Natural Talent

Community Comments

CYNDI NORWITZ USED TO go to Whole Foods to buy bars of organic soap when she lived in Oakland 10 years ago. But then she had a notion: Why not create her own soap using natural ingredients such as olive oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil and lavender flowers? A friend taught Norwitz the process and soon she was making soap upon request. What followed four years later was the creation of Tikvah (Hebrew for hope), Norwitz’s home-based soap company in Petaluma.

And she’s not alone in her passion. These days, droves of consumers continue to gravitate toward organic personal care products, and the market is teeming with entrepreneurs, large and small, rushing to reap the benefits, and sometimes, profits.

The Organic Trade Association reported sales of organic personal-care products hit $282 million in 2005, an increase of 28 percent from the previous year, according to the most recent data available.

Even more telling was an October 2006 report by the Natural Marketing Institute, which concluded the market for organic or premium cosmetics and toiletries grew by 15 percent in 2005, while the overall growth of personal-care products grew by just 3.5 percent.

The high-end trend isn’t lost on the heavyweights; Target and Wal-Mart decided this year to expand their organic offerings from the food shelves to the personal-care aisles.

Body Care As Food

Target sells a line called Erbaorganics by Erbaviva for mothers and newborns. Wal-Mart-owned Asda introduced the Bentley Organic line of personal-care organics in its United Kingdom stores, where the competition for organics is heating up. Two other retailers in the United Kingdom had already added organic personal care products previous to the Asda move.

Europeans are taking to organic cosmetics at a faster pace than Americans, a growth rate of 20 percent annually, according to Organic Monitor, a London-based research firm. Watchers note the move by the two retail giants marks another step in the “mainstreaming” of organics.

“The appeal is just starting,” says Karen Behnke, CEO of Juice Beauty, manufacturer of a popular line of organic cosmetics based in San Rafael. “It’s kind of where organic food was 15 years ago.” Behnke says Juice Beauty is doubling in size annually.

• Share
  • Digg This
  • del.icio.us
  • Newsvine
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Furl It
  • !Y My Web
  • Google
• Email
• Print

Recommend This

Community Comments