Surrey Homes | SH39 | January 2018 | Interiors supplement inside

Beauty
skincare
Organic
Josephine Fairley gives her edit of the best natural products available
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New Year is the time of year when we often clean up
our acts, cutting out sugar from the diet, taking on
the 10,000 steps-a-day challenge – and/or changing
our approach to skincare. For many, that means taking a
‘cleaner’ approach – opting for more natural, even organic
choices. And boy (or maybe girl!), what choices we now have!
Once upon a time, back in the day, I actually chaired the
Soil Association Health & Beauty Standards Committee,
helping to set the standards for these products. I can best
describe wrestling with the many different complexities as
exhausting (but worthwhile). I could never have imagined
then, however, the options we now have for skincare (from
top to toe), in terms of the textures, the fragrances and the
results offered. Quite simply, there have been quantum
leaps forward in all of these – which means there’s never
been a better time to ‘go organic’, with your beauty regime.
And that probably accounts for the 13% market growth
last year alone (according to Soil Association figures).
First, the nitty gritty. The only way to be 100% sure that
the product you’re buying is truly organic – which will
eliminate a long, long list of synthetic ingredients, while
also ensuring ingredients are sustainable (as opposed to
derived from petrochemicals) – is to look for certification.
That might be from the USDA Organic, or Soil Association,
Ecocert or COSMOS, the Europe-wide standard. (And in
fact, most European products now carry both their local
certification symbol and the COSMOS mark.) Beware
of ‘fake’ organic labels – unlike in the food world, there’s
currently no law stopping beauty companies splashing the
word ‘organic’ on their product, even if it only contains a
waft of organic ingredients. (Or none at all.) If in doubt
as to whether a symbol’s genuine, resort to Google.
What, for me, are the benefits of organic beauty? I should
start by saying I’m not actually a ‘chemi-phobe’. I tend to
think that our risk of developing diseases like cancer has
much more to do with what we eat and our stress levels (not
to mention chemicals we breathe) than from putting a dab of
this or that on our faces or bodies. But I like to know where
my food comes from – and I like to know where my beauty
products come from, and that I’m treading more lightly on the
planet through my beauty choices. I also just plain love, love,
love the power of botanicals, whose skin-and-hair-boosting
credentials go way back to the time of wise women, in many
cases. Only now, via clever extraction and formulation
techniques – which have got way cleverer even since my
time on that committee – these products rival anything the
mainstream, ‘conventional’ beauty brands have to offer.
But where to start? First off, check out what has just
become my favourite new brand – full stop. Austin Austin
is a father-daughter duo offering (so far) fabulously scented
treats for hair, hands and body – and at affordable prices, too.
I’m frankly loving the washes and lotions, but my favourite
is the glorious Neroli & Petitgrain Body Cream, £14 for
120ml, which is now centre-stage on my bedside table for
generous late-night slathering. Eye-catching, almost Jean
Cocteau-esque line drawings on the packaging mean this
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