In less than a month, the new regulations for children’s cosmetics will land. Figure/vision china
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Chen Zeyun Xue Renzheng
Children’s cosmetics will enter the most stringent regulatory era! Since January 1, 2022, the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Children’s Cosmetics (referred to as the Regulations) will be officially implemented, which is also the first regulatory document specifically for children’s cosmetics in China.
The "Regulations" directly face the existing problems such as children’s toys passing off as children’s cosmetics, and "Xiao Zi" products passing off as children’s cosmetics, and require enterprises to mark the signs specified by National Medical Products Administration on the packaging of children’s cosmetics to facilitate consumers’ quick identification. At the same time, in order to avoid the confusion between the characteristics and appearance of children’s cosmetics and foods, medicines and other products, it is forbidden to mark words such as "food grade" and "edible" or food-related patterns. In addition, the formula design of children’s cosmetics should follow the principles of safety priority, efficacy necessity and minimalist formula. In less than a month, the new regulations for children’s cosmetics will be implemented. How will the most stringent new regulations "sweep" the industry? Is Guangdong, as a major cosmetics province, ready for adjustment?
Selling "children’s cosmetics" is actually "toys"
Lip gloss, lipstick, nail polish … … The Yangcheng Evening News reporter searched on a number of e-commerce platforms and found that today’s children’s beauty products are dazzling, ranging from a dozen yuan to several hundred yuan. Sales are also very impressive, with many products selling 1000+ per month. For example, a nail polish for children in 29 yuan sells 4000+ per month, with only 20,000 comments.
Most of these children’s beauty products are beautifully packaged, and the products will be labeled as "healthy", "non-toxic", "water-soluble formula", "natural ingredients", "mild and non-irritating" and "preservative-free", and some will also indicate "food-grade" environmental protection children’s makeup, especially in the fields of lipstick and lip gloss, and "edible" is a big selling point claimed by merchants.
However, the reporter noticed that most of these products sold in the name of children’s make-up are toys, and most of the merchants sold are "XX toy franchise stores". Yangcheng Evening News reporter randomly clicked on a top-selling "Disney Children’s Cosmetics Set" on Taobao, and the word "children’s cosmetics" appeared in a conspicuous position in the product interface, but the word "toy" appeared in the product name after the drop-down. The merchant issued the test results of eight heavy metals, and said that the content of heavy metals such as mercury and lead in this product was far below the national standard.
In the comment area, many parents have exposed photos of their children directly applying makeup to their faces, but some parents also said that their children were allergic after using them. The reporter consulted the customer service as a consumer. The customer service emphasized to the reporter that this product is made of environmentally friendly materials, which is non-toxic and harmless. When the reporter asked if the product had a cosmetic registration certificate, it showed the reporter China Compulsory Product Certification (CCC), but failed to show the cosmetics production license, approval number and other related information.
There is also a phenomenon that children’s cosmetics and children’s toys are mixed and sold offline. In a stationery store in Pazhou New Village, the clerk recommended two "children’s cosmetics" in the store to reporters and said that they could all be painted on their faces. However, the reporter noticed that one was marked with the record number of "Guangdong Cosmetics" on the back, and the other was only certified as "3C", which also means that the latter is actually a toy, not a cosmetic product, but the two brands are sold in the same container.
In fact, cosmetics and toys are two kinds of products, which are managed according to different laws and regulations. In addition, even for regular children’s cosmetics, the safety of raw materials is worthy of parents’ attention. The reporter saw that the ingredients of most children’s makeup are not much different from those of adult cosmetics, including preservatives, flavors, colorants, etc., such as talcum powder and mica powder. Whether such products are suitable for children is also open to question.
"Little Golden Shield" released new regulations to accelerate the landing
Illegal production, false propaganda, confusing the concepts of toys and children’s cosmetics … … These phenomena that hinder the healthy development of the industry will be curbed.
On October 8th, National Medical Products Administration issued the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Children’s Cosmetics, which is the first regulatory document specifically for children’s cosmetics in China, and will come into force on January 1st, 2022. The reporter found out that there are 22 Regulations, covering the definition, labeling requirements, formula design principles, safety assessment, production and operation requirements of children’s cosmetics.
Compared with adult cosmetics, National Medical Products Administration has put forward stricter supervision requirements for children’s cosmetics. The Regulations clearly stipulate that the environmental requirements of the production workshop for the production of children’s skin care cosmetics should comply with the relevant provisions of the quality management standards for cosmetics production. Cosmetics shall be submitted with technical information such as product formula, inspection report and safety assessment data before they are put on the market, and can only be put on the market after registration or filing; The formula design of children’s cosmetics should follow the principle of "safety first, essential efficacy and minimal formula", and the product safety should be evaluated through safety assessment and necessary toxicology tests.
From the point of view of raw materials, children’s cosmetics should choose cosmetics raw materials with a long history of safe use, not new raw materials that are still in the monitoring period, and not raw materials prepared by new technologies such as gene technology and nanotechnology; It is not allowed to use raw materials for freckle whitening, acne removal, hair removal, deodorization, dandruff removal, hair loss prevention, hair dyeing, perm, etc.
From the outer packaging, the Regulations require enterprises to mark the signs specified by National Medical Products Administration on children’s cosmetics packaging, and at the same time, require cosmetics enterprises to mark warning terms such as "should be used under adult supervision" and prohibit labeling words such as "food grade" and "edible" or food-related patterns.
