As cosmetic market is growing, so is consumer awareness and the attention we pay to ingredients, natural formulations and their effect on environment and animal welfare. The field of natural cosmetics is not regulated by law, but it is regulated by certification institutions; meanwhile, products that meet the definition of greenwashing are appearing on the market. This is creating confusion and is making the choice of the best product more difficult for the average consumer, who does not have the knowledge necessary to evaluate products properly.
In this thesis, we describe and compare the most common certificates of natural cosmetics in Slovenia. We present the issue of defining natural and organic cosmetics and guidelines for cosmetic product claims. The aim was to review as many cosmetic products on the Slovenian market that present as natural without appropriate certificates and to determine whether the claims on the products are consistent with their content and to what extent do manufacturers use greenwashing. When reviewing 374 cosmetics products in Slovenian stores and on websites, we adhered to the Technical document on cosmetic claims and Commission Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 laying down common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic products. In order to broadly evaluate the issue of natural cosmetics, we also recorded official and unofficial logos, colors, patterns and type of packaging material.
We came to the conclusion that there are 229 practices (62,2 %) to mislead consumers to buy uncertified natural cosmetics, either in the form of implicit (textual claims and logos) or explicit statements (colors, images), despite the fact that the products also contain ingredients that do not belong to the concept of the natural. These manufacturers of the reviewed products take advantage of the ambiguity, confusion and inconsistency in the legislation that is applied in the field of natural and organic cosmetics, and thus discourage the consumer from buying competing products and/or evoke associations with the natural to encourage the consumer to buy their products. Overall, the results also showed non-compliance with Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products and Commission Regulation (EU) no. 655/2013. Some claims also contain false and prohibited statements.
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