Before a new cosmetic or personal care product is released to the market it must comply with extensive lists of regulatory requirements and standards.  According to the FDA, cosmetic finished products and their ingredients need to be adequately demonstrated as safe OR include Warning Statements in their labeling.  Product safety testing is therefore of utmost importance to our customers, the consumers and/or endpoints of distribution such as retail chains shopping networks, internet sales, etc.  In most cases, basic testing is a pre-requisite to  proceeding with additional claims substantiation to ultimately strengthen marketing objectives.  Routinely the Human Repeat Insult Patch Test (RIPT) is conducted for these purposes. According to industry consensus at this time, the following label claims may be used after the successful completion of such testing:

• Synonymous terms – hypoallergenic, non-sensitizing, non-allergenic, sensitization (but not ‘sensitivity’) tested, allergy tested.

• Other claims – clinically tested, non-primary irritant to the skin, non-irritating formula.