Retail Unwrapped from The Robin Report

Inside Beauty Product Recalls

Dana Wood — Wed, 14 May 2025 04:01:00 +0000

It’s 2025, summer is right around the corner and sun worshippers are about to slather “suntan lotion” all over their paler winter skin. So why is the known human carcinogen benzene still finding its way into myriad sunscreens lining American drugstore shelves? Further, why does benzene play a role in so many of the acne products U.S. citizens of all ages use to clear up pesky breakouts?

Chemical straighteners have contained formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen also responsible for nervous system disorders, respiratory problems and skin conditions, since as early as the 1920s. When combined with heat, as it always is when hair is chemically straightened, it’s toxic not only for the consumer but for the hairstylist administering the treatment as well.

Benzene Behind the Times

In short, blame the creaky old Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Instituted in 1938 (yes, you read that right – 87 years ago), prohibits the Food & Drug Administration from regulating beauty products, save for color additives, before they go to market.

After they go to market? All bets are off. And that’s what’s driving an uptick in recent beauty product recalls, including sunscreens and acne remedies laced with dangerously high levels of benzene, a chemical compound “intermediate” used to produce other chemicals (from dyes and rubber to plastics and pesticides); it’s also found naturally in forest fires and volcanoes. Previously, beauty product recalls were issued for dry shampoos and spray deodorants containing benzene. In fact, when that happened, in fall 2022, Unilever yanked a whopping 19 dry shampoos across its Nexxus, Dove and Tresemmé brands.

But more recently – as in the first quarter of this year – the beauty product recalls have mostly been centered around acne fixes. All contain benzoyl peroxide, which can evidently break down and morph, in a sinister fashion, into benzene. While the FDA actually allows a miniscule amount – two parts per million (2 ppm) – of benzene, Valisure, an independent research lab that does third-party safety testing on consumer goods, found levels up to 100 ppm and sounded the alarm.

Among the beauty product recalls cited are La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo Acne Spot Treatment, Walgreens Acne Control Cleanser, Walgreens Tinted Acne Cream, Proactiv Emergency Blemish Relief Cream Benzoyl Peroxide 5%, Proactiv Skin Smoothing Exfoliator and SLMD Benzoyl Peroxide Acne Lotion.

Onus Is on Beauty Brands to Police Themselves

When cosmetics are recalled, it’s not as if the FDA rolls up to your local CVS with an empty box and sweeps the shelves. Rather, it puts the onus on the brands to do that while alerting consumers that the recall has been issued.

In some cases, isolated batches of particular products will get contaminated forcing a voluntary recall. That’s the case with Gen Z favorite Drunk Elephant, which recently had to scoop up close to 100,000 units of its Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser, Protini Polypeptide Cream and Lala Sample Packettes of multiple products.

Another Gen Z-beloved brand – Summer Fridays – got firmly in front of a recall situation on social media. After multiple accounts of redness and irritation caused by its Jet Lag Mask began surfacing online, the brand took to Instagram to offer full refunds and share the news that the product is being reformulated without essential oils. The brand also vowed to establish “new, more stringent manufacturing protocols using OTC-level guidelines to ensure each step in the manufacturing process is carefully monitored and checked for full compliance and adherence to our high standards.”

Disproportionate Toll on Black Women

If only the makers of chemical hair straighteners – not to mention the FDA — were as invested in consumer safety as Summer Fridays. In its excellent and thoroughly alarming two-part investigation, “Dereliction of Beauty,” the watchdog publication Inside Climate News delves into the literally deadly ways Black women have been underserved by America’s all but nonexistent cosmetic regulation.

Specifically, Inside Climate News takes aim at formaldehyde, a star ingredient in a massive chunk of the chemical relaxers Black women have relied on for decades to present a pop culture-defined more palatable and “business-like” version of their natural coils. I strongly urge everyone to read this investigative report in its entirety but allow me to topline the issue at hand.

Chemical straighteners have contained formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen also responsible for nervous system disorders, respiratory problems and skin conditions, since as early as the 1920s. When combined with heat, as it always is when hair is chemically straightened, it’s toxic not only for the consumer but for the hairstylist administering the treatment as well.

