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Transparency

The big picture: The beauty and personal industry is united in its commitment to promote greater transparency and disclosure around its products. We believe everyone deserves the right to know what’s in their products. Not only do they have a right to know, they have a right to understand.

Industry’s commitment: PCPC member companies provide more product information than is required by law, continuing to add more detailed information about ingredients, as well as ethical sourcing, safety and resource-efficient production.

  • Under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA), all beauty and personal care products companies must disclose certain information on products sold at retail: declaration of ingredients; statement of identity; net weight; directions for use; and name and location of the manufacturer, packer or distributor.
    • Since 1967, this regulation dramatically enhanced consumers’ right to know what’s in the products they use and trust, and allows them to make informed decisions to suit the needs of their family and lifestyle.
    • PCPC and our member companies have long supported extending FPLA label requirements beyond products sold at retail to include “professional-use” products in salons, including advocating for legislation to this effect in California.
  • The International Fragrance Association (IFRA) has taken a series of voluntary steps to enhance transparency on ingredients used in fragrances supplied to consumer goods manufacturers, including the cosmetics and personal care products industry. The IFRA Transparency List sets out the ‘palette’ of ingredients use.

PCPC’s role:

  • PCPC instituted a Consumer Commitment Codein 2006 to strengthen practices already in place for many companies and to incorporate new practices, such as a Safety Information Summary Program, which made cosmetics product and ingredient safety information readily available to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) of 2022 made most of the Code’s voluntary provisions mandatory, thus precluding the need for a voluntary Code (appendices).  
  • PCPC is working to develop approaches for fragrance ingredient disclosure in response to increasing consumer demand for greater transparency, while still protecting intellectual property and business know-how.