The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has announced that it will be ending its popular Compact for Safe Cosmetics initiative.

Launched in 2004, the Compact called for companies to provide full disclosure of ingredients in personal care products and avoidance of chemicals known to cause cancer, reproductive harm and other health problems. Since that time, 1,500 companies have signed the Compact and 250 companies are compliant with its guidelines.

Dissolving the Compact will allow CSC to focus on other initiatives, according to Lisa Archer, national coordinator. Additionally, the large number of applicants was becoming difficult to manage, the CSC told cosmeticsdesign-europe.com.

“We have learned a lot in this process, and we are proud to be working with a large and robust community of businesses that are committed to making the safest personal care products possible. We plan to strengthen these alliances even further in the future," Archer said in a release.

This summer, the CSC will have as many signers as possible compliant with the Compact’s guidelines and will honor companies for their efforts.

It seems a bit early to be "sunsetting" this initiative due to the management issues, says Lynea-Schultz-Ela, owner of A Natural Resource Consulting. “But that said, there is clearly demand by consumers and ultimately by manufacturers for cleaner ingredients and there is a will to reach the higher EU standards in our own standards within the U.S. -- I certainly like this direction,” she says.

It is time for the next step in cosmetic safety

Given the number of signers and compliant companies, the CSC Compact has been taken very seriously by the natural products industry and received vigorous engagement. It has helped demonstrate not just the need for stronger personal care ingredient regulation, but also the natural product industry’s commitment to bring clean cosmetics to market.

If the CSC reports that it can now use the Compact resources for future initiatives to bring about more awareness and responsibility regarding safe personal ingredients, then it’s time for the next step.

The Compact's six provisions, and companies' requirements for complying with each of these provisions, are described below: