To strengthen the management of cosmetics and safeguard the people’s health, five ingredients, including o-aminophenol, m-Phenylenediamine HCl, m-Phenylenediamine, Catechol, Pyrogallol were added into the list of prohibited ingredients for cosmetics, according to the revised draft on the Cosmetic Safety Standards and Other Related Provisions released by the South Ministry Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). According to Article 8 of the Cosmetics Law, MFDS shall regularly conduct hazard assessment on the hair dye ingredients and results show that the above five hair dye ingredients are likely to have genotoxic hazards.

On September 15, 2022, EU released the Commission Regulation 2022/2031 as regards the prohibitions and restrictions on substances classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR) and also updated Annex II, III and V to Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. The amended Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day after its publication, and the restrictions on CMR shall be applied from December 17, 2022.

In December 2021, CIRS Group assisted two companies in completing the filing of the first and second imported new cosmetic ingredients. In July 2022, CIRS Group once again assisted one company in successfully obtaining the filing number of a new cosmetic ingredient. Then in September 2022, with the help of CIRS Group, another company successfully obtained its filing number. Since the implementation of the CSAR, a total of 34 new cosmetic ingredients have been filed. Among them, 18 are domestic new cosmetic ingredients (see Table 1 for detailed information), and 16 are imported new cosmetic ingredients (see Table 2 for detailed information).

There has been a lot of change in the Chinese cosmetics industry since the new overarching regulation – Cosmetics Supervision Administration Regulation (CSAR) – came into force on January 1, 2021. To help you keep up-to-date and compliant we have prepared this infographic of the upcoming compliance deadlines.

On August 1, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) issued a notice to seek comments on the Technical Guidelines for Anti-freckle and Whitening Cosmetics (Draft for Comment). It was accepting comments until August 16. Anti-freckle and whitening cosmetics belong to special cosmetics in China and are subject to registration. The draft Technical Guidelines consist of three parts: The basic principle; The definition of anti-freckle and whitening cosmetics; The technical requirements of anti-freckle and whitening cosmetics, including basic product information, product name, formula and related standards for the use of ingredients and manufacturing of products, packaging labels, product testing reports, and safety assessment data.

Under the Regulations concerning the Hygiene Supervision over Cosmetics, a total of 14 new raw materials were approved from 2004 to May 1, 2021. From May 1, 2021, registration and filing of new cosmetic ingredients under the CSAR shall be applied through the cosmetics declaration and review system under the NMPA official website. As of July 22, 2022, a total of 23 new cosmetics ingredients were filed. Among them, 16 are domestic new cosmetics ingredients, and 7 are imported new cosmetics ingredients.

In the import and export trade, it is common for commodities involving endangered species to be punished, especially in cosmetics. In most cases, they fail to provide the import and export permit certificates or species certificates according to law. The following is a summary of 4 cases on cosmetics containing ingredients of endangered species for reference.

Since June 29, 2020, a series of cosmetics regulations have been launched, including the Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulations (CSAR, State Order No. 727) and a pack of supporting regulations. Among them, the Measures for the Administration of Cosmetic Registration and Filing, Provisions on the Administration of New Cosmetic Ingredients Registration and Filing Data and the Technical Guidelines for Cosmetics Safety Assessment are primarily for new cosmetic ingredients filing/ registration. According to the requirements of the above regulations, registration and filing of new cosmetic ingredients should be applied through the cosmetic declaration and assessment platform on the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) official website from May 1 2021.

A summary of SCCS opinions from January to June 2022

A fragrance is a natural or artificial synthetic substance that has a smell or odor because of its specific functional group or specific chemical structure. It is used in small amounts in cosmetics, but it is an indispensable raw material of cosmetics. With the wide application of fragrances, security issues are also of concern. In this Article, CIRS Group is to give an introduction of the supervision requirements on fragrance in Europe and China.