Beauty Product Recalls And Why They Happen

How slip ups cost millions...

It’s every brand’s nightmare – a product recall. A recent voluntary recall of Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray sent Puig shares tumbling briefly as investors tried to work out the severity of the issue. This hiccup follows a voluntary recall from Shiseido owned Drunk Elephant of three products – Beste No.9 Jelly Cleanser, Protini Polypeptide Cream and Lala Retro Whipped Cream (US only). According to the Drunk Elephant FAQ page, the cause of the recall was ‘an isolated ingredient mix-up’ involving preservatives and surfactants. I’ve been behind the scenes at various beauty factories (Boots, L’Occitane, Elemis) and it’s so difficult to work out exactly how that happened because not only are the factory floors immaculate but everything is so orderly. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d suggest it could be a question of mislabelled raw ingredients or the said ingredients being stored in the wrong place – i.e. the surfactant stored where the preservatives normally are.