ANNEMARIE BÖRLIND – ECO CONTROL certified quality

Criteria for effective and sustainable cosmetics

High expectations are made of contemporary natural cosmetics. Efficacy, skin-compatibility and naturalness are, today, the three main criteria for the purchase and daily use of skin care cosmetics.

Questions about the type and origins of the raw materials, the manufacturing process and the social responsibilities of the companies are becoming more and more frequent.

The increasing importance of sustainability and the need for transparency is the result of a transformation in the collective awareness of our society. Individuals are well aware that they can support both nature and the environment with their purchases.

Since 1959 the family company Annemarie Börlind from the Black Forest has represented natural cosmetics in harmony with nature. International awards, scientific confirmation and the satisfaction of many customers impressively confirms the high quality and natural efficacy of our skin care products.

The most important quality criteria of Annemarie Börlind Natural Skin Care as verified by ECO CONTROL are shown below.

Compare the standards and the reality of Annemarie Börlind quality with other quality labels.

ANNEMARIE BÖRLIND guarantees High quality, effective and sustainable natural cosmetics.

You have my personal guarantee and ECO CONTROL. Michael Lindner ANNEMARIE BÖRLIND –

The high quality, efficacious and sustainable natural cosmetics (ECO CONTROL - certified)

Product + Quality

• Unchanged natural substances such as botanical raw materials combined with labour-intensive cultivation and/or production methods form the basis of our high quality skin care products.
• The vast majority of plants, herbal extracts and essential oils originate from organic farming or from certified wild gathering.
• Experienced scouts and ethno-botanists are constantly searching for new plants and raw materials for us.
• We use pure Black Forest deep spring water from our own well.
• The skin-compatibility and efficacy of our cosmetics have been scientifically tested and dermatologically confirmed in independent institutes on human volunteers.
• We consciously repudiate the use of non-biodegradable and other questionable substances such as PEG, paraffin, petroleum derivatives, silicone oil, polycyclic musk compounds etc.
• We attach great importance to high quality at a reasonable price.

Environment + Resources

• We repudiate the use of both raw materials obtained from dead animals and those that have been tested on animals.
• Nature identical and nature similar substances are consciously used for a manufacturing process that protects natural resources and offer a skin-compatible preservative.
• The selective purchase of botanical raw materials allows us to support organic and bio-dynamic farming methods, thus contributing to the health of the planet.
• The energy for our warm water consumption is catered for by waste heat recovery from our production and cooling processes.
• We are continually working for the optimisation of our ecological standards.

People + Society

• We attach great importance to the use of high quality raw materials from socio-ecological projects and fair trade organisations at an appropriate price.
• When selecting our suppliers we pay special attention to humane working conditions, fair payment for the workers and no child labourers.
• Verification of social standards is carried out by both state and independent organisations.
• We support acknowledged social and communal projects world-wide.
• Respectful and friendly interaction, open dialog and working together towards a common aim form the most important elements of our company’s structure.

Capital + Work

• We foster a careful and socially acceptable interaction with financial resources.
• Our employees are remunerated appropriately according to performance.
• Regular further training and an architectural-artistic work ambient offer an attractive basis for the creativity, performance and innovation of our employees.
• The work places in both production and administration have been situated in our company’s headquarters in Calw-Altburg / Black Forest for five decades.
• Our future is located in Germany.

Why do we need an EcoControl certificate?

It has become customary for companies to have their principles and their quality management system, which ensures the adherence to the principles, certified by an independent body. The adherence to company principles cannot easily be controlled by reference of the customer to the product. Certification ensures adherence by closing this loophole.

Annemarie Börlind Natural Skin Care takes the human skin as the basis for the selection of raw materials and active ingredients for their cosmetic products. We humans can be considered as a part of the animal kingdom and we have substances on our skin which cannot always be found in the botanical kingdom. These substances, which we consider to be essential substances, can be produced from botanical ingredients. However, they do not always fit into the existing natural cosmetic guidelines format for raw materials, as these guidelines are limited to simple, unaltered botanical substances. Our independent concept of natural cosmetics does not allow the Annemarie Börlind products to fit into the existing frameworks, e.g. the BDHI Guidelines. The following comparison table shows the most important differences, and also the similarities.

AB EcoControl	BDIH
Specific and transparent	Guidelines from an industrial syndicate which needs to unite a variety of interests. Lack of transparency because the „positive list“ of chemically altered substances and the list of compulsory controlled biologically cultivated raw materials is not published
Safe, ecological and effective products.	Safe and ecological products.
Sustainability in extraction and production of raw materials. Sustainability also during the production of cosmetic products, e.g. reclamation of lost heat.	Sustainability in extraction and production of raw ingredients.
Careful transformation of raw materials into cosmetic products with few chemical processes Guerbet alcohol allowed. Alkyl sulphate not allowed.	Careful transformation of raw materials into cosmetic products with few chemical processes. Guerbet alcohol not allowed. Alkyl sulphate allowed.
Verification of skin-compatibility by safety evaluation and dermatological skin-compatibility tests.	Verification of skin-compatibility by safety evaluation. Basic assumption: „natural ingredients are safe“
Efficacy dermatologically confirmed.	Efficacy not mentioned.
Botanical raw materials mainly obtained from plants from controlled biological cultivation or certified wild gathering.	Botanical raw materials obtained as far as possible from controlled biological cultivation or certified wild gathering.
Animal protection No animal testing. No ingredients obtained from dead animals.	Animal protection No animal testing. No ingredients obtained from dead vertebrates. Therefore cochineal (from cactus louse), silk (silkworm) and chitosan (crab shells) are allowed.
Mineral raw materials fundamentally allowed when harmless.	Mineral raw materials fundamentally allowed.
Raw materials with limited application, emulsifiers and surfactants. Additionally allowed: guerbet alcohol enables raw materials to resemble the lipids of human skin.	Raw materials with limited application. Limitations are not mentioned. Chemical reactions during the production of sulphates and phosphates are not mentioned, such substances are, however, used.
Conscious renunciation of cochineal. Instead, organic-synthetic food colorant for decorative cosmetics allowed. Otherwise as BDIH.	Organic-sysnthetic colorants forbidden. Cochineal allowed
Preservation All permitted nature-identical substances. No formaldehyde.	Preservation Selection of nature-identical substances. No formaldehyde.
Control By independent control institutes	Control By independent control institutes
Further objectives: binding	Further objectives: non-binding.

Summary of Arguments

Why we want individual certification.

• Repudiation of raw materials obtained from dead animals.
• Repudiation of highly allergenic natural ingredients.
• Use of and open declaration of nature identical preservatives. Refusal to “hide” preservatives under the INCI term „perfume“.
• Use of Guerbet alcohol, substances with a complex structure which resemble the lipids on human skin.
• Scientifically proven efficacy, including the use of nature identical active ingredients (e.g.. vitamin A, allantoin, B-Vitamins), in cases where the substances in question originate from dead animals, when contamination from dangerous natural substances is suspected, or when the substances in question are only obtainable by exploitation.
• Dermatologically confirmed skin-compatibility.
• Repudiation of sodium cocoyl sulphate (sodium lauryl sulphate) as surfactant due to the danger of irritation.
• Sustainability of raw ingredients and energy.