Way back in 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency sounded the alarm about formaldehyde. This was followed by a damning study by the International Agency for Cancer Research – an arm of the World Health Organization – a year later. Flash forward to 2025 and the FDA still has not banned formaldehyde in chemical relaxers. If that doesn’t tell you we’re largely on our own in all this, I don’t know what does.

The Potential RFK Jr Effect?

It’s become almost a cliché, if not comical, to compare the number of banned cosmetic ingredients in the EU (ranging from 100 to 2400, depending on your source) with the U.S. (11). Tasked by President Donald Trump to “go wild on health,” it will be interesting to see when – or even if – the newly appointed United States Secretary of Health and Human Services will turn his attention to the beauty industry.

In broad strokes, Kennedy is anecdotally anti-pharma. One wonders what he might make of the cosmetics industry’s biggest lobbying body, the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), which is known to fiercely protect Big Beauty from excessive ingredient and manufacturing oversight. At first blush, PCPC seems like exactly the kind of group Kennedy would have a big, big problem with. And given his fixation with ingredients he deems toxic, formaldehyde-laced hair relaxers just might be headed for the scrap heap.

MoCRA: A Small Step in the Right Direction

Passed by Congress in 2022, MoCRA (Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act) was heralded as a huge step up from the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. But how effective is it when it still doesn’t require the beauty industry to ban – or even require consumer notification of – egregious ingredients like parabens and phthalates?

Upping the count on banned ingredients wasn’t necessarily the point of MoCRA, rather, its chief goals are to widen the purview of the FDA regarding manufacturing oversight, to boost transparency regarding potentially allergenic masking fragrances and to institute standardized product-testing processes, for, say asbestos in talc.

As for troublesome ingredients, it looks like we’ll all need to continue to be diligent label-scrutinizers for the foreseeable future. Consumers will have to assert their personal power to search for “recalled cosmetic products” on a regular basis. Vigilance may prove to be the best self-defense.

Looking at Unboxing Beauty Videos

Dana Wood — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 21:00:44 +0000

While the lion’s share of recent beauty chatter has centered on 30-second viral TikToks, the polar opposite phenomenon – long, elaborate “unboxing” videos – is still shockingly popular on YouTube, perhaps giving hope to the hand wringers who fret over our ever-declining attention spans.

One Box at a Time

These nutty peeks into a beauty influencer’s rarified world, one in which they literally unbox mountains of fresh loot they’ve received either directly from brands or from PR firms, aren’t new. In fact, one of the most popular, which has garnered north of 27 million views, was created in 2018.

Unboxing videos, which provide a behind the scenes look at a world that used to be the unique provenance of magazine editors but is now much more democratized, help some launches actually get seen by consumers.

They aren’t product reviews or tutorials, either, because the influencer is seeing the merch for the first time alongside the viewer or channel subscriber. And because there are so many boxes to get through, brands will be extremely lucky if the influencer stops the flow for even two seconds to swatch an eyeshadow, dab a miracle crème or spritz a fragrance and share a lightning-quick opinion.

Mostly there isn’t time for that. Instead, it’s slice open the mailer with a box cutter, dig through the (usually egregiously wasteful) interior packaging to get to the product, show it to the camera, say something cute, toss it to the side, move onto to the next box. Literally that it’s it, and many, many millions of viewers can’t get enough.

Why Unboxing Videos Still Resonate

Recently I received a stat-laden email from Journalistic.org, an entity that aggregates info on a given topic if feels might be of interest to reporters covering specific beats.

Sizing me up correctly, this Journalistic.org missive completely and utterly sucked me into the vortex of beauty unboxing videos.

I guess I was peripherally aware of them before. But as a beauty and wellness writer who struggles to keep her own tidy little mountain of unsolicited merch under control, I had never actually watched one.

But now that I’ve seen several (and have picked my jaw off the floor at the staggering amount of overkill that’s still happening in the beauty industry in 2022), I’ve come to two firm conclusions about unboxing videos:

They’re a great way for consumers to learn about new launches.

Despite how much beauty coverage major digital media outlets like Byrdie, Vogue and Into the Gloss do, they can’t get to everything. Unboxing videos, which provide a behind the scenes look at a world that used to be the unique provenance of magazine editors but is now much more democratized, help some launches actually get seen by consumers. Given the bewildering array of new SKUs unveiled every year, any sliver of spotlight helps.

