As we are sure you will be aware last week Britain voted to leave the European Union. The situation is still reasonably unclear, and until that point it is hard to predict how this will effect both our business, and those of our customers.
We are a positive bunch here at Naturallythinking and we believe with every change comes opportunities. So, we will be following with interest as the political and economic situation unfolds and always looking to work with the situation. As always we are excited for the future and our upcoming projects, which will include increasing our local employment opportunities and increasing our apprentices in the near future.
There are some great new online developments for our customers that we are excited about and we are focusing on improving and developing our services. We have been working away in our development lab already this week, creating a new range of spectacular products.
We expect that there will be some fluctuations and increases in the cost of imports, which will effect our raw material costs. However, we will be able to absorb these costs until at least the end of 2016.
With regards to EU Cosmetics legislation, and particularly Cosmetic Product Safety Reports it is unclear at this stage what will happen. We will track the situation and keep our customers informed of any information we receive.
If or when things do change we will be working on the most flexible solution we can to help everyone keep their products legal.
Hello
Being a start up craft business and not making any money from selling skin care products made from 100% ingredients, what is the penalty from not having a cosmetic product report being carried out?
All of the labels on the products comply with the law.
Thanks
Firstly it is illegal, therefore for your own peace of mind if isn’t recommended. It is important that for your customers that you give them the respect that their products have been signed off by a toxicologist. Around 80% of all safety reports we do for customers results in them having to change their formulations slightly to make them legal. These laws are set because there is research that shows certain ingredients at wrong levels can be dangerous and a lot of small craft producers do not realise some of these laws. They can be as simple as Rose cannot be included at a percentage higher than 0.016% because of the carcinogenic effects.
In addition as a producer you will not be able to get any liability insurance and therefore if your product does cause some damage to a persons skin, you will be liable for the compensation claim. Even if you did manage to get insurance, then when they come to research everything and realise you haven’t conformed to the relevant legislation, it will be invalid.
Finally in hard numbers, the penalty is a £20,000 fine and 12 months in prison.
I know it is hard when you are starting up, we were there once, this is why we are offering a CPSR service for £49 to make if affordable and less of a barrier to entry. We are launching some books in the next few weeks with 50 recipes that you will have full certification for, for £99, effectively making the CPSR service for these under £2 each.
My advice, simply don’t sell your products if you haven’t conformed to the legislation, it isn’t worth the risk to your customers and the worry for your family.
Hi,
As a qualified aromatherapist, i use your bases and add aromatherapy oils, also purchased from you.
I download your certificates on line using the product code supplied with the products and file them.
Do i still need to have all my individual blends tested on top of this, as my college advised as an aromatherapist i can blend myself.
Just need to clarify, as the advice out there is not set out in laymans terms.
Thanks in advance.
If you are pre-making products and putting them for sale, yes you do need to have them tested.
Blends you put together after a consultation with a customer and apply during your treatment do not require Cosmetic testing.
Best Regards,
Dan