Beautycounter Celebrates Progress on Advocacy, Mobilizes Its Community To Continue Efforts

Beautycounter has paved the way for cosmetic reform; its advocacy efforts have resulted in the passage of 10 pieces of legislation since 2011

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Beautycounter, the leader in clean beauty, today is recognizing the 84th anniversary of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1938. Despite the industry's growth in the last 84 years, these regulations have stood largely unchanged and continue to govern the $63B U.S. beauty industry.

Gregg Renfrew – Founder and Executive Chair of Beautycounter – has led the way for advocacy in the beauty industry. She was selected as the first founder of a clean beauty brand to testify in front of Congress in 2019, and the brand's advocacy has resulted in the passage of 10 pieces of legislation since Beautycounter was founded in 2011. Beautycounter has made significant progress on policy change over the last decade to better protect the health and safety of consumers and is continuing to drive advocacy work this year. 

Most recently, Beautycounter has been working alongside federal lawmakers to advance and advocate for key changes to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements Act (FDASLA), which would modernize cosmetic regulation and oversight. The legislation includes the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, which would update the FDA's regulation of cosmetics and personal-care products in the United States. While FDASLA presents an important step forward, Beautycounter has proposed several key changes to the bill – outlined in detail here – before it becomes law to ensure that all cosmetics and personal-care products are free from harmful chemicals. The proposed changes include:

• Banning the use of PFAS from raw materials and packaging used in cosmetics.
• Addressing the scope of federal preemption to ensure that states can legislate to strengthen personal-care product safety. This would protect states' abilities to enact their own laws and regulations that protect the health and wellness of their residents.
• Establishing a strong standard for safety requiring a "reasonable certainty of no harm" before a product can be sold to consumers.

"Since the last major cosmetics bill passed in 1938, tens of thousands of new products and chemicals have been introduced on the market," said Beautycounter Founder and Executive Chair Gregg Renfrew. "However, because the FDA does not have sufficient capacity and authority to screen ingredients for safety and recall products in the personal-care industry, many formulas remain largely unchecked and individual companies are left to determine what they deem to be safe. These concerns are exactly why Beautycounter has been part of the movement for change since we launched, and why we continue to encourage consumers to use their collective voice to demand strong and comprehensive legislation."

To further mobilize its community around this shared cause, Beautycounter is launching a text action campaign to empower people to advocate for its recommended changes to the FDASLA and raise the standards of the beauty industry overall. The brand will encourage consumers, its community of 50,000+ Brand Advocates, and members of its Counteract Coalition (a collective of businesses working together to help pass more health-protective laws in the beauty industry) to text BETTERBEAUTY to 52886 in the U.S. and 18888867542 in Canada. By texting, people interested in advocating for cleaner beauty will be able to easily access suggested correspondence to send to their local representatives.

This is one of many ways that Beautycounter has encouraged its community to be a part of creating a future where all beauty is clean beauty. For nearly a decade, Beautycounter has advocated for better health-protective legislation that would allow the FDA to regulate the industry more effectively. Beautycounter and its community have sent over 236,000 emails, made 16,000 calls, and held 2,200 meetings with legislators in the U.S. and Canada, urging lawmakers to support cosmetic reform. The brand's efforts have led to the passage of 10 pieces of legislation and is currently working on nine more. In April 2022, Beautycounter led a lobby day in Washington, D.C., where 225 Brand Advocates held over 50 meetings with lawmakers to advocate for more health-protective legislation to reform the beauty industry.

Founded by Gregg Renfrew in 2011 and launched in 2013, Beautycounter is the leader in cleaner skin care and cosmetics whose mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone. A certified B Corporation, the Santa Monica, CA-based brand leads the way for improved transparency and accountability in the beauty industry, including advocacy efforts to update federal regulations that have stood largely unchanged since 1938. Beautycounter is an omnichannel brand and is available today online, in physical retail stores, through strategic partnerships, and through its community of independent sellers across North America. Beautycounter offers more than 100 products that have earned numerous awards, including Fast Company's Most Innovative, Allure's Best of Beauty, Glamour's Beauty Awards, Refinery29's Innovators List, WWD's 2019 Best-Performing Beauty Company, and CNBC's Disruptor 50. For more information, visit www.beautycounter.com, follow on Instagram @beautycounter, Twitter @beautycounterhq, and Facebook @beautycounterhq.

SOURCE Beautycounter