They’re a great way for the industry to see that it needs a reality check.

In one of the most recently filmed unboxing videos I watched, shot in February of this year, I’ve never seen so many false lashes in my life. Yes, I know this is a monster category now; everywhere I go women of all ages are sporting openly fake flutters. But do these new lash upstarts really think they’ll be able to cut through the clutter? Perhaps brands should consider having someone on their team keep up with the steady deluge of unboxing content; if anything can open your eyes to market saturation and product redundancy, it’s the unboxing video of a beauty influencer with a healthy number of channel subscribers.

As Always, the Comment Section Is Pure Gold

Although there are several key metrics to tell whether a YouTube video is a hit or not, i.e., views and thumbs up and down, it’s the comments that really clue us in to what’s going on inside the consumer’s head.

Scrolling through the comments on the unboxing videos I watched, a lot of similarities surfaced. Several of the commenters said they’d kill to receive even a fraction of the free product these influencers received; several said they were excited to see the upcoming launches and were already making shopping lists; several said they admired the way a few of the influencers “seemed genuinely grateful” to get all this loot sent to them gratis.

That last bit is so interesting and, I think, extremely important for brands to make note of. When you’re making your influencer “send to” lists, be sure to over-index on the humble, grateful types and steer clear of the entitled divas.

Optimizing Online Beauty Sales in a Changing Business Environment

Jeeva Kailasam — Mon, 23 May 2022 21:00:29 +0000

This report highlights reasons behind the success of beauty e-retailers and brands from April 2021 through April 2022, despite supply chain disruptions, shifting consumer demands, return to in-store shopping, and now rising inflation.

Big Beauty Needs a Detox

Dana Wood — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 22:00:59 +0000

It’s 2022. Why am I having to worry about whether the Pantene Mist Behaving Dry Conditioning Mist I have tucked in a bathroom drawer, or the Neutrogena Ultra Sheer aerosol sunscreen my husband spritzes on before tennis, are giving us cancer? With the drumbeat of “clean,” toxin-free products growing ever louder with each passing day, isn’t Big Beauty even the least bit afraid that consumers have just about had it with merch that endangers our well-being?

Sure, I want great hair. But I’d rather not risk my life to get it.

If megabrands like P&G’s Pantene and L’Oréal-owned Garnier can clean up individual franchises like Nutrient Blends and Whole Blends, why not do it across every single product?

Maybe I’m being overly dramatic for the sake of a high optics story. Still, I experienced a serious WTF moment this past December when recall headlines started to hit the news. Though they centered around products from a broad swathe of P&G brands, including Aussie, Waterless, Herbal Essences and Pantene, I was primarily concerned about Pantene.

I happen to love Pantene and stock up on virtually every Target and CVS run. Right now, in addition to the aforementioned Mist Behaving dry conditioner, I’m also using Nutrient Blends Fortifying Damage Repair sulfate free shampoo and conditioner; two Miracle Rescue potions (Deep Conditioning Treatment and 10 In 1 Multitasking Spray) and my latest obsession, Cheat Day Dry Shampoo Foam.

Pulling Toxic Products From the Shelves

Thankfully, the UPC code on my Mist Behaving doesn’t match any of the three recalled lots. So maybe that means the one I own doesn’t contain any benzene? I sure as hell hope not, because here’s what the FDA had to say about the chemical in its December 2021 announcement:

“Exposure to benzene can occur by inhalation, orally and through the skin and it can result in cancers including leukemia and blood cancer of the bone marrow and blood disorders which can be life-threatening.”

The P&G recall came on the heels of a J&J fiasco surrounding four of its wildly popular Neutrogena and Aveeno aerosol sunscreens. In July 2021, all lots — yes, every single last one – were recalled due to suspicion that they, too, contained benzene.

For insight as to why Big Beauty keeps continuing to the drop the ball in such a potentially deadly fashion, I reached out to Krupa Koestline, clean cosmetic chemist and founder of KKT Consultants. An expert in the clean beauty space who logged time at both Neutrogena and Estée Lauder before switching gears, Koestline has advised and helped develop products for some of the category’s most dominant and directional brands, including Kopari, May Lindstrom Skin and Tower 28.

