Color Me Organic

The Beauty Goes Green Webinar series welcomed Jane Dirr, president and CEO of NVEY USA, a marketer of organic color cosmetics. Here are some questions asked by attendees that were intended for Jane. All are welcome to comment. Simply click on the word 'comments' below and a box will appear for recording your reply.

1. What preservatives does NVEY utilize (EOs) in their organic cosmetics line and has this aspect of formulating presented significant challenges?
2. Can you explain how your pigments are certified organic?
3. As a company with such a "green" mission, how does the consumer and company feel about plastic and non-green packaging. where is this line distributed?
4. Aside from the range of shades, what else is successful in terms of driving awareness of the story and name?

A Natural Debate

Here is a set of questions from the Beauty Goes Green webinar. Our panelists have been invited to answer questions posted here, and I invite readers to post responses too. Defining NATURAL for the beauty industry will require input from all involved.

1. Can you define green? How about natural?
2. What organization is certifying your products?
3. If you are suggesting that a blend of naturals and synthetics should be used, what percentage of a product would need to be natural to claim the product as natural?

Bridging the Gulf

Here's a question from a Beauty Goes Green Webinar attendee. He asked how the panel will deal with the emerging gulf between natural and organic certified cosmetic products. "Particularly, those companies like Nature's Gate or Hain Celestial that appear to be 'defaulting' to USDA guidelines originally established for food raises the bar for marketers trying to be natural or be able to carry the word organic on the front panel. In that the USDA doesn't 'oversee' the cosmetic industry, how does the panel think this should be reconciled?" Further "Does the panel think the industry should establish its own guildelines for the terms 'natural,' 'renewable' and 'green?'"

Green is the New Black

You heard it here first! We just signed off on another information-packed GCI Beauty Goes Green Webinar. Our panelists were Sarah Horowitz-Thran of Creative Scentualization, Tina Rocca-Lundstrom of Aroma Naturals and Jane Dirr of NVEY ECO Cosmetics. Moderators Tina Hedges and BethAnn Catalano from twist new.brand.venture led our guests through a great conversation about natural and synthetic fragrance materials and organic color cosmetics. The Webinar was generously sponsored by Hallstar, manufacturer of polymer additives and personal care ingredients. We'll post an audio file of the Webinar to the GCI Web site as soon as our technical team can get it there. In about two hours, I 'll start posting audience questions from the Webinar to this blog. Hope you'll come back and share your thoughts.