WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- While Digital Age consumers have demanded greater safety in the products they use and more oversight by the U.S. government, one category has languished in an unrestricted Wild West. With the last major federal law regulating beauty products passed 77 years ago – under President Franklin Roosevelt – experts are preparing to head to Capitol Hill, including Gregg Renfrew, founder & CEO of Beautycounter, a disruptive beauty brand that develops and sells safer and effective skin care and cosmetics.
An outspoken champion of protecting public health from harmful ingredients found in everyday consumer products, Ms. Renfrew will join other industry experts at a Congressional briefing, on November 17th in the Senate Dirksen Building in Washington D.C where they will show how the current cosmetics industry is broken, from the use of harmful ingredients to lack of transparency in the supply chain. Additionally, Renfrew will be meeting with Senators asking for their leadership on cosmetic safety reform.
"Nearly every major consumer category has undergone radical change in recent years – from food to entertainment to transportation. But not the beauty industry, where companies are legally allowed to use ingredients linked to breast cancer, infertility, early puberty and other health issues. Consumers are demanding more transparency and regulation, and I hope to help lead this movement that gets toxic ingredients out of the products that people use on their skin everyday," said Renfrew, who launched Beautycounter in 2013 with the explicit mission to create safe and innovative beauty and skincare products.
While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates food, tobacco, medications and other products, the $200 billion cosmetic industry remains virtually unsupervised. Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, beauty products, with the exception of color additives, do not require FDA approval before they go on the market, leaving companies to ensure their safety. Nearly 1,400 ingredients are banned from personal care products in the European Union; the United States has only partially restricted 11. There is also a dearth of information on safety – only about 10% of the 10,000 ingredients used in the skincare industry have safety data.
Renfrew's trip to DC comes on the heels of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics ground breaking report which sites that environmental pollution, including toxic chemicals in consumer products, is an important factor in women's health; the report specifically addresses pre-natal exposures to toxic chemicals and the impacts on the developing fetus. Also recently in the news, one of the best peer-reviewed journals Environmental Health Perspectives published yet another article showing that chemicals in personal care products may stimulate cancer cells more than originally thought.
"At Beautycounter, we are leading a movement for better beauty. We are a company who is pro-commerce and pro-regulation. While we have shipped close to 2 million products, we know it's only the beginning – there is a lot of work to be done. We are radically transforming the beauty industry by introducing safer, high-performance products into the marketplace," said Renfrew.
About Beautycounter
Beautycounter, which launched in March of 2013, is a beauty and skincare brand with the mission to get safe products into the hands of everyone. Beautycounter has created unparalleled transparency and safety in the personal care industry—a severely under-regulated space where companies are legally allowed to use ingredients linked to breast cancer, infertility, and other health issues in the products we use every day. Founded by Gregg Renfrew, Beautycounter launched with innovative skincare and beauty products and developed a new health and safety standard, the Ingredient Selection Process, which is the most rigorous of its kind in the industry. Beautycounter sells through a network of independent consultants, online and through strategic partnerships like J.Crew and Goop. For more information, visit www.beautycounter.com.
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SOURCE Beautycounter
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