Why Does Big Beauty Keep Dropping the Ball?

Asked if she was shocked that these Big Beauty recalls keep happening, Koestline’s answer was an unequivocal no, and she pointed immediately to the notoriously lax ingredient standards in the U.S. as compared to Europe. “I am tired,” she said. “I am tired of coming across posts in various forums where people claim that the U.S. has some great regulatory framework and that cosmetics in the U.S. are well-regulated. They are not. Brands and manufacturers aren’t even legally obliged to report an adverse reaction, of any kind, to the FDA.”

Not that the FDA is a watchdog for the beauty industry. “The FDA does not regulate cosmetics, period,” said Koestline. And because the onus is on brands to police themselves, nearly 100 percent of recalls fall under the “voluntary” banner.

On a page on FDA.gov with the headline “FDA Authority Over Cosmetics: How Cosmetics Are Not FDA-Approved, but Are FDA-Regulated,” it expressly states: “The law does not require cosmetic products and ingredients, other than color additives, to have FDA approval before they go on the market, but there are laws and regulations that apply to cosmetics on the market in interstate commerce.”

Color additives? How about benzene? Doesn’t exactly give you a warm and fuzzy feeling that the government has our beauty backs.

“It falls on the brands to take back what’s in the market – either not safe to consume or misbranded – to make sure they don’t get a ‘slap on the hand’ by the FDA in case a consumer reports an adverse reaction,” Koestline noted.

Lest anyone think Big Beauty is meticulously testing every lot that comes off the assembly line for potentially toxic ingredients, rest assured that is not happening. Testing is ad hoc and often after-the-fact, which is why products have to be physically pulled off shelves and consumers are routinely confronted with some pretty terrifying news reports.

Beyond occasional voluntary recalls, Koestline wishes Big Beauty would get firmly in front of the problem, and not default to safety net catchup later. “A step forward would be for brands to test for these [potentially toxic] ingredients in every single lot of their manufactured product as a safety measure.”

Purposeful Profit Motive, AKA It’s All About the Money

All of this begs the question: why are Big Beauty brands still tapping these egregious ingredients in the first place? When extremely profitable, well-established clean brands like Tata Harper and Beautycounter have shown us that there is very clearly a less toxic way to craft product, why stick with the cancer-causing ingredients?

Not surprisingly, it all boils down to profit. “Cleaner ingredients are more expensive than traditional substitutes,” said Koestline. “However, what brands fail to see are the long-term effects of continuing to use some of these petroleum-derived ingredients on the health of the consumer and the planet.”

Still, Not Every “Harmful” Ingredient Truly Is

In the interest of fairness and ending this diatribe on a somewhat positive and hopeful note, I touched on two last issues with Koestline before wrapping up our interview.

First, I wanted to know whether she thought, as I do, that there are some ingredients, such as preservatives, that have been unfairly maligned as toxic. “I agree with you,” Koestline said. “Certain preservatives that have been deemed unsafe are not in fact backed by much research,” specifically phenoxyethanol under 1 percent and the much-demonized parabens. “Nano zinc for physical sunscreen is another. It wasn’t used much while the safety was in question, but its safety has been confirmed by multiple reputable labs and it’s used more widely now.”

Finally, I was curious about the Pantene Nutrient Blends Fortifying Damage Repair sulfate free shampoo and conditioner sitting on my shower shelf. While the “damage repair” claim mostly pulled me in, I was also happy to see that the formulas contained no parabens, dyes or mineral oil. Though we’ve just established that parabens are not the bogeyman they’re made out to be, natural-leaning sub-brands like Pantene’s Nutrient Blends and Garnier Whole Blends at least seem like a step in the right direction.

On to Greener Pastures?

If megabrands like P&G’s Pantene and L’Oréal-owned Garnier can clean up individual franchises like Nutrient Blends and Whole Blends, why not do it across every single product? (Note: Garnier is making major inroads on that front and has pledged to “dramatically increase” its use of green and sustainable ingredients in the coming years)

“It’s a testament to clean beauty that Big Beauty brands are looking to buy into and invest in greener chemistry,” said Koestline. “As far as asking Big brands to ‘clean up’ across all categories, that will take time.”