Etsy and Amazon Sellers – How does it work?
There are a lot of popular brands that sell Dip Powder on places like Etsy and Amazon and they have some crazy colors and glitters or insanely cheap prices. How is that possible? Why don’t bigger brands – especially ones that sell in the European Union – do that? We’ll talk about why and what it means for you, the person who is putting these products on your body in this article.
Everyone has seen it. You go on Etsy and there is a Dip Powder with some mind blowing glitter, no other nail brand has anything like it, and you can’t believe it. There is a ton of glitter, its huge and shiny, it’s awesome. How is this possible? Why don’t more established brands like Revel Nail – or OPI, Gelish, SNS, etc. – do stuff like this? Are they asleep at the wheel and don’t get what’s cool? The answer is no – those brands are aware of how cool that looks, but there are reasons they aren’t producing something similar. All of the major Dip Powder brands also sell in the EU and you have to submit your ingredient list for safety testing to be able to do that. That means you can only use Cosmetic Grade glitters. If you go into your local Michael’s craft store there are some awesome glitters there. Unfortunately, they are not certified to use in cosmetics that go on the human body, so that means that they shouldn’t be used in Dip Powder. The ingredient you will see in something like Revel Nail’s Dip Powder is Mica – these are mineral derived glitters that come from a certainly family of minerals and they are safe to use on the human body and don’t get absorbed.
Non-mica glitters can come from anything – any kind of chemical or material that would be fun, sparkly and shiny. The problem is that you don’t know if the non-mica glitter is safe or not, unless its on the FDA’s list of cosmetics glitters that are allowed.
The FDA now requires Cosmetic facilities register if they are above a certain size – you can see Revel Nail’s here: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/feiportal/index.cfm?action=portal.search. We have to register the products we make here and the suppliers we get them from – so they need to have a MOCRA registration, as well. That means our facility – and all of the facilities we get raw materials from – are registered with the FDA as cosmetic facilities and have ingredients lists that are all approved by the FDA. This is one way to know that you are getting safe products.
Unfortunately, there is no inspection of the facilities at this time, so people could make fake registrations, so this isn’t a foolproof way to confirm your cosmetics are made somewhere safe, but its better than what the US had before, which was nothing.
The strictest cosmetic regulations in the world are in the European Union. In order to sell that you have to submit your ingredient listings, submit safety testing results, and have a Registered Agent (if you are a non-EU company) act as your representative. Because your Registered Agent is responsible for any issues your product causes, they are extremely thorough in vetting your products before they will submit them to the Cosmetic Product Notification Portal.
Brands that have safe, effective ingredients will have a MOCRA registration in the US and a their CPNP registration in the EU, if they are large enough to justify the cost of registering in the EU. Smaller companies might not be able to justify it even if they can, because it costs money.
If the Dip Powder brand you are looking to buy is super cheap, or has amazing glitter that no big brands have, check to see if they are sold in the EU. If not, it will probably tell you the ingredients they use don’t pass the safety requirements for the EU.
Not all small brands or Chinese manufacturers make unsafe products. Just like Apple AirPods are made in China, so are the cheap knockoffs that don’t work well – there can be a variety in the quality of products from a place, it all depends on the specific manufacturer and how they operate. As a rule, China has a lot less regulation than the US or the EU, so you can put powder in a jar that is not pure enough for the US or the EU cosmetic rules and sell it and no one will stop you there, so it’s up to you as the buyer to be educated about the products.
