Where Do Cosmetics Come From? Read The Label
Curses’ question…Ok, I know (or I’m pretty sure I know) that when a cosmetic label says “distributed by,” it means the company didn’t actually produce the product, they just sell it. “Made/Created/Produced by” means they did. How do private labellers deal with this issue? If I own a cosmetics company and farm out production to someone else, but they use my specific, unique formula, would I then be distributing or making? What if I use a standard formula offered by the private labeller? I guess, in a nutshell, my question is at what point does the terminology change? Is it legally regulated, or is it more of a marketing or semantics thing?
The Left Brain responds:
You are correct that “Distributed by” means that the company didn’t actually make the product. They either hired someone else to make their formula or just bought someone else’s standard formula (probably customized for the specific project). “Manufactured by” means that the company owns the production plant that actually made the product.
Of course, there are no specific rules except that you have to label your product as either having been ‘Manufactured by’ or ‘Distributed by’. If someone wanted to put ‘manufactured by’ but they didn’t actually make it, they could still probably do it.
You can follow this link to the FDA for more fun information on cosmetic labeling in the US. For products outside the US, additional “country of origin” labeling regulations may apply.
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