Beauty Talk| Is your Etude House product affected with Heavy Metal?

A couple of days ago, the news about heavy metal traces found in the products of several of AmorePacific's brands dropped and everyone started to feel worried about their items. I personally had purchased a couple of the same exact eyebrow pencils from Etude House and was worried too.

Why you should be worried?
Antimony is a naturally occurring element which can be found in trace amounts in drinking water. According to a study, on average we take in about 5 micrograms of antimony a day from our food and water. South China Morning Post reports that antimony was found at levels between 10.1 parts per million (ppm) to 14.3ppm in these 13 cosmetic products, despite the maximum legal limit of 10ppm given by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Too much of antimony could be poisonous to our body.

Etude House Malaysia's Clarification
Upon checking in with Etude House Malaysia through Facebook private messaging, this is what they had clarified to me:

• The products subjected to recall are mostly distributed in Korea. Only a small portion of Etude House AC Cleanup Mild Concealer was distributed to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Myanmar, where full refunds and exchanged are also available.
• Drawing Eyebrow Duo #03 Gray Brown (Serial Number GLG, exp 17 Dec 2020): Etude House does not distribute in Etude House Malaysia stores.
• AC Clean Up Concealer: the current affected batch (Serial Number AAH, exp 08 Jan 2021) is not released to their stores in Malaysia, they only carry EFG batch.
• The affected products were manufactured and supplied by Hwasung Cosmetics, one of Amorepacific's subcontractors.
• It is suspected that the traces of excessive antimony occurred during the manufacturing process by the ODM contractor Hwasung and was voluntarily reported to the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
• Etude House cares about the highest standard of quality and all their official stores (retail and upcoming Official Lazada Malaysia store) will adhere to the same standards. Ensuring the safety and quality of all products is of utmost importance to them.
• If you have further concerns, please do visit their stores and speak to their consultant who would be able to explain further.

Screenshots as per below:

So this means I'm not affected as my items were serial-coded with EBF and NDF. Guess I'm safe with my eyebrow pencils. But that doesn't mean you could be safe too, especially if you didn't buy those products from the Malaysia Official Stores. Remember to check your serial code a.s.a.p.! You can find it right below the expiry date located at the cap. Took me a while to find since the font colour was dark, as well as the cap.

Do note that every batch is different due to multiple variables such as batch formulas for different country standards, batch production time, etc. Singapore was affected so Etude House Singapore is currently asking for product recalls. So if you've gotten yours from Singapore, be sure to switch up your product items with the official stores in Singapore.

Other items affected

Upon further checking with other news media, I found that the Aritaum products mentioned below are up for exchange or refund:

Aritaum Full Cover Stick Concealer #1 Light Beige

1. Item code: AAH (2021. 01. 12)
2. Item code: BAH (2021. 01. 30)
3. Item code: CBH (2021. 02. 11)

Aritaum Full Cover Stick Concealer #2 Natural Beige

1. Item code: ELG (2020. 12. 17)

Aritaum Full Cover Cream Concealer #1

1. Item code: GLG (2020. 12. 14)
2. Item code: AAH (2021. 01. 30)

Aritaum Full Cover Cream Concealer #2

1. Item code: AAH (2021. 01. 14)

Other products listed that were said to be affected are:

• Black Monster Homme Black Erasing Pen
• XTM Style Homme For Men Easy Stick Concealer
• SKEDA Concealer
• Skinfood Cherry Full Lip Liner
• 3CE Slim Eyebrow Pencil (chestnut brown shade)
• Makeheal Naked Slim Brow Pencil (shades BR0203 and YL0801)

Hope this helps!
That's all for this blog post!
Do check out my other blog posts for potentially helpful articles :)