Is it possible to claim the absence of aluminium salts on the packaging and in the commercial documents of a deodorant? The answer is to be found in the rules governing cosmetic claims… and it is very clear, as Anne Dux, Director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs of the FEBEA, said at the January 2019 information meeting on the new rules applicable to cosmetic claims as from 1 July 2019.
As a reminder, the rules governing the use of cosmetic claims, and in particular the “Aluminium salts-free”, depend on several texts:
• Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009 and its Article 20 stating that the European Commission should adopt Common Criteria for claims;
• Regulation 655/2013 establishing Common Criteria laying down common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic products and the Guidelines that clarify them (in particular, the “Fairness” criterion states that “claims relating to cosmetic products […] cannot denigrate competition or legally used ingredients”) ;
• the Technical Document on Cosmetic ClaimsTechnical Document on Cosmetic Claims which completed these Guidelines on July 3, 2017, with an additional annex on “Free-fom…” claims;
• the 8th version of the ARPP’s Recommendation “Cosmetic Products”, published in November 2018, which incorporates the new provisions of the Technical Document.
Is it possible to claim “aluminum salts-free” be used on a deodorant?
Anne Dux’s answer
That’s my favorite question! Because it’s a very funny claim.
“Aluminium salt-free” in a deodorant is like beer without caffeine… And there is already a Common Criterion that means that we do not have the right to highlight the absence of an ingredient that normally does …