The new regulations are accelerating. On December 1st, National Medical Products Administration officially announced the children’s cosmetic logo "Little Golden Shield". The children’s cosmetic logo should be marked on the upper left of the display surface (hereinafter referred to as the main display page) which is easy to be observed in sales packaging according to the pattern specified by National Medical Products Administration, and it is clear and easy to identify.
The 10 billion-scale market is expected to be further standardized.
It is worth noting that, according to the Classification Rules and Catalogue of Cosmetics issued by National Medical Products Administration, cosmetics used by children aged 3-12 can include claims of beauty modification and makeup removal, while those used by infants aged 0-3 are limited to cleaning, moisturizing, hair care, sun protection, soothing and refreshing. In other words, cosmetics used by infants under 3 years old do not include the category of "make-up".
According to the independent market research and consulting company Mintel, in 2021, the market scale of baby care products for 0-3 years old in China will increase from 7 billion yuan in 2016 to 17.6 billion yuan. According to the data released by Koala Haibao in July 2020, children’s makeup increased by 300% year-on-year.
In less than a month, the "Regulations" will be implemented. The reporter noted that in order to help guide the smooth transition of the industry, the new regulations reserved a transition period.
Shen Wanhongyuan believes that the new regulations of the cosmetics industry have made stricter requirements on the registration, production links, quality and safety management and efficacy evaluation of cosmetics, which will benefit the long-term development of leading cosmetics ODM companies and leading cosmetics brand companies in the industry in the long run.
"On the outer packaging, our new children’s products have been required to be marked according to the new regulations." Wu Tunying, chief marketing officer of Kangaroo Mother Group, told the reporter that the new regulations are about to land, and the enterprises are making full preparations for the adjustment.
"We will also give priority to the safety of raw materials when developing children’s cosmetics, and avoid using talcum powder or colorants." Wu Tunying said that the "Regulations" further clarified and improved the regulatory measures, provided legal protection for strengthening the supervision of children’s cosmetics, and helped to further standardize the development of the industry.
In view of the fact that there is indeed illegal propaganda in the children’s cosmetics market, Wu Tunying said frankly that in fact, so-called "food-grade" cosmetics do not exist at all. Cosmetics are made up of many ingredients, including preservatives and other chemical ingredients. If food ingredients are directly added, the preservative system in cosmetics will be destroyed, leading to deterioration and mildew of products. After the new regulations are implemented, such non-compliant publicity is expected to be further reduced.
Where will more than 500 related enterprises in Guangdong go?
As a major cosmetics province, Guangdong has gathered a number of children’s cosmetics enterprises. According to the data provided by Guangdong Food and Drug Administration to reporters, at present, there are 109 children’s cosmetics registrants, 771 filers and 554 children’s cosmetics manufacturers in Guangdong. 417 children’s cosmetics have been registered, and 21,363 children’s cosmetics have been confirmed for filing. The main products are skin care products and hair care products.
Why do children’s cosmetics enterprises in Guangdong focus more on skin care? Wu Tunying explained that the new generation of parents are very willing to spend money on their children, and the development prospect of the domestic children’s cosmetics market is very broad in the next 3-5 years. However, the field of children’s make-up is still in the period of industry standardization and adjustment, and the basic research and industry rules are still not perfect. Therefore, mother kangaroo has no plans to enter the make-up industry at present. "We also hope that a list of banned raw materials for children’s cosmetics can be issued at the national level to give clearer guidance."
The reporter found that Johnson & Johnson, Frog Prince, Pigeon and Red Elephant have gradually become the head enterprises in the children’s skin care market. However, in the field of makeup, most parents and producers still demand "play", which also leads to the toy enterprises in the makeup market.
"Children’s cosmetics have been the focus of supervision by Guangdong Drug Administration in recent years, and the supervision work has also achieved certain results, but the existing individual problems cannot be underestimated." The relevant person in charge of the Guangdong Food and Drug Administration told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the existing problems mainly lie in the following aspects: First, some children’s cosmetics production enterprises have not implemented the main responsibility in place, lacking the necessary awareness of product quality and safety, and there are problems such as lax inspection of raw materials and failure to strictly implement product quality and safety process control measures; Second, some operating enterprises have not fulfilled the obligations of claiming tickets and certificates and managing accounts, and there are problems such as selling unregistered children’s cosmetics; Third, some third-party online sales platforms have not effectively managed the online operators and the children’s cosmetics they sell, and there are blind spots and breakpoints in supervision.
"We will take the resident skin care children’s cosmetics as the key variety of supervision, and the mainstream business districts and centralized trading markets in the city as the key areas of supervision, strictly control product access and quality, and carry out full-coverage sampling inspection of the resident children’s cosmetics produced this year, and carry out supervision and sampling inspection of other children’s cosmetics according to work needs, and severely investigate and deal with serious violations involving children’s cosmetics." The relevant person in charge of the Provincial Food and Drug Administration said.
In addition, in view of the problem that some children’s cosmetics on the current e-commerce platform are packaged into toy boxes for sale, and the shops on the shelves are also toy franchise stores, the Provincial Food and Drug Administration stressed that "toys" are not cosmetics. In the future, the Guangdong Provincial Drug Administration will do a good job in publicizing laws and regulations in accordance with the new regulations, further strengthen supervision, and continue to increase supervision and inspection of children’s cosmetics production and operation enterprises.