Purchasing Patterns for Natural, Organic Beauty Products

Women's beauty buying habits and concerns

The Benchmarking Co. recently released its Pink Report™, The Age of Naturals, in which more than 1,800 women across the United States who regularly buy beauty products were surveyed. The report uncovers the attitudes, fears and aspirations of two specific groups of women: those who regularly buy natural/organic beauty products, and those who buy traditionally-made beauty products.

It is clear that women who normally buy natural/organic beauty products have higher makeup and skin care aspirations than traditional beauty brand users, higher expectations for natural beauty product efficacy, and a higher tendency toward personal wellness and self health.

Eighty-two percent of natural/organic beauty buyers want to look beautiful, yet natural, compared to 64 percent of their traditional beauty buying counterparts. Natural beauty buyers want both cosmetics (84 percent) and skin care products (84 percent) to be free of harmful chemicals, compared to 56 percent of traditional beauty buyers for makeup and 54 percent for skin care products. In nearly every category, natural beauty users simply expect more from the products they purchase.

Of women who normally buy natural and organic brands, 45 percent said they do so because of their fear of chemicals in traditionally-made beauty brands. When natural beauty buyers were asked why they continue to purchase natural/organic beauty products, the top two reasons were they were better for their skin (80 percent) and they didn’t want chemicals on their skin (64 percent). Another 27 percent claimed the ingredients in traditional beauty products were harmful to her health.

Grey Area: Claims & Regulation

Seventy percent of women who buy natural beauty products, and 31 percent of those who buy traditional beauty products, claim to read labels carefully before buying beauty products. While it might be expected that women who already buy natural/organic beauty products—those already living a more holistic lifestyle—would know more than their traditional beauty-buyer counterparts about which beauty ingredients are perceived as harmful and what percentages of certain ingredients must be in a product to be labeled as pure, natural or organic, this wasn’t necessarily the case.

While women who buy natural beauty products appear to know a little more about ingredients and labeling requirements, women in general still have a lot to learn.

As of this writing, there are no U.S. guidelines on the percentage of “natural” ingredients a cosmetic product must contain to include the word natural on its label. Does natural mean an ingredient derived from nature that has been scientifically enhanced, watered down or otherwise distorted? Or is it an untouched, straight-from-the-ground ingredient? Women surveyed certainly don’t know, and who can blame them?

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