Cosmetics for Children Should Not be Regarded as Children's Toys

Recently, China also implemented a campaign for refuting rumors about cosmetics. Among it, it specifies that children's cosmetics and toys are two different categories of products. Thus, if a child's product meets the definition of a cosmetic, it should be regulated as cosmetic.

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Recently, on the occasion of International Skin Care Day, China also implemented a “national cosmetic safety week”, and children's cosmetic safety remains a key concern for Chinese local drug regulatory authorities.

On May 25, the famous Chinese news website Xinhuanet and China's Piyao Organization for refuting the rumor jointly released the "2022 Cosmetics-related Rumors Refuting List" to educate people about the correct use of cosmetics and to guide consumers to enhance their awareness of the scientific and safe use of cosmetics. The list indicates that some toys on the "children's dressing table" including eye shadow, blush, lipstick, nail polish, etc., are hot-selling in the market. In fact, many of these products are produced by toy manufacturers for dolls and other decorative toy products but not as cosmetics management. Children will be misused for such toys as cosmetics there are certain safety risks.

Cosmetics and toys are two different categories of products, according to different laws and regulations to implement the management, its management measures and requirements are not the same. According to the Regulation on the Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics, cosmetics are applied to the skin, hair, nails, lips and other human surfaces to clean, protect, beautify, and decorate for the purpose of daily use of chemical industrial products. In simple words, products applied to the surface of the human body are cosmetics and should be managed under the regulations for cosmetics. Products simply applied to toys such as dolls are not cosmetics and should be managed following the regulations for toys or other products. If a product meets the definition of a cosmetic, it is a cosmetic whether it is sold separately or together with other products such as toys.

According to the Cosmetic Classification Rules and Catalogs issued by the National Medical Products Administration, cosmetics for children aged 3-12 can include claims of beauty touch-ups and makeup removal, while cosmetics for infants and children aged 0-3 are limited to claims of cleansing, moisturizing, hair care, sun protection, soothing and toning. In other words, cosmetics for infants and toddlers under the age of 3 do not include the category of "makeup". Therefore, it is illegal for makeup cosmetics to be labeled as available for infants under the age of 3.

In recent times, CHAILEEDO has found that most cosmetic products on Chinese e-commerce platforms are labeled "for children", but the store's customer service said that this claim refers to the product's efficacy of mild but not that it is for children. In response to this marketing behavior, an industry source said, "The target consumer group of some products claimed that pregnant women are available and children are available sometimes is not necessarily pregnant women or children, which is a way to imply to consumers that the product is safe and mild."

The Provisions on the Supervision and Administration of Children's Cosmetics (hereinafter referred to as the Provisions) indicated that the logo "for the whole population" "for the whole family" and other words or the use of trademarks, patterns, harmonics, letters, pinyin, numbers, symbols, packaging forms, etc. implying that the product's targeted population containing children should be by the management of children's cosmetics.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, along with the liberalization of the three-child policy and the upgrading of consumer demand, children's cosmetics ushered in a huge opportunity. Public data showed that in 2021, China's 0-3-year-old baby care market size will grow from $1 billion in 2016 to $2.6 billion. And in 2020 alone, children's makeup consumption grew by 300% year-on-year and children's skincare consumption grew by 250% year-on-year.

The increasingly large market for children's cosmetics has also exposed some past violations to a greater extent to consumers and regulators.

In terms of platform regulation, China's major e-commerce platforms such as TikTok and Taobao have also introduced management rules for children's cosmetics. Not long ago, TikTok E-commerce launched new rules for the release and promotion of children's cosmetic products, which comprehensively regulate the release, promotion, and treatment of violations of children's cosmetic products.

There is no denying that regulation has clearly acted as a strong deterrent to illegal behavior by merchants. For example, today, on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, CHAILEEDO searched "children's makeup" as a keyword, and it was found that the majority of merchants can provide their sales of children's makeup products for filling record numbers. The merchants who sell children's lipstick/lipstick balm mostly promoted their products by indicating their products are inedible.