As requires transparency in meals manufacturing intensify, pushed by figures reminiscent of RFK Jr. and the Make America Wholesome Once more (MAHA) motion, the cosmetics and private care trade is getting ready for comparable scrutiny. States are already advancing restrictions on substances and packaging.
For instance, California’s PFAS-Free Magnificence Act (AB 2771) took impact on January 1, 2025, banning cosmetics and private care merchandise that comprise deliberately added PFAS, following a comparable ban carried out in Vermont final yr.
Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington even have laws taking impact this yr or presently in progress to deal with PFAS in beauty merchandise, making a patchwork of compliance obligations throughout key markets.
On the federal degree, oversight can be increasing. Underneath MoCRA, U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) should assess the usage of PFAS in cosmetics and publish its findings by December 29, 2025. These developments coincide with a wave of state legal guidelines on packaging, together with Prolonged Producer Accountability (EPR) applications reminiscent of SB 54 and recycled content material mandates, that are reshaping materials selections and exposing corporations to new compliance and enforcement dangers.
In opposition to this backdrop, CosmeticsDesign U.S. spoke with Holland & Knight companions Rachel Gartner and Meaghan Colligan Hembree, who advise main magnificence and private care producers on FDA, environmental, and sustainability compliance.
Gartner has intensive expertise offering strategic recommendation on meals, dietary dietary supplements, cosmetics, and different FDA-regulated merchandise. She collaborates with corporations at each step of the product improvement course of to judge substances, formulations, and assess potential dangers primarily based on present and rising FDA coverage.
Hembree advises purchasers on complicated regulatory compliance points and disputes throughout all the life cycle of chemical compounds, wastes, and merchandise, together with product stewardship, advertising and marketing, distribution, use, compliance, allowing, importation, contamination and spills administration, and end-of-life administration. She gives strategic, business-focused counsel to shopper product corporations, together with manufacturers, producers, distributors, and retailers concerned within the cosmetics, attire, textile, chemical, transportation, and meals and beverage industries.
On this CDU Q&A, Gartner and Hembree talk about the converging dangers dealing with the trade and the proactive steps corporations can take to arrange for heightened regulatory consideration.
CDU: What indicators or patterns are you seeing that counsel a regulatory or advocacy highlight is popping towards cosmetics and private care merchandise?
Rachel Gartner: The MAHA motion is empowered by the patron’s want for transparency. With this in thoughts, I feel producers of all shopper merchandise, no matter their regulatory classification, ought to be interested by what meaning for his or her enterprise.
Shoppers need entry to info, together with details about what’s of their merchandise and the way these merchandise are made. We’ve seen a deal with meals – ingestible merchandise – issues we put in our physique. It could be prudent for corporations that promote merchandise we put on and round our our bodies to be interested by the scrutiny their merchandise might face throughout this administration.
Meaghan Colligan Hembree: From an environmental and product stewardship perspective, I’m seeing regulators increase their deal with publicity pathways to all the product lifecycle—together with ingredient sourcing, manufacturing practices, advertising and marketing disclosures, and end-of-life packaging administration. Shoppers additionally need to perceive the environmental and chemical publicity impacts of their merchandise and packaging.
Integrating sturdy chemical compliance and ESG analysis—to incorporate ingredient, packaging, and carbon footprint assessments—positions corporations to each meet regulatory expectations and authentically differentiate themselves in a crowded market. Collaboration between authorized, sustainability, and product groups is more and more important to anticipate and deal with these overlapping areas of scrutiny.
CDU: Are you able to elaborate on what is supposed by a “heightened ingredient danger” on this context? Are there explicit substances or courses of substances that producers ought to be paying particularly shut consideration to presently?
Rachel Gartner: Components which have historic controversy or questionable security knowledge are on the best danger. Proper now, we’re counseling purchasers to get a very good deal with on their product formulations and the security knowledge to help them.
It’s vital to think about issues like, how latest is the security knowledge? Have there been newer research that contradict the prior place?
Does the security knowledge align with the product’s use? And never simply the way in which you market the product, the meant use, however the way in which you perceive shoppers are interacting with the product?
Meaghan Colligan Hembree: Complementing Rachel’s deal with security knowledge, I’d add that from an environmental and product stewardship perspective, regulators are zeroing in on substances in packaging and merchandise related to endocrine disruption, carcinogenicity, and environmental persistence—reminiscent of PFAS, phthalates, and sure plastics. These substances are more and more topic to bans or reporting necessities underneath state, federal, and worldwide environmental legal guidelines.
This implies corporations should not solely audit their ingredient lists for security, but in addition for compliance with evolving “banned” and “reportable” chemical lists. Staying forward of those necessities is essential to keep away from provide chain disruptions and regulatory penalties.
This twin method—combining product security and environmental stewardship—will assist manufacturers keep forward of each regulatory and reputational dangers.
CDU: On the subject of packaging, you’ve recognized a rising stress between security and sustainability. How are regulators and shoppers presently evaluating this tradeoff, and what dangers are corporations dealing with in the event that they don’t get forward of the difficulty?
