Nowadays, in China, Children have their own beauty makeup box, lipstick, eye shadow, blush, nail polish, and so on just like the western kids. According to data released by Koala International in July 2020, the sale volume of children’s cosmetics increased by 300% year-on-year; in May 2020, the overall sales of children’s cosmetics increased by more than 1,200%. However, at present, there are various safety problems of children’s cosmetics on the market.
Market Chaos
CCTV recently exposed that claims and advertisments of children’s cosmetics in the markets such as “healthy”, “non-toxic”, “water-soluble formula”, “natural ingredients”, “mild and non-irritating” and “preservative-free” do not actually comply with relevant cosmetics regulations. Some of the best-selling children’s cosmetics on the market are problem products and fake cosmetics.
According to“Guidelines for the Application and Evaluation of Children’s Cosmetics”, all cosmetics that are claimed applicable to children should be declared as children’s cosmetics in accordance with the requirements. For cosmetics that are not applied for children, the product packaging shall not be displayed or implied in any patterns or other forms as children’s cosmetics.
However, some brands tried to avoid this policy by rename products as dress-up toys instead of cosmetics, or only apply as adult cosmetics and advertise the products are Children applicable later. So the safety of the products cannot be guaranteed due to such illegal activities.
If you search online stores, the packaging of children cosmetic is mostly gorgeous and cute, and the product introduction page will be labeled as “healthy”, “non-toxic”, “water-soluble formula”, “natural ingredients”, “mild and non-irritating”, “preservative-free”, etc., Some of the products may even claim food grade and environmentally friendly children’s makeup.
The price ranges from 10 RMB to several hundred RMB. The sales volume is also very impressive. Many products have monthly sales of 1,000+. Some of the top selling products usually will reach more than 5000 pieces a month in sales.
Parents bought cosmetic kits for their children because the promotion of the product is healthy and safe with relatively low prices. But on the contrary, the fact can be found in the buyer review area , parents leave a massive negative review on the products:
“The smell is too irritating, I don’t know what it is made of”, “I used a face of fluorescent powder, I can’t wash it off”, “My child is a little allergic after using it,” “It is not recommended to buy if the child is too young, it is simply a disaster” and other evaluations have repeatedly appeared.
We noticed that many of the stores with the top sales of children’s makeup kits on the e-commerce platform are selling toys as a mean business. Some of the shops indeed have provided test reports and claim to meet the requirements of the “Cosmetics Hygiene Regulations”, but some shops just claim that the total number of colonies meets the hygienic specifications and does not provide other quality inspection certificates. Even if the store has exposed the test report, if you carefully identify it, you will find that the name of the sample submitted for inspection by some merchants is a cosmetic toy, not a cosmetic.
Government measures
After media criticisms and exposure to the problems of Children’s cosmetics, now the inspection of NMPA goes nationwide. Yesterday, CosmeticsBridge learned that in order to severely crackdown on illegal additions to cosmetics and other illegal activities, the Liaoning Provincial NMPA has launched a special inspection for children’s cosmetics at the end of March this year, and it will last 9 months.
This inspection focus on checking whether the product label has illegal claims of efficacy and whether the product formula meets safety and quality requirements;
In the production process, full coverage supervision and inspection of children’s cosmetics manufacturers will be carried out, focusing on the source of raw materials and whether the products are produced in accordance with the registered or filed formulas;
Also they will carry out inspection of cosmetics e-commerce platforms, focusing on checking whether they have implemented real-name registration and effective management of the store operators on the platform, and whether they sell illegal children’s cosmetics on the platform.
In Anhui, Sichuan, Shanxi, and other provinces, most of the local NMPA also began to supervise and rectify the children’s cosmetics market.
Among them, Anhui mainly inspects license qualifications, raw material safety, quality control, and sales of non-certified products; Shanxi focuses on investigating the production and operation of illegally added hormones, anti-infective drugs, and other problematic products, fake and inferior cosmetics, etc; Sichuan is conducting key inspections of residential children’s cosmetics.
Regulatory requirements
The basic ingredients of cosmetics for adults and children are similar, they both contain propolis, glycerin, active agents, fragrances, pigments, and preservatives. But children’s cosmetics will usually add some ingredients such as vitamin C, vitamin D, and antibacterial substances.
However, the qualification levels and irritation requirements of children’s cosmetics in China are higher than adult cosmetics. For example, it is required the total number of bacterial colonies in adult cosmetics cannot be greater than 1000 CFU/ml, and the requirement for children’s cosmetics cannot be greater than 500 CFU/ml.
Meanwhile, the production of children’s cosmetics requires appropriate thickness, low irritation, and not too much foam and highly suggest avoiding adding fragrances.
Children’s cosmetics have higher safety requirements for the raw materials used in the products and it requires certain safe use history. It also must pass the safety assessment for children’s use before they can be put on the market as children’s products.
What are the key points for Children’s cosmetics labeling and packaging?
| 1 | The name or outer packaging must clearly indicate the terms “suitable for children/baby” (General cosmetics shall not be suggested as children’s cosmetics with phrases or patterns such as “the whole family”, “girl”, “cartoon image”, etc.) |
| 2 | Label precautions need to indicate the need for warning words such as “should be used under adult supervision” |
| 3 | The label must be marked with ingredients that have special requirements for children’s cosmetics in the 2015 version of the “Safety Technical Specifications for Cosmetics”: includes restricted ingredients and preservatives |
Product Safety Standards
| Testing | Testing Subject | Requirements |
| Microorganism | Consistent with General Cosmetics Requirements | Total number of colonies ≤500cfu/g（ml) |
| Heavy Metal | Consistent with General Cosmetics Requirements | / |
| Toxicology | Consistent with General Cosmetics Requirements | There should be no skin and eye irritation, no phototoxicity, no allergy |
| Risk Substance | Consistent with General Cosmetics Requirements | Risks caused by special ingredients such as benzene and anthraquinone |
Opportunities
The Business and market opportunities usually will be arisen when we can solve the client’s demands. Currently, in China, domestically made Children’s cosmetics are not safe and qualified enough to meet customers’ requirements. However, due to regulatory matters, there are limited overseas children’s cosmetics brands entered China.
As you can see from the following chart, before 2012, the general cosmetics still required to be registered in CFDA and it is difficult to get passed through the registration. But things changed after 2012, general cosmetics only need to do Notification and the “Guidelines for the Application and Evaluation of Children’s Cosmetics” is released to guide the brand’s compliances.
Therefore, starting in 2012, you can clearly find out the children cosmetics applications are increasing significantly, but still children cosmetics only account for 0.6% of the total number of imported general cosmetics notifications till 2020-06.
In conclusion, currently the imported children cosmetics are still not meeting the huge potential requirements of safe and good quality of children cosmetics. This could be your
Contact CosmeticsBridge, if you would like to register children’s cosmetics in China.
