The number of organic and natural products/ingredients certified by the COSMOS standard rose by 22% last year, it has been revealed.
The UK Soil Association, which is a founding member of COSMOS, said there were 56,000 certified organic and natural products and ingredients on the COSMOS database in 2022.
The figure was published in Soil Association’s Organic Beauty and Wellbeing Market Report 2023, which showed sales of UK certified organic and natural beauty and wellbeing products in 2022 came in at £147.6m, an increase of 6.8% from a year earlier.
Soil Association said consumer habits have been permanently altered by the pandemic and, while there is an obvious return to high-street retail, online remains the preferred marketplace, especially amongst younger shoppers.
This is reflected by larger high-street retailers, including Superdrug, creating or expanding their existing online offering to include certified organic and natural products, it added.
The report states nine out of ten shoppers believe sustainable and ethical considerations are important when making a beauty or wellbeing purchase and 46% place nature and animal welfare considerations, including organic, as very important.
Organic Beauty and Wellbeing Market Report 2023 also found consumers continue to engage with organic and natural beauty and wellbeing products as a mechanism for improving their environmental footprint.
“However, ‘medicalised’ skincare based around ‘scientific’ ingredients such as Vitamin C and exfoliating acids are becoming more popular. This has led to fears of ‘science washing’ where minimal levels of a fashionable ingredient are included in a product,” it states.
“It speaks to the agility and relevance of the sector that many efficacious certified organic and natural products are already formulated with actives and acids from natural sources”.
