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French logo designating Bio-ecological Cosmetics, delivered by an association of consumers and professional members (producers and transformers) as part of a federation. Parallel to a schedule of technical conditions elaborated in 1998, members must conform to the Charter of Nature & Progress, which engages them on numerous environmental and social points, to be able to affix it on their products.
The basic principle is that all personal hygiene and cosmetic products must issue from substances or a composition of raw materials obtained by recourse to simple physical or chemical processes simple, without use of synthesized molecules, and responding at every stage of manufacture to standards and precise criteria which respect the environment.
Practically, what this means: 100% of ingredients come from natural origins (with a preference for vegetable raw materials as noted by N&P, Demeter or AB, with the exclusion of endangered species and respond to the criteria for equitable trade), 0% of compounds result from synthesis or derive from petrochemistry.
The Nature & Progress charter draws up a precise list of authorized or prohibited raw materials. Thus it banishes ingredients of animal origin, with the exception of the lactic and those derived from eggs or beehives. Mineral matterials are authorized only if their extraction does not generate pollution or degradation of the land.
All solvents, dyes, oils and fats, antioxydants, emulsifiers and surfactants, fragrances, gels, UV filters or synthetic correctors of pH, are prohibited. No exception either for preservatives: only Sorbic and Dehydroacetic acids are allowed, in association with essential oils, propolis, plant extracts or Alcohol (authorized as a solvent). Propellants of petrochemical origin (butane, propane …) are banished to the advantage of inert gases.
Concerning transformation, the use of the microwaves, ionization, GMO, the chemistry of chlorine, and ethoxylation are prohibited; only simple processes are authorized for obtaining raw materials, whether by mechanical (crushing, centrifugation, cold pressure, drying, atomization, filtration) or chemical (distillation with the vapor d' water, maceration, fermentation, alcoholic extraction with l' ethanol or hydroalcoolic) means.
Animal experimentation is prohibited, and it should be noted that this includes not only tests on the end product (as envisaged in the general regulations of cosmetics), but also tests on the ingredients which enter into its composition.
Products must be biodegradable to the maximum and packing recyclable.
For further information
• Website of Nature & Progrès (in French)
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