Beautycounter’s Gregg RenfrewBeautycounter’s Gregg RenfrewTestified in CongressionalTestified in CongressionalHearing on Cosmetic ReformHearing on Cosmetic Reform"Congress heard us loud and clear," Renfrew shared with WWD."Congress heard us loud and clear," Renfrew shared with WWD."Yesterday’s efforts are moving us in the right direction, and I look"Yesterday’s efforts are moving us in the right direction, and I lookforward to continuing to work with members of Congress on thisforward to continuing to work with members of Congress on thisimportant piece of legislation."important piece of legislation."

BEAUTY / PRODUCTS

By Ryma Chikhoune on December 6, 2019

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“It has been 81 long years since Congress has passed any laws to

make sure our beauty products are safe, and now is the time to

act,” shared Gregg Renfrew, founder and chief executive officer

of Beautycounter, in a statement to WWD.

Renfrew, a longtime advocate of clean beauty, testified

Wednesday as an expert witness in a hearing on cosmetics

reform held by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee

on Health in Washington, D.C.

“Beautycounter has proven that it’s possible to protect the

health of our customers and of those around us while building a

business,” continued Renfrew, who founded the company in

2013.

Direct-to-consumer Beautycounter has banned more than 1,500

ingredients from its own formulations, while the U.S. has

banned 30, according to the skin-care and cosmetics brand,

which aims to make clean beauty the standard in the industry.

“Congress heard us loud and clear. Yesterday’s efforts are

moving us in the right direction, and I look forward to

continuing to work with members of Congress on this important

piece of legislation,” Renfrew said.

Entitled “Building Consumer Confidence by Empowering FDA

to Improve Cosmetic Safety,” the hearing, led by committee

chairwoman Anna Eshoo and ranking member Michael Burgess,

Beautycounter's Gregg Renfrew in Washington

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T R E N D I N G

centered on the role of the Food and Drug Administration in

protecting consumers of cosmetics.

“The current absence of modern, federal safety regulations

governing the beauty industry force businesses like

Beautycounter to make their own determinations about the

safety of products,” said Renfrew, who’s based in Santa Monica,

Calif., at the hearing. “And though mission-driven companies

are integral to social innovation, there is inherent risk of

comprehensive change not being adopted in the absence of

legislative reform….We believe that how Congress defines what

is safe is one of the most important elements of reform. By

creating a strong safety standard in this bill, Congress has the

opportunity to protect the health of American families, while

making sure that our business community is keeping pace with

international markets, many of whom have long demanded

greater oversight of ingredients.”

Legislation introduced earlier this year includes the Cosmetic

Safety Enhancement Act of 2019 and Safe Cosmetics and

Personal Care Products Act of 2019, both created to protect users

of cosmetics. But as it stands, federal law doesn’t demand for

cosmetics ingredients, other than color additives, to have the

approval of the FDA before hitting the market.

“The industry looks very different than it did in 1938 when FDA

was given regulatory authority over cosmetics,” Dr. Susan

Mayne, director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied

Nutrition at the FDA, said during the hearing. “These changes

help bring new opportunities and choices to consumers. There

are now more varieties of cosmetic products available to

consumers than ever before, and consumers enjoy this wide

variety of cosmetic products offered at many price points. We

are aware of estimates that the U.S. cosmetics industry may be

larger than $80 billion in terms of annual sales. But at the same

time, our authority over cosmetics has not modernized even as

the industry has undergone rapid evolution.”

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