The NMPA (National Medical Products Administration) announced (No.123-2021) the regulations on the supervision and administration of children’s cosmetics on October 8, 2021, which will be implemented on January 1, 2022. This clarifies how companies should register their children cosmetics products in China.
Highlights
- Definition of children’s cosmetics: Cosmetics that are suitable for children under the age of 12 (including 12 years old) and have the functions of cleansing, moisturizing, tanning, and sun protection.
- Outer packaging and advertising: Products using wordings such as “Applicable to the whole population”, “Intended to be used by the whole family”, etc. or trademarks, homophones, patterns, letters, Chinese pinyin, numbers, symbols, packaging forms, etc. that implies children as one of the user groups will be considered as children cosmetics.
- The cosmetics registrant and filer shall be responsible for the quality, safety and efficacy claims of children’s cosmetics.
- As required by the NMPA, the children’s cosmetics mark should be displayed on the sales packaging of children’s cosmetics only.
- Children’s cosmetics should be labelled with “Caution” and “Warning” wordings and “should be used under adult supervision” on the visible area of the sales package.
- The formula of children’s cosmetics:
- Include cosmetic raw materials with a long history of safe use; raw materials with the adoption of new technologies such as genetic technology and nanotechnology are not allowed;
- Not allowed to use raw materials for the purpose of freckle whitening, acne removal, hair removal, deodorization, dandruff prevention, hair loss prevention, hair dyeing, perming, etc.;
- Should evaluate the raw materials in terms of safety, stability, function, compatibility, etc., especially flavors, colorants, preservatives and surfactants.
- Children’s cosmetics should be evaluated for product safety through safety assessment and necessary toxicological tests.
- Registrants, filers, and entrusted manufacturing enterprises shall take measures to avoid confusion between the properties, smell, and appearance of children’s cosmetics and food, medicines and other products, and to prevent accidental ingestion and misuse.
- The labelling of children’s cosmetics shall not contain wordings such as “food grade”, “edible”, or food-related patterns.
- Children’s toothpaste can refer to this regulation.
As the regulation on the supervision and administration of children’s cosmetics will come into effect on January 1, 2022, a transitional period is given to the registrants and filers to ensure that the labelling of their products comply with this regulation by May 1, 2023. An announcement will be made separately for the children’s cosmetics logo on a later date.
By James Xu. Contact Cisema if you would like to learn more.
