There are different guidelines of international certifying bodies that deal with the creation of standards to classify products as natural. Their logos are easily identifiable on the pack of cosmetic products and are meant to help consumers make their purchase decisions.
Let’s go through the most relevant certifications and the differences with the Davines criterion.

DAVINES CRITERION
In 2018, drawing inspiration from its sustainability and transparency philosophy, Davines wanted to create its own criterion to classify natural origin ingredients. The principle used by Davines is more restrictive than the ISO 16128 standard since it does not allow any raw material containing synthetic parts. In Davines, an ingredient is defined natural when 100% of its molecular structure is of natural origin, without any part thereof being synthetic.

ECOCERT
It is a certifying body born in France in 1991 and internationally recognised. Its purpose is governing the procedures to formulate, manufacture and communicate natural cosmetic products.

COSMOS
COSMOS was set up in 2010. It is a new certifying body having the purpose of standardising European organizations to give rise to shared specifications. COSMOS classifies ingredients of natural origin and identifies the processes that may be admitted to make a natural product, leading to compliant production and classification procedures.

ISO 16128
In September 2017, the ISO 16128 standard was published. This standard sets out that an ingredient can be considered of natural origin when it guarantees that at least 50% of its molecular structure is of natural origin even if it may contain a synthetic part.