Organic is such a misused phrase.
We enquired into organic certification many years ago and the whole process put me off.
Our moor is, in my opinion, organic, it comes from the ground, it is filtered, different depth moors are mixed and tested for purity. It is then filled into product jars. Unfortunately the Soil Society does not have a caterogy for it, an area can be organic or produce can but not the moor as a product. However, you can have a shampoo with 10% organic material which also avoids other ingredients (like SLS and parabens) and it is organic. This seems just wrong to me.
Natural is another term which is abused. I don't know how many times I have seen products that say 'with natural lavender' that gives the impression that the product is natural only to find that it is full of chemicals.
I have even seen a 'natural' product where the ingredients list was just plain wrong so that it looked natural. The product had a mixture of natural oils and water and was a gel, unfortunately there was no emulsifier in the ingredients which would mean the product would separate back to oil and water.
The other thing is a lot of people think that natural is always a lot better. If you are producing a water based product then natural preservatives are pretty rubbish. You have to use them in really high concentration (20%) of the product. Most active ingredients are only 5%, if you are using a chemical preservative you normally need about 0.5%. Also poison ivy is natural but I wouldn't recommend rolling about in it
