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The National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation (NIFDS) under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) released the " Functional Cosmetics Evaluation Status in 2024 H1" on July 30, 20241. Upon the release, MFDS expects these data to serve as a basic resource for functional cosmetic research and development.
In the first half of 2024, a total of 572 functional cosmetics were evaluated by the Korean authority, up 48 (9%) compared to the same period last year (524). The UV-filters accounted for the largest share with 169, followed by hair dyes, triple efficacy products (whitening, wrinkle improvement and UV protection) and cosmetics that help alleviate hair loss.
Notably, hair dyes (including de-dyeing and bleaching) increased significantly from 29 cases in 2023 H1 to 143 cases in 2024 H1. This is likely due to the industry's active development of hair dye products of diverse colors to respond to consumer demand.
Functional Cosmetic Evaluation Status by Efficacy
Efficacy | Evaluation case | ||||||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |||||
H1 | H2 | H1 | H2 | H1 | Ratio(%) | ||
Functional cosmetic with single efficacy | Whitening | 17 | 13 | 20 | 17 | 21 | 5.1 |
Wrinkle improvement | 20 | 13 | 16 | 10 | 19 | 4.6 | |
UV-filter | 176 | 190 | 192 | 150 | 169 | 40.9 | |
Hair dyes (including de-dyeing and bleaching) | 39 | 29 | 29 | 23 | 143 | 34.7 | |
Body hair removing | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | |
Alopecia alleviation | 17 | 46 | 72 | 59 | 32 | 7.8 | |
Acneiform skin alleviation | 26 | 30 | 24 | 24 | 23 | 5.6 | |
Helping restore the skin barrier function to relieve the skin itching | 3 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 5 | 1.2 | |
Helping thin stretch marks | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0.2 | |
Subtotal | 299 | 329 | 366 | 298 | 413 | 100 | |
Functional cosmetic with dual efficacies | Whitening + wrinkle improvement | 76 | 46 | 36 | 24 | 31 | 52.6 |
Whitening + UV-filter | 14 | 12 | 18 | 12 | 12 | 20.3 | |
Wrinkle improvement + UV-filter | 15 | 18 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 27.1 | |
Subtotal | 105 | 76 | 66 | 50 | 59 | 100 | |
Functional cosmetic with triple efficacies | Whitening + wrinkle improvement+ UV-filter | 81 | 84 | 92 | 67 | 93 | 100 |
Whitening + wrinkle improvement + skin barrier function restorage | - | - | - | 2 | - | - | |
Subtotal | 81 | 84 | 92 | 69 | 93 | 100 | |
Functional cosmetic with quadruple efficacies | Whitening + wrinkle improvement + UV-filter + skin barrier function restorage | - | - | - | 3 | 7 | 100 |
Total | 485 | 489 | 524 | 420 | 572 | 100 | |
ChemLinked Notes
Functional cosmetic is under special supervision in South Korea. MFDS has published a regulation named Korean Functional Cosmetics Codex (KFCC)2, which lists the scope of noticed functional ingredients. These ingredients can be made into functional cosmetics without MFDS evaluation. However, for cosmetics whose functional ingredient is not listed in the KFCC, the product should undergo an evaluation conducted by MFDS.
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