Category Archives: Legislation

Boring, but sometimes you need to talk about it.

New FDA Guidance On Lead In Lipstick

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New FDA Guidance On Lead In Lipstick

 

This feels like the end of a chapter.

December 21, 2016

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued draft guidance recommending a limit of no more than 10 parts per million (ppm) of lead as an impurity in cosmetic lip products (such as lipsticks, lip glosses, and lip liners) and externally applied cosmetics (such as eye shadows, blushes, compact powders, shampoos, and body lotions).

So now at last we have the issue of lead in lipstick settled.  This will now become a de facto world standard.  Nobody wants to make stuff that is illegal in the US even if they don’t plan to sell in the US.  And I imagine that the EU will quietly add this requirement to the EU legislation at some point anyway. Continue reading →

Does MI Cause Developmental Problems?

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MI development problems

There are an interesting couple of points in the comments thread on my blog post asking for MI not to become a scare story, from Suzanne. She has drawn my attention to a paper from 2012 that details developmental problems in tadpoles exposed to MI. She concludes from this that MI is potentially unsafe for humans as well and asks what the liability is for companies that continue to use it now that this risk has been identified. Continue reading →

Dangers of Mineral Oil In Lipstick

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Dangers of mineral oil in lipsticks

Candelilla wax often used to give a shiny coat

A paper in the most recent International Journal of Cosmetic Science has just drawn attention to a little noticed issue that has been bubbling away in the background of the cosmetic science world for a while. The issue is the use of long chain hydrocarbons in lip products. This sounds pretty formidable, but it is not really that complicated. Mineral oil is largely composed of long molecules that are composed of nothing more than chains of carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen atoms. This is about as simple as chemistry gets, and the chemistry of hydrocarbons has few surprises. The most interesting thing about them is that they make a good source of fuel. And the biggest use we put them to is to put them into cars and aeroplanes. Continue reading →

Is It Time To Buy Some Flu Treatment?

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Is It Time To Buy Some Flu Treatment?

There have always been people out to separate you from your money and prepared to say almost anything that will work to do so. Since the internet has been widespread there have been many more opportunities for small companies and simply unscrupulous individuals to sell stuff that just doesn’t do what it says. Continue reading →

L’Oréal Withdraws Product With Too Much MI In It

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There is a news story that L’Oréal have issued a product recall for their Ideal Moisture Dry and Sensitive Day Cream in Canada. The reason is that the level of MI in it is higher than Health Canada’s regulations allow.   This is quite a rare event – big cosmetic companies are usually pretty good at following regulations.  Unfortunately Google has not revealed the details of just how much over they were.  But the product has been on the market for three years so there is a good chance that they have simply failed to keep up with the regulations and that the product was legal when formulated and launched.  They have shifted just under 60,000 units.   Continue reading →

FDA View on Difference Between Drugs and Cosmetics

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FDA View on Difference Between Drugs and Cosmetics

The FDA’ s view on what constitutes the definition of a drug compared to a cosmetic is a longstanding one. A cosmetic is not supposed to either have or to claim physiological effect. This is a reasonable work in definition in so far as it goes. You can pick holes in it if you put your mind to it, but it gets the essence of how most people think of the difference. It has in any case not been something that the FDA gave a lot of attention to. Continue reading →

A Quick Guide to the EU Cosmetic Regulations – Beauty Brains Podcast

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A Quick Guide To The EU Cosmetic Regulations

I have been featured on the Beauty Brains podcast.

They asked me to do a ten minute segment on EU cosmetic regulations, which was fairly easy to do as I have been working with them for 30 odd years.  It wasn’t easy to make interesting though, but the Brains guys do a great job of making the rather dull material interesting by interspersing their own commentary into what I said.  I almost felt like I was in the room with them.

 
http://thebeautybrains.com/2015/09/are-cosmetics-safer-in-europe-than-in-the-us-episode-101/ 

My full script is below.

Continue reading →

The Bare Minimum You Need To Do To Comply With The Cosmetic Regulations

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The Bare Minimum You Need To Do To Comply With The Cosmetic Regulations

There is a concept in the software business called the minimum viable product. This is the barebones of an application that does just enough to enable it to get onto the market so the concept can be tested. This is an interesting idea in the fast moving world of information technology where change is so fast that nobody knows what is going to work until it has been tried out. Continue reading →

Cosmetics That Look Like Food

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cosmetics-that-look-like-food

 

When I was reviewing Bomb Cosmetics Chocolate Ballotin Assortment I made a reference to the problem that might potentially face with this product.  Cosmetics that look like food risk getting pulled up under legislation that forbids non-food products from being made that might fool someone into thinking that they are food.  The motivation behind this seems to be to prevent people passing off stuff that isn’t edible as a foodstuff, but the wording could be interpreted as banning any attempt to mimic food. Continue reading →

How Much Of A Cosmetic Product Do You Use?

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How Much Cosmetic Product Do You Use

I don’t suppose many people stop to think about how much shampoo or body lotion they are using.  I know I don’t.  But it is something that some people need to worry about.  When cosmetic products are assessed for their safety the amount that is used is a relevant parameter.  Obviously you use a lot more body lotion than face cream for example.  So you need to take this into account.  Continue reading →