South Korea Consults on Cosmetic Colorants New Requirements

Pigment Red 5 is newly added as a colorant applied in solid soaps. 6 colorants that are irritating to the cornea are prohibited from being used around eyes and 2 colorants are prohibited from use in baby and children cosmetics.

On May 31st, 2019, South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) released an announcement amending Guidance on Category Management, Standard and Testing Methods for Cosmetics Colorants ^[1]. Public consultation will last until June 20^th, 2019. Any suggestions can be mailed to [email protected]^[2].

The main amendments are as follows:

1. Pigment Red 5 is newly added as the colorant applied in solid soaps. Solid soaps will be classified as cosmetics on Dec. 31, 2019 ^[3]. To align with the conversion, Pigment Red 5 is newly added in the list of permitted colorants for cosmetics. It is only applied to solid soaps.

No.	Colorants	Color Index	Note
127	Pigment Red 5	CI 12490	Can only be applied to solid soaps

2. Six colorants that are irritating to the cornea are prohibited from being used around eyes. The area around eyes include eyebrow, eyelid, eyelash, and eyes (eyeballs, conjunctival sac and sclera). The 6 colorants are as follows:

The Original No.	Colorants	Color Index	Note
24	Dibromofluorescein	CI 45370:1	Cannot be used around eyes
29	Eosine YS	CI 45380
30	Phloxine B	CI 45410
31	Phloxine BK	CI 45410
34	Tetrachlorotetrabromofluorescein	CI 45410:1
36	Tetrabromofluorescein	CI 45380:2

3. The following 2 colorants are prohibited from being used in baby and children cosmetics.

The Original No.	Colorants	Color Index	Note
26	Amaranth	CI 16185	Cannot be applied to baby and children cosmetics
28	New Coccine	CI 16255	Cannot be applied to baby and children cosmetics