Recall of Kanebo Whitening Products

Are you using any of the whitening products under Kanebo?

Image from The Japan Times

Kanebo released a statement on Thursday(yesterday) that it would be recalling 54 of its products after receiving complaints about white patches appearing on some users' skin. There are reportedly 39 cases of these complaints and 15 of the 39 showed no improvement even after discontinuing product usage.

After some investigation, they suspect that it may be due to an active whitening chemical called 4HPB (4-Hydroxyphenyl 2-Butanone), named Rhododenol by Kanebo, thus sparking this recall across its Asian markets.

Japanese cosmetics products are generally very safe and of good quality and this active ingredient has in fact been tested and cleared for use by Japan's health ministry according to Kanebo.

I was unable to find the full list but several reports have the list of to-be-recalled products sold in Singapore:

Brand: Kanebo Blanchir Superior

• White Deep Clear Conditioner I
• White Deep Clear Conditioner II
• White Deep Clear Conditioner III
• White Deep Milky Conditioner I
• White Deep Milky Conditioner II
• White Deep Night Conditioner I
• White Deep Night Conditioner II
• White Deep Mask
• White Deep UV Day Protector

Brand: Impress

• IC White Lotion I
• IC White Lotion II
• IC White Emulsion I
• IC White Emulsion II
• Granmula Lotion

Brand: RMK

• Skintuner Brightening Light
• Skintuner Brightening Moist
• Intensive Brightening Essence

I like Japanese cosme products so naturally, I have quite a few that are under Kanebo, all without incident. I was actually quite tempted awhile back to purchase the RMK Skintuner (>__<);;  It's quite unfortunate, this negative publicity for Kanebo...'cos even though there were only 39 reported cases, it IS Japan.

Hope none of you had any bad reactions to these products!

Full article from Channel Newsasia HERE.

Full article from The Japan Times HERE.