Living an organic life can mean more than eating organically.

From diapers to cosmetics to cotton towels, everything is up for grabs in the organic world.

"Organic is a natural lifestyle, and it is not necessarily related to better health," said organic industry analyst Fang Yanfei.

"However, people's feelings of insecurity grow as the media report more and more cases of poor-quality products influencing people's health, so they are paying higher prices to buy the feeling of assurance from an organic life," Fang said.

Beijing resident Qiu Ting is a big fan of these products. From children's clothing to food, Qiu simply does not want too many artificial ingredients in her home.

"For bedding, my favorite is a Japanese brand," Qiu said. "The sheets are all in light colors, without excessive synthetic colorings that could harm my daughter's skin."

She changes the linens whenever they are worn thin, adding that buying new linen is "one of her hobbies".

Qiu said the cost of linen for the family of three runs to between 1,000 yuan ($158) and 2,000 yuan a year.

In addition to linen, handmade soap, cosmetics and shampoo are also essential buys. Qiu usually buys the products from online stores, where a bar of soap sells for around 100 yuan, while an ordinary bar is priced at no more than 5 yuan in supermarkets.

"That's why my daughter has the smoothest skin. I myself have sensitive skin, which I believe passed to my daughter, so I need to take extra care of her skin," said Qiu, as she picked up a bar of handmade soap at a booth.

"Oh, spinach soap! I've never seen this. Hmm, smells good, I'll take two."

Others, however, have moved back to do-it-yourself products to cut expenses.

"Two years ago when my son was born, I bought natural shampoo for him. Then I started to make the shampoo myself," said Beijing father Wang Tianyang.

"The process turned out to be easy, and good for our health, and so I made more," he said.

Eventually, Wang, his wife and his mother-in-law formed a family workshop. Wang makes the shampoo and bath foam with different kinds of plant extract, and the mother makes pickled radish, baby shoes and Chinese sausage.

"I'm considering concentrating on healthy food in the coming one or two years," Wang said.

"The situation is that more and more people are health conscious, yet they can't find really healthy food, containing fewer chemicals, in the supermarket. So if I can produce healthier food using traditional methods, I'll attract a larger market."

Song Liwen, a soap maker, regrets that she came to the retail market for organic products too late.

"I made handmade skin care products for years before I did market research and found there were so many lovers of handmade cosmetics," Song said.

"In the past I only sold soaps and essential oils to luxury hotels and spas. Then I opened an online store and found the business was extremely good," she said.

Although China has nearly 6,400 organic-related companies making more than 16,700 products, there is no organization authenticating non-food organic products, and the existing accrediting agencies simply throw the market into chaos, experts said.

According to Fang, China's organic accrediting agencies only grant two kinds of certification - Level A and Level AA, both for organic food.

Level-AA food is equal to organic food in Western countries, while the requirements for Level-A are not as strict.

No non-food products are certified.

chengyingqi@chinadaily.com.cn