I’ve tried a good number of organic certified personal care products at this point, and what I’ve discovered is this: Many organic lip balms, powders, and massage oils are as good as the “conventional” stuff. Organic lotions and creams, however, don’t quite measure up — at least not right now.

The latest line I’ve tried: Origins Organics. Despite the fact that this line’s owned by Estee Lauder, a company not exactly known for embracing eco-friendly practices, Origins launched its organic line about a year ago. Almost all the products in this line have USDA-organic certification (at least 95% organic ingredients) — and are packaged in FSC certified boxes made with 50% post consumer content too boot.

I loved Origins Organic’s Refreshing Body Powder (95% organic) and Soothing Lip Balm (97% organic), both of which smelled as nice and worked just as well as the “conventional” products filled with weird chemicals and fragrances. I’m also guessing that the Conditioning Hair Oil and Body Pampering Massage Oil, which are basically both composed of organic essential oils, will work as well as conventional oil-based products too.

Other products, however, were another matter. I didn’t HATE Origins Organics’ Nourishing Face Lotion — I certainly liked it better than Miessence face care products — but I wasn’t particularly moved to switch to it from the Arcona products I generally use (Arcona uses safe ingredients, but can’t boast USDA organic certification). As someone who prefers a very light moisturizer, I found this lotion a tad too heavy. In fact, this lotion also got a less than positive review from Paris B of My Women Stuff, who wrote: “After a few days I noticed 2 painful spots appearing.”

The Foaming Facewash also got a bad review from Emily Tan of Hippyshopper, who was disappointed it didn’t foam and said “It also doesn’t smell pleasant – it has a rather odd muddy scent. Perhaps due to too many essential oils battling it out with each other. As a cleanser it also fails to perform, despite washing twice with it there was still traces of makeup left on my skin.”

The Origins Organics deodorant did win over Blabber at Beauty Blabber as a fan, so I may give that a try. The rest of the products, however, don’t work so well (face lotion, face wash), are those I consider unnecessary and don’t use (body powder, toner), can find good organic options from other more green-committed companies (lip balm, massage oil, conditioning hair oil), or are not organic certified (bar soap).

Which makes me ask: Has anyone found an organic certified face lotion or wash that works well? Organic Consumers Association has a list of companies that offer organic-certified products — a list from which Origins Organics is pointedly missing, BTW — that I plan to investigate further. If you have tips though, please do share with the rest of us –

Update, 3/17/09: Recycle old lipstick tubes and makeup cases at Origins

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