News

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« 18 months after the acquisition of Phoenix fragrances by the French fragrance company Sozio Descollonges we are glad to announce the transformation of Phoenix Fragrances into Sozio UK, Ltd starting November 1st 2022.

This is the result of a complete integration plan and will allow Phoenix customers to fully benefit from Sozio worldwide organization in terms of Perfumery Innovations, Marketing, Supply Chain and Investments.

Sozio UK will continue to operate from Wellingborough (R& Production, Sales & Marketing Regulatory Administration) and focus on the UK market. »

Frederic Braud, Sozio general manager

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Throughout the last decade, vegan products have become more present in our lives and consumers are looking for non-food products in line with their way of life and without any animal ingredients. This desire for vegan products also concerns personal care and household products.

Veganism can be defined as a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

ANIMAL ORIGIN INGREDIENTS AND ANIMAL TESTING IN COSMETICS

Some cosmetic ingredients are from animal origin like honey, lanolin, carmine or propolis. There are few perfumery ingredients with animal origins: civet, castoreum or beeswax. However, these are less used in fragrances.

In the European Union, a strict ban of animal testing for cosmetics has been in place since 2003. Animal testing is also forbidden for cosmetics raw materials since 2009. Moreover, alternative methods have to be used and prioritized in the safety assessment of substances as part of REACH Regulation. Animal testing are only used as last resort and if there is no alternative to assess the health effects of the substance like for carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and reprotoxicity.

WHAT IS A VEGAN COSMETIC?

A vegan cosmetic product is first a cosmetic product. Thus, it must be compliant with the regulations in place (i.e. the EU Cosmetic Regulation) and with the same quality and safety requirements to be placed on the market.

There is currently no international or national definition of a vegan cosmetic product. A product can be labelled “suitable for vegan” if this claim follows the common criteria for the justification of claims used in relation to cosmetic products (legal compliance, truthfulness, evidential support…).

Some labels and certifications have been created to build a framework for vegan products. They are independent and not mandatory. However, they allow consumers to choose vegan products that follow a specific guideline defined by the certification itself.

VEGAN CERTIFICATIONS

• Vegan Society

Vegan Society is an internationally acknowledged non-profit association founded in 1944 in the United Kingdom. This label is applicable to cosmetics, detergents and household products. To be compliant and to obtain the Vegan Society label, products must not contain any raw materials from animal origin and/or tested on animals. Ingredients tested by third-parties are authorized in the final product.

• Certified Vegan

Certified Vegan was created by the non-profit association Vegan Awareness Foundation. It can be delivered to product at a worldwide level for companies based in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The main criteria are the absence of animal origin ingredients and of animal origin GMOs in the product. Other requirements are linked with the manufacturing of the product to minimize cross-contamination.

• V-Label

V-label was created by the European Vegetarian Union in 1996 and certifies food product and cosmetics. There are two levels of certification for food products: vegan and vegetarian. In order to obtain this label, products must not contain any animal origin raw materials or GMOs. Some criteria are also applied to the manufacturing process; i.e. non-vegan substances must not be present even if they are unintentional. The list of V-label certified products is available on their website.

• Eve Vegan

Eve Vegan (Expertise Végane Europe) was created by the French association Vegan France and certifies food products, cosmetics and fashion products. Their requirements are on the product itself and its ingredients as well as on the manufacturing process and the conditioning. Products must not contain animal origin raw materials and technical agents. The wrapping and packaging must also be without substances of animal origin. The list of Eve vegan certified products is available on their website.

• Leaping Bunny

Leaping Bunny program is a Cruelty Free certification created in the 1990’s which is internationally acknowledged. Cosmetics, detergents and household products may be certified if they have not been tested on animals and are compliant with Leaping Bunny guidelines (no animal testing in the supply chain, external audit…). However, this certification doesn’t ensure the absence of animal origin raw materials in the product.

• Cruelty Free and Vegan

Cruelty Free and Vegan was created by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and certifies the brand itself and its products. This certification ensures the absence of animal origin ingredients in the product and in its wrapping. Products must not have been tested on animals and therefore cannot be placed on the market in countries where animal testing for products is still authorized.

• One Voice

This certification was created by the One Voice association in 2011 and certifies the brand itself and its products. They can be food products, cosmetics or detergents. As the absence of animal testing is one key criteria, brands selling their products in countries where animal testing products is still authorized cannot be certified. The other key requirement is the absence of animal origin ingredients in the products with the exemption of honey and beeswax.

