Without a doubt, one of the most positive beauty trends in the past few years has been the mainstream pull towards the merits of organic beauty and skin care products, a message that green beauty lovers have been preaching for years. While the concept of natural and organic beauty products sounds pleasant to most of us, there comes a point where many of us feel confused about what these words even mean.

In order to get the real inside scoop on what it means to be organic skin care, HelloGiggles chatted with Abbott Stark, the co-founder of Ogee about what it means to be truly organic. He said one of the keys way to find out if a brand is legit, is by checking if they’re organic certified, and not merely using the word organic.

Abbott explained:“It is very important to look for an organic certification because the organic certifier does the homework. Organic certification, takes a stringent approach. It requires that maximum organic content is utilized and allows only certain natural ingredients be used in formulations, with a very strict set of standards in place. Ogee is certified to the NSF organic standard, which examines every ingredient from the field where it is grown.”

“The organic standards ensure that no GMOs have been used, that our ingredients are not extracted or reacted with petroleum ingredients, that toxic pesticides have not been used, and that formaldehyde is not used – in addition to all of the basics about being totally free of synthetic fragrances, dyes, silicones and parabens!”

For Ogee in particular, a lot of their products feature the all-star ingredient Jojoba oil, which, according to Abbott, has been raved about in various studies,

“There have not only been several clinical studies on the benefits of Jojoba Oil, but the research has confirmed that it really is the best oil for all skin types. That makes sense because over the last 50 years, studies of Jojoba Oil have revealed its molecular similarity to the building block oils of human skin. It has been proven to repair the top layer of the skin, which helps prevent fine lines and wrinkles from forming over time.”

For newcomers to organic skin care, and more specifically the Ogee brand, Abbott recommends the Sculpted Lip Oil, which has peppermint for plumping properties with the moisturizing goodness of jojoba.