1、 Safety of whitening products

For any product that requires skin contact with the human body, safety is more important than efficacy. If a product has amazing efficacy but causes peeling, tingling, pimples, and allergies on your face, then such a product must not be used.

So how do you confirm the safety of a whitening product? The country has standardized from two levels: functional raw materials and all raw materials.

1. Safety of functional raw materials

According to the requirements of the "Regulations on the Management of Registration and Filing Materials for Cosmetics", starting from January 1, 2022, when applying for registration or filing, the registrant shall provide safety related information on raw materials with functions such as anti-corrosion, sun protection, coloring, hair dyeing, freckle removal and whitening.

2. Safety of all raw materials

According to the requirements of the "Regulations on the Management of Registration and Filing Materials for Cosmetics", starting from January 1, 2023, when applying for registration or filing, the registrant shall provide safety related information of all raw materials. For cosmetics that have previously obtained registration or completed registration, the registrant and registrant shall provide additional safety related information for all raw materials in the product formula before May 1, 2023.

That is to say, by May 1st, 2023, a whitening product should have completed the safety information for all raw materials. You can purchase new production batches of whitening products from legitimate channels after May 1st, 2023.

2、 The efficacy of whitening products

Many whitening products fall into metaphysics. What merchants say is extravagant, but consumers use it with no effect. Pick up the ingredient list of the product and take a look. Either there are no whitening related ingredients at all, or the whitening related ingredients are listed at the end of the ingredient list, which is pitifully rare. They are only conceptual additions and cannot achieve the effective amount and produce actual effects.

The country has also introduced policies to address this chaos.

1. Human efficacy evaluation test

According to the "Regulations on the Evaluation of Cosmetic Efficacy Claims", starting from January 1, 2022, newly applied freckle removing and whitening cosmetics should undergo human efficacy evaluation tests and provide reports by cosmetics registration and filing inspection institutions in accordance with mandatory national standards and technical specifications. The cosmetics registrant should upload a summary of the product efficacy claim basis on a specialized website designated by the National Drug Administration.

2. Labeling of trace components

The "Measures for the Administration of Cosmetic Labeling", which came into effect on May 1, 2022, stipulate that all ingredients in cosmetic formulas that do not exceed 0.1% (w/w) shall be labeled separately with "other trace ingredients" as the guiding language.

That is to say, since May 1, 2022, legitimate whitening products purchased by consumers should theoretically have efficacy human efficacy evaluation test reports. At the same time, the ingredient list will also be more formal, and which trace ingredients are listed one by one. Consumers can use the ingredient list to determine which active ingredients are conceptual additions.

3、 Approval number for whitening products

Besides looking at the ingredient list, is there a simpler way to determine whether a whitening product is qualified?

Yes.

Freckle removing and whitening cosmetics must be registered with the National Drug Administration before they can be put on the market.

The approval number format for this type of product: domestic products are "Guozhuang Tezi G2020XXXX" (Guozhuang Tezi G+year+4-digit sequence number), while imported products are "Guozhuang Tejin Zi J2020XXXX" (Guozhuang Tejin Zi J+year+4-digit sequence number).

For example, the domestic freckle removal and whitening products approved in 2021 are "Guozhuang Tezi G2021XXXX", and the imported products are "Guozhuang Tejin Zi J2021XXXX". You can also verify the consistency between product registration information and the actual label information through the official website of the National Drug Administration or the "Cosmetics Supervision" app of the National Bureau.

So a more convenient way to choose whitening products is to directly look at the approval number, whether it is a unique approval number for whitening and freckle removal products.

4、 Precautions when purchasing whitening products

Of course, obtaining the national approval number for freckle removal and whitening does not mean that it is foolproof.

It should be noted that products that achieve skin whitening and whitening effects through physical covering in China are also managed under the category of freckle whitening cosmetics.

This type of product only serves as a temporary covering whitening effect and does not truly whiten the original skin color. Therefore, when choosing freckle whitening cosmetics, it is important to pay special attention to the differences between these two types of products.

You can view it through the ingredient table. Titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, mica, talc powder and other raw materials are commonly used physical whitening ingredients.

If there is a need for temporary emergency skin whitening, you can try this type of product. But in the true sense, physical masking cannot actually provide a whitening effect.

The product category on the approval documents for this type of product is printed with the words "freckle removal and whitening (only with physical covering effect)", and the label of such products also needs to be clearly marked with "only with physical covering effect" to distinguish.