Kelly Dobos, a consultant, adjunct professor, and former president of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, discusses the challenges facing beauty businesses and formulators, and the changes to cosmetic products that could be coming consumers’ way, under developing bans on microplastic use.

The European Commission should extend the proposed six-year deadline “significantly” for replacing microplastics in leave-on cosmetics such as sunscreens and nix microplastic labeling requirements for makeup, lip and nail products, says the Personal Care Products Council’s executive VP of global strategies Francine Lamoriello, calling the task before industry “huge.”

Agency employees will have on-site, telework and remote possibilities, but options will depend on the center, office and job duties.

Foreign cosmetic product manufacturers may avoid the Chinese market if burdensome registration requirements aren’t modified and fairness issues addressed, the trade association says in comments to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

In a position paper published on 6 October, the UK cosmetics trade group says “free from” claims can sow confusion among consumers, damage trust in brands and the industry, and lead to safe and effective ingredients no longer being used. In many instances, “free from” claims also may violate UK and EU law, according to CTPA.

Valisure found 70% of 148 tested dry shampoo batches contained ‘quantifiable’ benzene. The US FDA advises a strict 2ppm limit when benzene’s use is unavoidable to produce a drug product with a “significant therapeutic advance.” In dry shampoos, “any significant detection of benzene could be deemed unacceptable,” Valisure suggests in its 31 October citizen petition to the agency.

Calling Congress’s failure to include cosmetic and dietary supplement riders in recent FDA user-fee reauthorization “a profound missed opportunity,” former FDA commissioners push for movement in the lame duck Congress in December.

More than 800 waivers have been filed by companies including Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal and Coty with the first deadline fast-approaching for limiting 1,4-dioxane in personal-care products under a law enacted in New York in 2019.

The Personal Care Products Council is engaging on state legislation for extended producer responsibility programs, which impose the cost of recycling plastic materials on manufacturers. Emerging bills to prohibit use of the ‘chasing arrows’ recycling symbol on consumer packaging also have the trade group’s attention.

Passed by the US House and signed into law on 30 September, the Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023, avoids a partial government shutdown and furloughs in FDA user-fee programs. Policy riders stripped from the legislation, including for cosmetics and dietary supplement regulatory changes, could still find their way into a final FY 2023 spending omnibus.

The Personal Care Products Council is pivoting to focus on passing cosmetics modernization legislation after mid-term congressional elections, while still hopeful the language could go through as part of FDA user-fee reauthorization. Karin Ross, executive VP, government affairs at PCPC, discussed the situation at the trade group’s Leadership Summit in Washington.

A “clean” FDA user-fee reauthorization bill – minus cosmetics modernization provisions – could be the likeliest way forward with user-fee program funding set to elapse at the end of September, a PCPC rep suggested in an email to HBW Insight.

Plaintiff Mark Ballotti alleges that 17 of 24 ingredients in Coppertone Pure & Simple SPF 50 Mineral Lotion are neither pure nor simple, “because they are made by mixing with other substances and materials and significantly modified,” in his complaint filed in Illinois’ Northern District.

Revlon settled similar litigation previously, while Bumble & Bumble was hit with a putative class action on 10 November in New York federal court alleging the blind and visually impaired are being denied equal access to its website due to design shortcomings.

Visitors to BB&B’s website were not informed and did not consent to its session replay “spyware,” which tracks how consumers interact with the site, “their mouse movements and clicks, keystrokes, search terms, information inputted into the website, and pages and content viewed,” the plaintiff says.

In her complaint against L’Oreal and other marketers of hair-smoothing products, plaintiff Jenny Mitchell, who was diagnosed with uterine cancer in August 2018, cites an NIH study published in October as “the first epidemiologic evidence of association between use of straightening products and uterine cancer.” She claims the defendants engaged in negligent or fraudulent practices in their marketing and sale of hair-straightening products that they knew posed dangers to users.

More than 800 waivers have been filed by companies including Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal and Coty with the first deadline fast-approaching for limiting 1,4-dioxane in personal-care products under a law enacted in New York in 2019.

The firm has instructed retailers to remove, and consumers not to use, selected lots of dry shampoo aerosol products from Dove, Nexxus, Suave, TIGI and TRESemme. The voluntary action follows Unilever’s recall of Suave aerosol antiperspirants in March, also due to potential benzene contamination.