VEGAN FRAGRANCES AT SOZIO

At Sozio we can propose fragrances without animal origin ingredients and compliant with the previous Vegan labels. As requested in the EU Cosmetic Regulation, none of our fragrances are tested on animals. Finally, we provide our own Vegan certificate for each of our fragrances with no animal origin raw materials and support our customers in their Vegan certification journey.

FOLLOW UP

If you need any further information about Vegan certifications, please reach out to us via email: regulatory@jesozio.com or through your designated Sales Representative.

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IFRA announced the launch of the Consultation on the IFRA Standards that will be part of the 51^st Amendment.

The Consultation on all elements of the 51^st Amendment was launched on June 30^th 2022, and will last for five months closing on November 30^th 2022.

SCOPE OF THE CONSULTATION…

The consultation includes the following documents:

• The Excel overview of IFRA Standards in scope of the 51^st Amendment (Att. 05).

• The Guidance for the use of IFRA Standards (Att. 01):

Some additional product types have been added to the overview of categories. For example, beard and moustache care products have been added to Category 5B, whereas bath bombs have been included in Category 9, and pillow spray in Category 11B.
The Guidance document now incorporates further important information concerning the application of the Standards, and has been shared through IFRA Information Letters since the last version of the Guidance was issued with the 49^th Amendment. IFRA recalls for example, that where products applied to pets (animal sprays or shampoos) are identified in the IFRA Standards Categories, the categorization of such products only relates to the human exposure during their use and does not consider the exposure to the pet itself.

• Where applicable, the Annex on contributions from other sources to the IFRA Standards combine information from natural contributions (former Annex I) as well as Schiff bases (former Annex II) (Att. 03):

Regarding natural contributions, the Annex to the IFRA Standards provides a non-exhaustive indicative list of the typical natural presence of fragrance ingredients restricted by IFRA Standards. This list is prepared with significant input from the IFRA Natural Complex Substances Task Force (NCS TF).

• The new and revised IFRA Standards:

• 34 new IFRA Restriction Standards to control potential dermal sensitization effects for which the systemic toxicity endpoints have also been evaluated (like Isobutyl cinnamate, cis-3-Nonenyl acetate and Ethyl and methyl furaneol).
• 11 new IFRA Restriction Standards to control potential dermal sensitization effects based solely on QRA2 (including carvyl acetate, methyl lavender ketone and 3-Octen-2-one).
• 2 new IFRA Restriction Standards, for which Risk Management is based on, Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC) for Methoxycyclododecane and 7-Methoxy-3,7-dimethyloct-1-ene.
• 1 new IFRA Restriction Standard due to potential of depigmentation for Cresols.
• 1 new IFRA Prohibition Standard due to potential genotoxicity effects for 3-Acetyl-2,5-dimethylfuran.
• 8 Revised IFRA Restriction Standards to control potential dermal sensitization effects for which the systemic toxicity endpoints have been evaluated (including carvone, eugenol, and hydroxycitronellal).
• 1 Revised Restriction Standard based on new dermal sensitization data for 3-Propylidenephthalide.
• 1 Revised Restriction Standard based on phototoxicity and systemic toxicity for Methyl-N-methylanthranilate.
• 1 Revised Restriction Standard for Farnesol. Additional CAS numbers have been added to the Standard for clarification.

All documents that are part of the consultation are publicly available via the link below: https://effaiofiifra.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/IFRA51stAmendment/EiYIJApuIBBEk8jh528jgJoBfnEGLP3tkpSXPfuoldsckw?e=glHDaW

COMPLIANCE TIMELINES

The formal letter of notification for all the Standards covered by this consultation will be issued approximately 3 to 4 months after the end of the consultation period (around November 30^th 2022) and published on the IFRA website. Therefore, we expect the notification of the 51^st Amendment by the first quarter of 2023.

Given the high number of new Standards in scope of the 51^st Amendment, the management of the off-cycle 50^th Amendment and for reasons of consistency, predictability, and impact on members and customers, the same implementation timelines as the 49^th Amendment has been agreed for the 51^st Amendment. This timeline applies to all Standards, except the one that prohibits the continued use of one fragrance ingredient. For this prohibition Standard, shorter timelines apply and are in line with those used for the 50^th Amendment. These timelines are detailed in the table below.

FOLLOW UP

If you need any further information about the 51^st Amendment, please reach out to us via email: regulatory@jesozio.com or through your designated Sales Representative.