In China, foreign manufacturers are required to register cosmetics before products are allowed on to the market, the government body must also determine whether there is a new, prohibited or restricted ingredient being registered.
According to regulatory specialist April Guo, the inventory is extremely important and will be completed in three batches, with the last to be published at the end of the year.
Second batch
There are 673 ingredients in the second batch of the inventory. The first was revised in May and includes 1674 cosmetic ingredients.
As outlined by hygiene supervision over cosmetics (1990), the use of new ingredients for cosmetics production must be approved first. The rules for the application of administrative licenses for cosmetics (2009) have also clearly indicated that the use of new ingredient in cosmetics in China must be licensed.
Guo tells CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that an ingredient will be regarded as ‘used’ if it is included in the IECIC in China (2003 or 2012) and is not a banned substance; has been used in a licensed special use cosmetic product; or is part of a plant that has been approved as cosmetic ingredient.
The table below highlights the progress since 2003.
The deadline for comments on the second batch is the 15th of July.