Meaghan Colligan Hembree: I’m advising purchasers that packaging choices now sit on the intersection of compliance, security, and ESG technique. With the rise of express chemical bans in packaging and merchandise, Prolonged Producer Accountability (EPR), and recycled content material legal guidelines, manufacturers should consider not simply the recyclability and chemical content material of packaging, but in addition the accuracy of sustainability claims.
Authorized publicity can come up from misaligned or unsubstantiated claims, whereas reputational danger is heightened by shopper and investor scrutiny of greenwashing and the usage of controversial supplies. Proactive steps embody conducting packaging materials assessments, guaranteeing claims are substantiated with knowledge, and integrating these issues into broader ESG and compliance frameworks.
This holistic method helps corporations handle each regulatory and market expectations.
CDU: You’ve labored carefully with corporations on lifecycle compliance throughout ingredient sourcing, formulation, packaging, and labeling. The place are manufacturers most susceptible right now from a authorized or reputational standpoint?
Rachel Gartner: I work with a pleasant combine of huge strategics and smaller start-ups. Either side of the spectrum rely closely on their co-manufacturing companions for sourcing, formulation improvement, manufacturing, and so on.
My start-up purchasers are usually extra susceptible on the authorized points that include these partnerships, as a result of they don’t all the time have the previous learnings or leverage on the negotiation desk. Nonetheless, my bigger purchasers appear to have extra danger from a reputational standpoint – there’s extra to lose if their associate doesn’t do the best factor.
For that reason, amongst others, it’s essential to seek out good companions. Alongside the authorized points, we are sometimes discussing objects that current PR danger to the model.
On this age of social media, my purchasers are positively and negatively impacted by issues mentioned on and throughout the varied platforms. If good content material will get picked up, it may be nice for the model. On the flipside, if dangerous content material goes viral, it may be catastrophic.
There may be an artwork to navigating these conditions. I all the time suggest purchasers have a go-to PR workforce, whether or not it’s in-house or with a third-party company.
Meaghan Colligan Hembree: On the environmental facet of lifecycle compliance, I deal with how lifecycle compliance intersects with chemical bans, packaging necessities, and ESG and sustainability commitments. With the fast enlargement of chemical reporting legal guidelines—reminiscent of these requiring disclosure of deliberately added PFAS or different precedence substances—a key vulnerability is the failure to determine and report the presence of newly regulated chemical compounds in merchandise or packaging.
Further vulnerabilities usually come up when there’s a disconnect between what’s occurring operationally—reminiscent of chemical administration, waste dealing with, or packaging selections—and what’s being communicated to stakeholders. Missteps in chemical security disclosures or inaccurate recyclability claims can set off enforcement actions and adverse publicity.
I work with purchasers to develop built-in compliance applications that deal with not solely regulatory necessities (e.g., waste, allowing, chemical reporting) but in addition align with investor and shopper expectations for transparency and accountability. This usually entails cross-functional collaboration to make sure that authorized, sustainability, and communications groups are aligned and ready for evolving regulatory and reputational challenges.
CDU: What concrete steps can magnificence and private care product producers take proper now to strengthen transparency and cut back danger throughout their provide chains, significantly in gentle of potential future regulation or litigation?
Rachel Gartner: I’m encouraging purchasers to share the “why” behind their manufacturers. By providing shoppers schooling on the merchandise, I hope they will begin to respect the aim behind the usage of sure substances, packaging supplies, and so on.
Additionally, to get a very good deal with on the continued secure use of this stuff and develop sturdy positions as to why some issues ought to stay unchanged, and in parallel, researching ample alternate options which may resonate higher with the trendy shopper.
Meaghan Colligan Hembree: I encourage purchasers to deal with transparency as a core governance challenge underneath ESG reporting — along with a shopper engagement device. Meaning completely documenting ingredient security knowledge, packaging supplies, chemical compounds topic to present or anticipated bans, and environmental impacts to make sure claims are substantiated.
We’re serving to corporations develop methods that allow clear, correct reporting and combine that knowledge into their ESG frameworks. This type of proactive compliance may help mitigate future litigation danger and construct belief with each regulators and shoppers.
CDU: Given the present momentum round transparency, sustainability, and shopper security, do you imagine the FDA or different federal businesses are more likely to increase their enforcement deal with cosmetics within the close to future? What sorts of adjustments may producers anticipate if that occurs?
Rachel Gartner: Sure. I feel we’ll see motion on the federal degree from FDA, but in addition, on the state degree – significantly in these consumer-focused jurisdictions.
We’re more likely to see comparable proposed adjustments/bans to substances and packaging for beauty merchandise as nicely. It could be prudent for producers to begin assessing their substances and the security knowledge to help the use of their present formulations.
Meaghan Colligan Hembree: When it comes to the environmental and product stewardship facet of issues, enforcement focus will proceed to develop, significantly round chemical substances and packaging compliance underneath legal guidelines like California’s Safer Client Merchandise and the rising wave of EPR laws. I anticipate to see a continued enlargement of chemical-specific reporting necessities, warnings, bans, and necessary reporting regimes at each the state and federal ranges.
Producers ought to put together for extra frequent updates to “prohibited” and “reportable” chemical lists, and for elevated scrutiny of compliance with these necessities. Producers ought to anticipate tighter rules and put together by conducting complete danger assessments and aligning their merchandise and packaging with evolving product, authorized, and ESG requirements.
