Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important for body care to be Certified Organic?
Presently, personal care in the United States is not actively regulated by the FDA, or any governmental agency. It is regulated by CTFA (Cosmetics Toiletries and Fragrance Association), essentially, the fox is running the hen house. There are thousands of chemicals which are used regularly in personal care in America which have been banned in Europe. These cosmetic chemicals range from carcinogens, hormone impersonators, endocrine disruptors, allergens, and irritants. The widespread use of synthetic chemical ingredients has impacted our population, particularly our children, in many terrible ways. There are many "natural" and "organic" products on the market today which contain such synthetic ingredients, some of which are not even disclosed on the label, so you cannot avoid exposures even if you read labels and try your best!
Certification by an accredited USDA NOP (the UK's Soil Assoociation) Certifying body is the only way that you can really be sure that the company is doing what they say they do, making products from the ingredients that they list, and including ONLY the ingredients which are listed on the label, and that those ingredients are exactly what they say they are, organic, natural, wildcrafted, etc.
No other claims are subjected to such a high level of scrutiny. Indeed, we were just visited by our certifier on an unannounced surprise audit. These happen from time to time to make sure that companies are really doing what they claim. We of course passed the audit without any issues because we really love being Organic! We keep records of every ingredient we purchase, and hold their certification on file at all times. We create batch logs which track our use of each of the organic inputs, and can be traced both direcitons. The level of detail is high. Body care brands that claims to be organic, but is not certified cannot be trusted unless you personally know the company, then you need to decide if your think that the people running it are worthy of your trust.

Does Organic mean that the products are safer?
Yes, but not for the reasons you might think.  Certified Organic means that the product cannot include any synthetic preservatives, undisclosed additives, or any "natural" inputs which are not specifically approved by the USDA National Organic Program for inclusion in certified organic products.
Some people like to dismiss organic personal care by saying "Poison Ivy can be organic and that would not be safe" to which I reply "Of course we do not use harmful inputs, that would be as stupid as that red herring argument. In my opinion, that is not what we are concerned about. The inclusion of synthetic petrochemical ingredients has wreaked havoc on our collective health, increasing childhood cancer rates, early development in girls, ADD and ADHD, and myriad other ailments have been linked to chemicals commonly used in conventional personal care. Those are the inputs that you can be confident that you will not find in any USDA certified organic product, guaranteed.

What does Certified Organic mean in topical products?
USDA organic certification is the very same rule for all agricultural products,m reagrdless of whether they end up as food, fiber, or topical preparations. There are, however, products which use the word organic on their label which are not certified. The use of the word is regulated only for food, in personal care onlythe use of the USDA seal menas that the products are authentic organic, adhering to the high bar of the USDA rule.

What is in the "other" non organic % of the products?
USDA regulations require that if an ingredient is available from a certified organic source that ingredient must be organic to be included. If, however, an ingredient is not available from an organic source, that ingredient must be on a short list of "allowable non-organic inputs". If the ingredient is on the list, you must further demonstrate that the natural ingrdient was cultivated, harvested and stored naturally, specifically, without the use of sewage sludge for fertilizer, without irradiation for sanitizing, and without the use of GMO seed stock. If you can prove all of that, the ingredient can be included in a certified organic product. The rule does not allow the use of parabens or other broad spectrum anti microbials, synthetic inputs whatsoever.

Are the ingredients listed comprehensive, are there other ingredients not listed?
No!!! That is not allowed by the USDA Organic rule, all ingredients must be listed. It is common for uncertified personal care to have ingredients included in the formulation which are not listed on the label, and it is perfectly legal for them not to. We don't beleive in that practice. We are certified to guarantee you that Trillium's famous "full disclosure" ingredient label is authentic.

Why is the soap only 75% organic ingredients?
The process of saponification is the reaction of oils with a highly alkaline caustic, we use potassium hydroxide. After saponification is through, niether potassium hydroxide nor oil is present, rather than alchemical process tranforms both into something completely new, soap.  Nonetheless, the NOP rule does not recognise minerals such as potassium hydroxide as organic and therefore, it must be counted and a non-organic input which skews the numbers, makng the soap look less "organic" than it really is.