How Indie Beauty Brands Believe MoCRA Will Impact Their Business

In December last year, President Joe Biden signed the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA), the most significant expansion of the United States Food and Drug Administration's oversight of cosmetics in over 80 years, into law. It gives the FDA recall authority and mandates beauty companies list products and register facilities with the agency, …

Rachel Brown·November 20, 2023·2 min read

The 30-second read

In December last year, President Joe Biden signed the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA), the most significant expansion of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of cosmetics in over 80 years, into law. It gives the FDA recall authority and mandates beauty companies list products and register facilities with the agency, adhere to good manufacturing practice (GMP) and fragrance labeling requirements, and appoint a responsible person to report serious adverse events, among other regulatory obligations.

In the beauty industry, there’s fear that MoCRA could place undue burdens on small businesses. Recognizing that possibility, the FDA is exempting businesses with average gross annual sales from cosmetics amounting to less than $1 million over the past three years. While the FDA originally set a Dec. 29 deadline for product listing and facility registration, the deadline has been moved to July 1 next year, affording beauty entrepreneurs who may struggle with navigating the regulatory thicket a little more time to prepare.

Still, we were wondering whether they’re concerned about MoCRA’s impacts on their brands that typically don’t have enough money floating around to hire sizable in-house regulatory teams. So, for the latest edition of our series asking questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 33 brand founders and executives the following question: How do you think MoCRA will affect you specifically and smaller beauty brands generally?