At Organic Connection, our job is simple: help you find genuinely organic products worth your money, and steer you away from ones that only sound organic. This page explains exactly how we do that, so you can judge our work for yourself.
We research. We do not accept payment for rankings.
We are a research-based review site. We do not physically lab-test products in our own facility. Instead, our editorial team evaluates each product against the evidence that actually tells you whether it is clean, honest, and worth buying: its certifications, its full ingredient list, its sourcing and labeling, independent safety databases, published research, and the weight of aggregated expert and buyer reviews.
No brand pays us to be featured or ranked. Our rankings come from independent research, not sponsorship. We do earn an affiliate commission when you buy through some of our links, at no extra cost to you. That is how we keep the site running. See our Affiliate Disclosure for the details.
The Organic Integrity Score
Every product we review gets an Organic Integrity Score out of 100. It is built from 10 criteria, each scored from 1 to 10 and weighted equally, so no single factor can quietly dominate the result. We apply the same 10 criteria to every product, in every category, so scores are comparable across the site.
| # | Criterion | What we look at |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Certification Integrity | Is it certified by a credible body (USDA Organic, COSMOS, GOTS, EWG Verified, and similar), and at what level? |
| 2 | Ingredient Purity | Share of genuinely organic ingredients, and the absence of synthetic fillers, cheap bulking agents, and needless additives. |
| 3 | Ingredient Safety | Flags from independent databases (such as EWG Skin Deep), allergens, and controversial or restricted ingredients. |
| 4 | Sourcing and Transparency | How openly the brand discloses where and how ingredients are grown, harvested, and supplied. |
| 5 | Labeling Honesty | Whether on-pack claims match the actual certification and formula, our core greenwashing check. |
| 6 | Sustainability and Ethics | Packaging, cruelty-free status, fair labor, and stated environmental practices. |
| 7 | Efficacy Evidence | Strength of the evidence that the product works: published studies, ingredient science, and aggregated reviews. |
| 8 | Value | Price relative to size, concentration, and overall quality. |
| 9 | Brand Trust | Reputation, recall and complaint history, and customer service track record. |
| 10 | Editorial Judgment | Our overall read, including who the product is and is not right for. |
A score in the 90s means we found little to fault. A score in the 40s or 50s is a warning: read the review to see exactly where it fell short. We would rather publish an honest low score than pretend every product is great.
Every claim is sourced
When we say a product is USDA Organic certified, was flagged by a safety database, or lost its certification, we link to the record that proves it. If a claim does not carry a source you can check, it does not belong in our reviews. This is the single most important promise we make.
We call out greenwashing
Plenty of products lean on words like “natural,” “green,” “eco,” and “botanical” without any certification behind them. Those words are not regulated the way “certified organic” is. When a product’s marketing outruns its actual credentials, we say so plainly. Naming that gap is a large part of why this site exists.
Who writes our reviews
Our reviews are produced by the Organic Connection editorial team. As we grow, we add named subject specialists, such as estheticians, nutritionists, and gardeners, to review the categories that call for that expertise. Every review carries a published date and a last-updated date, and we revise pages when certifications change, formulas are reformulated, or recalls are issued.
Tell us when we get it wrong
If you spot an error, an out-of-date certification, or a product that deserves a second look, reach us through our contact page. We update our reviews based on new evidence, and reader corrections are part of how this site stays honest.