McCartney Skincare Faces Suit

She's the ethical, eco-friendly face of fashion, so it was no great shock when Stella McCartney came out with a line of organic skincare products called CARE. But now Stella's been named, along with several other makers of supposedly natural cosmetics, in a lawsuit alleging that their products aren't quite as organic as they claim to be.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps filed the suit in California Superior Court against several of its competitors in the natural-beauty biz, including CARE, Juice Beauty, and Kiss My Face. The California-based company, which has been making all-natural soap products for 60 years, also named Ecocert and OASIS -- two bodies that grant organic certification -- in the action. Its complaint is that many products labeled as organic actually contain ingredients derived from conventional farming methods and petrochemicals.

Dr. Bronner's has a particular beef with Stella McCartney products because some items in the CARE line are labeled "100% organic active ingredients," and the company says this misleads consumers into believing that the products are free of synthetic chemicals. Dr. Bronner's president David Bronner says he wants brands either to drop the organic label or leave petrochemicals out of their products.

The French organic certification body Ecocert has responded to the suit by saying that Dr. Bronner's is trying to apply the USDA's definition of "organic" for food products to cosmetics, where it was never intended to be used.

In other words: Don't eat your moisturizer, and you should be fine.

Do you read the list of ingredients when you buy beauty products?