NATURAL CHECKING "Natural ingredients": should we be aiming for 100%?

FALSE: A cosmetic product can claim to be "of natural origin" if 95% or more of its ingredients are of natural origin. The remaining percentages depend on the formula, but they are synthetic ingredients essential for stability and preservation that do not yet have such safe and effective natural equivalents. Nature is full of treasures, but we haven't discovered them all yet!

FALSE: Do you want it to lather, clean, be gentle and smell good? So do we! The challenge of reformulating is to do at least as well in terms of effectiveness and sensoriality, while moving towards greater naturalness. Replacing a synthetic ingredient with an equivalent of natural origin must respect the safety/effectiveness/sensoriality triangle. We test all our new formulas with consumers and only approve them if they are judged to be at least as satisfactory as the ones they will replace.

FALSE: Whether a formula has enough natural ingredients to claim to be of natural origin, requirements in terms of safety, tolerance and harmlessness remain strictly the same! Selecting and formulating is an equation balancing effectiveness, sensoriality, cost, and many other criteria, but safety is never an adjustable variable. “Natural” does not mean harmless. Our reformulations are always headed in the direction of more naturalness because that is our conviction. But no matter how natural a formula is, it will always be 100% safe!