South Korea Implements Revised Cosmetic Safety Standard

Earlier ChemLinked reported that South Korea consulted on amendments to Cosmetic Safety Standard ^[1]. Recently on April 1, 2019, South Korea officially implemented the revised Cosmetics Safety Standard ^[2] (except for newly prohibited ingredients).

The main amendments are as follows:

1) Newly added prohibited ingredients:

Ingredients	CAS Number
Nitromethane (Delete it from the list of restricted ingredients. Currently the limitation is 0.3%.)	75-52-5
Methylene glycol	463-57-0
2,6-Dihydroxy-4-methyl-benzaldehyde (Atranol)	526-37-4
3-Chloro-2,6-Dihydroxy-4-methyl-benzaldehyde (Chloroatranol)	57074-21-2
Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde (HICC)	51414-25-6/31906-04-4
Prohibited ingredients stipulated in the Article 2, Clause 9 and Article 27 of Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemicals (K-REACH)	/

Prohibition on the use of these ingredients mentioned above will begin on Oct. 1^st, 2019. Cosmetics using these ingredients can be manufactured or imported until Oct. 1^st, 2019. After Oct. 1^st, 2019, these cosmetics can continue to be sold, displayed or kept until Oct. 1^st, 2021.

2) Improve the pretreatment of methanol testing method and microorganisms samples.

Pretreatment of methanol testing method is improved. Methanol is a prohibited ingredient, but sometimes it is not artificially added but rather a byproduct of manufacturing. Mass Spectrographic analysis is added as a confirmation test once methanol is detected.
Pretreatment of microorganisms samples is improved.

3) Change the term "sterilization preservatives" in Article 8 of the Cosmetics Act to "preservatives"

Transitional Measure:
Cosmetics manufactured or imported in accordance with previous regulations may continue to be sold, displayed, or kept until April 1, 2021.