1. Markets/Companies : 07.12.2007
Free of Chemicals Is a Primary Natural/Organic Beauty Buying Motivator for US Women
Although the US-based Personal Care Products Council (renamed from the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association earlier
this year) claims that "Cosmetics are among the safest of all consumer products sold in the United States," citing US Food & Drug
Administration (FDA) regulations regarding ingredients included in a cosmetic product, US women just aren’t convinced of
cosmetic ingredient safety anymore.
According to the newly released Pink Report™, The Age of Naturals (January 2008), which surveyed more than 1,800 women
across the US who regularly buy beauty products, 49% of US women buy some natural or organic beauty brands. Of those who
buy natural and organic brands, 45% said the main reason is because of their fear of chemicals in traditionally-made beauty
brands. When later asked to check reasons (among many) why natural beauty buyers purchase natural/organic beauty products,
80% said they were better for her skin and 64% cited they didn’t want chemicals on their skin as their top two reasons. Another
27% cited that the ingredients in traditional beauty products were harmful to her health.
"Women believe that what they don’t know (or didn’t know previously) can hurt them," The Benchmarking Company states. "It can
also keep them from living a more holistic, low-stress life most US women strive for. 2007’s cosmetics headlines were inundated
with fears about parabens, hydroquinone, lead in lipstick, and other potential or known toxins."
Women want to feel safer, and 89% of them feel that US companies should be more forthcoming about which products are truly
natural and which are not. Ingredients she’s particularly leery of include arti cial fragrances (54%); silicone (43%) and gluten
(34%). Parabens are not wanted in cosmetics by a quarter of natural beauty buyers and only 15% of traditional beauty buyers; and
hydroquinone is unwanted by 21% of natural buyers and 11% of traditional buyers.
But the USDA Organic Seal, a distinction bestowed on 100% certi ed organic products by the counterpart to Ecocert and other
European organic standards groups, is important to women. A third (30%) of traditional beauty brand buyers would be motivated
to try a natural/organic brand if it passed a USDA test indicating it were safe, even though only 19% of those buyer believe
natural/organic beauty products perform as well as beauty products with synthetic ingredients in them.
Ninety-three percent of US women said they might or would be willing to buy a beauty brand which has earned the USDA Organic
Seal, and 34% of women said they would pay more for a brand that wore the USDA Seal. Even though attaining the certi cation
is di cult, there are few real beauty brands that have earned it and it sets them a step above the crowd.
About The Benchmarking Company
Alisa Marie Beyer is CEO of The Benchmarking Company (TBC), a consumer insights and branding rm focused exclusively on the
beauty industry. TBC is the publisher of the Pink Report™, consumer research reports driven by results from the women-only,
permission-based Pink Panel and other sources. For more details The Age of Naturals report, please use the contact information
below.
Alisa Marie Beyer
The Benchmarking Company
1101 30th St., NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20007 USA
US Tel: +1 202 625 4315
www.benchmarkingco.com
Source: The Benchmarking Company