China–Labeling–Cosmetics

Cosmetic Companies Must List Ingredients in China:  New law to go into effect in June, 2010.   2009-01-07 | 08:30

The Beijing Drug Administration (BDA) has issued a directive that will require Chinese-made as well as imported cosmetics to list all their ingredients. Products that do not meet this requirement will be suspended from the market in China. The requirement will give consumers information about whether a product contains lead, pigments, mercury and other questionable ingredients.

According to a directive from the BDA, beginning in June 2010, both Chinese-made and imported cosmetics should be marked with all their ingredients and products that fail to meet the requirement will be suspended from the Chinese market.

From then on, consumers will be able to know all of the contents of a cosmetic product, including lead, mercury, and pigments—this information was not always available on cosmetic labels in the past.

A representative from the BDA told local media that, generally speaking, cosmetics manufacturers are willing to mark the nutrients in their products like vitamin C, vitamin E, ginseng, and aloe. But labels do not show some auxiliary ingredients such as preservatives, pigments, flavoring essences, surfactants, and anti-corrosion fungicides.

A relevant regulation of the European Union says that even though not all the contents can be marked on the ingredient list for trade secret reasons, the manufacturer must hand in an application for confidentiality to the supervisory authority. However, when those international cosmetics brands are sold in China, their Chinese instructions are usually curtailed.

Commenting on this situation, the BDA says that cosmetics companies are currently changing their packaging and instructions to meet the new requirements in China. The adjustments would be completed before June 2010 and the sales of products that failed to meet the new policy would be prohibited at that time.

The administration added that the new rule would serve to enhance the rights and interests of consumers while assisting supervision by the departments concerned.

Chitin-Glucan

Study Shows Moisturizing Properties of Chitin-glucan Ingredient  Posted: January 12, 2009

New research supports the use of a biopolymer duo in moisturising and anti-aging products.

Belgium-based company KitoZyme has performed a number of trials investigating the potential of its chitin-glucan ingredient in skin care products. Chitin-glucan is a copolymer found in the cell wall of several fungi, including Aspergillus niger, the source of KitoZyme’s ingredient.   http://www.skininc.com/skinscience/ingredients/37436859.html

Neurocosmetics and Vectorization

Neurocosmetics and Vectorization Big in 2009 

Posted: January 7, 2009

Science and technology will play a big part in 2009 personal care ingredients, according to a post by beauty blog Beauty Editor Post. The blog maintains to be a consumer’s guide to spa treatments, professional skin care and antiaging product reviews written by skin care educators and industry veterans.

The blog finds that intelligent skin care, nanotechnology, targeted delivery, neurocosmetics and time frame licenses will be the top five ingredient trends of 2009. Intelligent skin care is referring to the ingredients that make the skin repair, regenerate and detoxify itself more efficiently. The piece cites peptides that trigger DNA to repair itself quicker. Although the concept of nanotechnology may be familiar to many in the beauty industry, the blog finds that targeted delivery such as encapsulation and vectorization will continue to flourish in 2009.

Neurocosmetic ingredients, according to the piece, “have the ability to affect the brain’s response to topical treatments with specific ingredients programmed to trigger a desired response.” Possibly the most interesting trend in the list for personal care suppliers, is time frame licenses. Reportedly, suppliers are registering trademarks on ingredients without disclosing what is in the ingredient or how it is made, only to sell the trademarks to finished product manufacturers to use in their products for a specific amount of time.

The personal care industry certainly has seen the involvement of advanced technology in ingredient creation in the last few years. Terms such as nanotechnology and encapsulation are now becoming commonplace. What lies ahead undoubtedly will involve the effort of many and a partnership with other industries.