Blog For Cosmetic Professionals

  Colours are popular with consumers, but seem to get legislators a bit worked up.  It is almost as if the different governments have got together to make the naming systems and regulations as impenetrable as possible. I came across a good example of that today.   An american product had Green 5 listed on the pack.  Was this permitted in Europe? So the first question is what do we call Green 5 over here?  Well hopefully they were using the FDA approved Green 5.  That is what most cosmetic companies would be using.  There is a Solvent Green 5...

I have taken the title of this post almost word for word from an article printed in Personal Care April 2013 written by staff from Dr Straetmans.  They assert that their product, Dermasoft OMP is good enough to stand comparison with more widely used preservatives such as formaldehyde donors like imidazolidinyl urea , the isothiazolinones and the parabens.The drawbacks or all three of these are well known.  Nobody likes the idea of putting formaldehyde on their skin at any level.  You can put up a good scientific defence of formaldehyde - it is so widespread from natural sources that it is...

  I try to keep an eye on Rapex reports as they are a good way of keeping abreast of how regulations are interpreted across Europe.  In the last couple of weeks there has been a case of the Spanish equivalent of trading standards ordering a product to be taken off the market because of their resemblance to food.  They are quoting an EU directive - this is the one from 1987. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31987L0357&from=EN It's a directive so it is up to individual countries to enact national legislation to address it, which are supposed to be consistent across the EU.  The...

  I keep an eye on the FDA's reports of things that are refused import at the docks. This is far and away the most common cause of problems with regulatory compliance. The goods get looked at by officials and they are able to take action against anything they deem to be wrong by the simple expedient of stopping it entering the country. There isn't a huge amount the supplying company can do when this happens. There is a steady stream of these events but one company seems to have had a particularly bad time in June with no fewer...

  Monoi Oil has a great story to go with it.  It's the traditional Tahitian skincare product made by infusing coconut oil with gardenia petals. As such it is really good natural product with a genuine heritage and some real benefits.  It does present a  couple of challenges though.  For a start, you can only use it in formulations where coconut oil is a suitable ingredient, so that rules out things like shampoos.  And while consumers love the concept and the benefits of natural products, producers have to be clear headed about their drawbacks too.  Monoi oil isn't going to last as...