The challenges of placing a cosmetic product into the EU market
From the ancient Egyptians first cosmetics to the innovative and advanced formulations that we see nowadays, cosmetic products have been making part of our daily life for thousands of years, covering a broad group of categories, from body to beauty products.
Over the last few years, we have been seeing an exponential growth of the cosmetic industry, following the technical and scientific progress and the changes in consumer expectations and demands.
To ensure the highest level of consumer safety, cosmetic products are strictly regulated, requiring the preparation of technical and scientific documentation to provide evidence of their safety.
Currently, the European Commission establishes the EC Regulation No. 1223/2009 as the main regulatory framework for cosmetic products. According to the Regulation, in order to place a cosmetic product into the European Market, the following conditions must be met:
- Designation of a Responsible Person
- Labelling and ingredients compliance
- Preparation of the Product Information File (PIF), including the Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR)
- Notification to the European Commission, through the Cosmetic Product Notification Portal (CPNP)
Since the legislation has been harmonized for all state members, all products that meet these regulatory requirements have the same and immediate access to the market and may freely circulate within the European Union.
In fact, the cosmetic industry has contributed to the economic growth and prosperity of the national markets all across the European Union, representing a highly innovative and constantly changing sector. Accordingly, the European Commission has been working hard on updating the regulatory requirements to ensure consumer safety.
As a result, preparing the entry of a cosmetic product in the EU market has proved to be an increasingly complex process for manufacturers, consuming time and resources also needed for other tasks and being prone to data errors and delays.
There is, therefore, a growing need to conceive strategies to simplify and expedite the processes, contributing to a greater and permanent scientific rigour in all stages of cosmetic development, from the choice of the ingredients to the market entry.
In the increasingly digital society in which we live, to innovate and to invest in tools in order to save time and resources, while improving operational efficiency and quality and ensuring compliance with the most demanding regulatory standards, stands out as the best strategy to face off these true challenges, thus ensuring that we will found safe and quality cosmetic products on the shelves.
Our solution
Being aware of the complexity and slowness of the cosmetic regulatory process, we developed an innovative tool focused on helping Responsible Persons to improve their operational efficiency while ensuring the safety of cosmetic products.
Cosmedesk is a web-based regulatory software that offers a fast and easy way to comply with Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, allowing you to efficiently manage all your cosmetic products data, from the ingredients’ creation to the generation of the required regulatory documents, helping you to perform the label review, to handle ingredients restrictions and to keep all the documents organized during the product life cycle.