It was on April 5, 2024 that the Chemicals Agency bought the Duo Eye Pencil on CAIA’s website for SEK 225. After carrying out tests, the Chemicals Inspectorate discovered that the pen contained PFAS substances.
The dangerous make-up pencil contains the substance perfluorononyl dimethicone, which can cause cancer, but above all, the substance can affect fertility.
On April 11, 2024, the Chemicals Inspectorate sent out information to CAIA that they are selling the make-up pencil with the dangerous substance in it.
The Swedish Chemicals Agency sent out the notification to CAIA on 11 April 2024. Image source: Swedish Chemicals Agency’s notification
On 12 April 2024, an inspector at the Chemicals Inspectorate responded to an email from CAIA in which the product manager Roisin Leavey asked to receive the information in English. The Chemicals Inspectorate will then send out the information in English on 12 April 2024.
On 29 April, Roisin Leavey replies to the Chemical Inspection Agency’s email. In the email, she thanks the Chemicals Agency on behalf of the company for alerting CAIA that the make-up contains the toxic chemicals.
Roisin writes in her email to the Chemicals Inspectorate:
“We are very grateful that the Swedish Chemicals Agency has brought to our attention that one of our products contains PFAS. We have immediately ceased the sale of this product.”
But no warning to the customers who bought the pen has gone out. In the comment field on Instagram, some customers claim that they were able to buy the make-up pencil as recently as May, and that it was therefore not stolen at all. That information is not confirmed.
The Swedish Chemicals Agency writes about the consequences of the dangerous substances found in the make-up from CAIA Cosmetics. Image source: Chemicals Inspectorate
Only when it was revealed that the Swedish Chemicals Agency reported CAIA to the police for the toxic make-up pencil did CAIA go out and start responding to worried customers in its comments section on Instagram.
To a concerned customer, the company wrote:
“The product Duo Eye Pencil has been removed from our range since April 2024 as it contained an ingredient that was added to the restriction annex in the EU regulation REACH in 2023. It should have been removed earlier in direct connection with the amendment of the annex. We take the incident seriously and have tightened all procedures. We want to assure you as a customer that all production takes place in accordance with EU cosmetics legislation.”
CAIA Cosmetics store in NK in Stockholm. Image source: Stella Pictures. Prohibited PFAS substances in several of CAIA Cosmetics’ products
Now can Camilla Gervidewhich runs Blog monitoring under News24s flag, reveal that the Duo Eye Pencil is not the only product from CAIA’s range to contain PFAS substances. It is also about another product from the make-up giant CAIA.
Camilla Gervide.
On Instagram, Gervide has posted a clip where she films CAIA’s eyeliner pencil, which, according to the list of contents, also contains perfluorononyl dimethicone.
The eyeliner pen was one of the products included in the CAIA Cosmetics Christmas calendar 2023. The Christmas calendar cost SEK 2,695 and sold out in record time.
CAIA’s Christmas calendar 2023 cost SEK 2,695. The calendar included a make-up pencil that contains toxic substances. Image source: CAIA Cosmetics
Gervide says in her clip on Instagram that she gave away that particular pen as a present to a teenager close to her.
You tell us on Instagram that you gave away one of these pens to a teenager in your area. How does this feel now?
– I have given make-up to a young person close to me, and now I have to call her and tell her that she may have painted her eyes with a poisonous pencil, Camilla Gervide tells Nyheter24.
Is trust in CAIA completely gone now?
– I’m shocked. Speechless. Finding the same toxic substance in a make-up pencil that I received in a slot in CAIA’s Christmas calendar is shocking, but not as shocking as the way the company fudged, lied and hid information that could harm their customers? One more lie. How many are there really?, says Camilla Gervide to Nyheter24.
This is CAIA Cosmetics
CAIA Cosmetics was founded in 2018 by Bianca Ingrosso, Vanessa Lindblad, Jesper Matsch and Mikael Snabb.
In June 2020, the company Verdane bought 51 percent of the company, a deal that made Bianca Ingrosso financially independent.
Bianca Ingrosso is still the second largest owner in CAIA as she Today’s industry owns 12 percent of the company.
Nyheter24 is looking for CAIA Cosmetics.