificate is granted.
Sources
- Ecocert – COSMOS certification (organic or natural cosmetics) ecocert.com
- Ecocert – Eco-friendly cleaning and household products (Ecodetergents) ecocert.com
- Ecocert – Behind the scenes: the audit ecocert.com
- COSMOS-standard AISBL – About the standard cosmos-standard.org
- Labelinfo.be – Cosmos Natural labelinfo.be
We read the label's own standard and criteria, check them against at least one independent source and write down what the label does not cover. Every page names its researcher and the date we last reviewed it.
