The Beyond Beauty trade show is an annual exhibition of the newest and greatest trends in cosmetics. At this year’s show, held in a suburb outside Paris, organic products ruled the day.

At the Natural Beauty Summit, cosmetics companies debated how best to certify organic beauty and develop labels that would help consumers easily identify which products were genuine:

Experts from around the world spent the best part of a day considering how to create simple, internationally recognizable labels for natural and organic products. At the moment, the beauty industry lacks the coherent classification system used for food, for example, as each country sets its own varying levels of protection and requirements. Much of the disagreement stems from what percentage of a product’s ingredients should be organic or natural in order for them to be classified as such.

Part of the urgency to set a consistent standard comes from the industry’s burgeoning success. Natural and organic beauty brands generated some $6.9 billion worldwide in 2007, a figure that’s set to grow by up to 20 percent this year, according to U.K. research firm Organic Monitor. This contrasts sharply with the beauty market as a whole, which was flat last year, according to the firm.

The United States has the USDA label but with so many imports lining department store and even drugstore shelves now, it seems prudent to find something that will work across borders.