Too Little, Too Late? FDA Will Finally Start Monitoring Your Beauty Products

So we've got some good news for you guys and some bad news. The good news is the FDA is going to start monitoring the ingredients in your beauty products! The bad news is that they haven't really been doing this all along. One of the greatest mysteries of the beauty world is the fact that government regulations are very few and far between. Companies could make crazy claims that weren't backed up by science, or run wild adding ingredients that could be potentially harmful (hi, formaldehyde!) into products without any government agency so much as raising an eyebrow. Only after problems were found and complaints were filed did anyone bother to step in.

Well, according to a recent report by AdvertisingAge, that's all about to change. The Obama administration's fiscal budget for 2013 includes a proposal for the beauty biz to fund enhanced monitoring, meaning ingredients in our products would have to be registered with the FDA. It kind of scares us senseless that up until this point, nobody was overseeing what was in all those creams and lotions we were slathering all over our bodies. To put it in perspective, there are only 10 cosmetic ingredients that are banned in the U.S., compared to 1,200 in Europe. Um, yikes.

In addition to being totally on board with the FDA tightening up its grip, we're happy to hear that this could mean change for beauty ad campaigns, too. The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus also has its sights on the beauty industry, which could mean no more crazy, unsubstantiated skin care claims — only real science. So products that promise to erase wrinkles in one week, or melt away cellulite would have to have the scientific studies to back those claims up. Hopefully, this means that the days of consumers being suckered in by false promises are coming to an end. (Allure)