Organic beauty is popular with eco-conscious consumers

Organic beauty products are becoming increasingly popular as more consumers are becoming concerned about their impact on the environment, it has been suggested.

In an article for IslamOnline.net, cosmetic chemist Amanda Foxon-Hill said that 50 or 60 years ago, cosmetics companies relied on petroleum-based surfactants and mineral oil creams - a trend which consumers were happy to go along with.

However, she argued that more recently, shoppers have begun to question the ingredients which make up the moisturisers and creams which they use on a regular basis.

Nowadays, a number of people link oil-based products with the hydrocarbon industry - which she said in turn is connected to "pollution, environmental destruction and toxicity in relation to the chemical processes employed in refining the oil feedstock".

Elsewhere in the article, Ms Foxon-Hill pointed out that the cosmetics industry is currently divided over the definition of natural beauty products.

This view is shared by Weleda's export marketing manager Claudia Karle, who told the New Straits Times that the company has teamed up with a number of other brands to ensure strict standards are set over the contents of natural beauty goods.