Survey on natural cosmetics

Based on the results of research carried out by the GfK Group (Exploring the Territory of Natural & Organic Cosmetics) that has been presented recently at a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, the most important aspect of the natural and organic cosmetic market concern the lack of the regulatory definition to date. Most of the customers rely on their private standards that are mostly based on their subjective views concerning the "natural cosmetic" definition.

Moreover, such subjective views often do not imply a real understanding of the implications of the use of specific ingredients in the production of the purchased products. Based on the intrinsic reasons of choice of the natural cosmetics, three main groups of customers were identified in the study based on almost 1000 women participating in the study. The first category concerns the so-called ‘risk avoidance’, which is the wish to avoid allergies and health problems due to synthetic chemicals (26%), the second one is the "green awareness", which concerns mainly the protection of the environment (e.g. recycling packaging) animals and mankind (50%) and finally the third is the choice driven by an overall healthy and natural lifestyle (24%). The grand majority of the survey subjects (80%) cited as a major reason for buying natural products the potential harmfulness of the synthetic ingredients. Possible allergies from these chemical was the motivation for purchase presented by 87% of the surveyed women.

In terms of formulation of the natural products, the net majority underlined that they were attracted by the natural and organic products by the expectation that they contain uniquely natural ingredients. Not surprisingly, in this class of customers the ‘only organic’ origin labelling was being seen as slightly less important than the ‘only natural’ designation. The absence of artificial or chemical ingredients in natural cosmetics was mentioned by 94% of respondents. The vast majority of them (90%) also pointed out that natural and organic cosmetics should not contain GMOs.

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