Ever since the new regulations (RSAC, Regulations on Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics) came into force on 1st Jan, sets of guidance documents have been quick to roll out to ensure effective implementation of RSAC.

Just recently National Institute for Food and Drug Control released two drafts for public comments, List of Prohibited Cosmetic Ingredients and List of Prohibited Plant (Animal) Cosmetic Ingredients. Based on Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics 2015, the major changes include:

adding 17 prohibited ingredients including Tagetes Erecta and Boric acid; amending 13 prohibited ingredients and 27 prohibited plant/animal ingredients; classifying and combining prohibited drug ingredients to categories like anti-infection drugs, antihistamines and endocrine drugs.

Both will be finalized as separate technical regulatory documentation or mandatory national standards.

China Tackling E-commerce Packaging Waste

The daily number of parcels delivered is over 240 million, revealed by the State Post Bureau when picturing China's express delivery market at the latest press conference. And predominantly, it is due to soaring online shopping, and consequently putting greater strain on the environment with an overwhelming amount of throwaway packaging. Time to act, so said the authority, which passed Administrative Measures on Express Parcel Packaging this Feb and started the implementation in Mar.

The new regulation, while setting requirements for all parties in the express delivery sector, garners plenty of attention from the cosmetic industry. It is unsurprising, given the fact that China is already the world’s largest e-commerce market for skin care and second largest for makeup, according to NPD China. In short, environmentally friendly is a must for today’s parcel packaging, including choosing green packaging materials from an approved list, and prioritizing the use of reusable and recyclable packaging, as well as avoiding excessive packaging and over-wrapping. The authority also launches a year-long campaign this month to ensure the compliance.

Makeup Trending Higher in China

Let’s keep a close eye on makeup, or face mask makeup in China, to be accurate. According the latest CBN Data report, Insights into Life Quality of China’s Women 2021, color cosmetic is high on the women’s list in terms of online purchasing. While base, lip and eye makeup categories are still leading the way in the sector, underneath this obvious trend, something new is happening.

Take base makeup as an example, with foundation and primer still dominant, contouring and highlighting products are growing at a much higher pace. In eye makeup category, eye shadow is still prominent, but eye liner is showing the fastest growth, with bright colors now preferred over other popular claims such as smudge-proof and long-lasting. And all these drive the segmentation and premiumization of makeup remover / cleanser, pointed by the report, leading to so called “cleaning based on different skin types, issues under different occasions”.