Key Takeaways:
As beauty consumers grow more vigilant about product safety, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is answering the call for increased transparency with a new real-time dashboard for reporting cosmetic adverse events. On September 12, the agency unveiled the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) Public Dashboard for Cosmetic Products, which allows the public to examine real-time adverse event data on everything from moisturizers and shampoos to hair dyes and tattoos.
“Americans are rightfully demanding greater insight into the safety and regulation of the cosmetic products they use every day,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., in a press announcement. “This real-time dashboard is a great step in our efforts to deliver greater transparency and allow the public to help identify potential data signals.”
The dashboard consolidates serious adverse event reports submitted under requirements established by the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA), along with voluntary reports from healthcare professionals, salon professionals, cosmetologists, and consumers.
“Publication of the FAERS Public Dashboard for Cosmetic Products is another step in the FDA’s modernization strategy, which includes radical transparency,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the FDA, told BeautyMatter exclusively. “The dashboard makes the adverse event data easier to query and produces user-friendly information and charts.”
For example, users can view a summary of adverse event reports received as early as 2001 to the present or within a specific timeframe. Additionally, users can search for products or reactions of interest within a specific timeframe. “This comprehensive search capability ensures that users can efficiently locate the specific information they need from the database,” added the HHS spokesperson.
Reports are updated daily to include the most recent submissions. In the announcement, the FDA underscored the fact that reports in the dashboard have not been independently verified. Any mention of a specific brand or product does not necessarily mean the agency has determined a cosmetic product caused the reported event. Similarly, the presence of reports in FAERS is not a safety profile for a product.
Instead, the data acts as an early signal-detection tool. The ability to see daily reports equips regulators, researchers, and consumers with a near-real-time view into emerging safety concerns. According to the HHS spokesperson BeautyMatter spoke to for this story, the agency will follow up with investigations and regulatory action if concerning safety signals appear. The spokesperson also noted that users must acknowledge a mandatory disclaimer each time they access the dashboard, underscoring that the reports are unverified. Additional FAQs further outline the limitations of the data, including questions such as, “What points should I consider while viewing the dashboard content?” The FDA also previously published a guide to understanding, applying, and interpreting adverse event data reported to FAERS to help prevent misinterpretation.
The database builds on the FDA's earlier August announcement regarding the daily publication of adverse event data for drugs and therapeutic biologics.
“Adverse event reporting should be fast, seamless, and transparent,” Makary said in a press announcement. “People who navigate the government’s clunky adverse event reporting websites should not have to wait months for that information to become public. We’re closing that waiting period and will continue to streamline the process from start to finish.”
For the beauty industry, the new dashboard underscores MoCRA’s sweeping impact on compliance and accountability. Brands must now be prepared for the possibility that adverse event reports tied to their products will be accessible not just to regulators but to all concerned citizens and industry watchdogs in real time.
The tool also highlights the FDA’s commitment to harmonizing reporting systems across drugs, biologics, and cosmetics, signaling an increasingly data-driven regulatory environment.
The FAERS Public Dashboard for Cosmetic Products is now live and available for public use. Healthcare professionals and consumers are encouraged to continue reporting adverse events through the FDA’s MedWatch system, which feeds directly into FAERS.
“The shift is one of many steps in the FDA's broader data modernization strategy to streamline all of its adverse event reporting systems and increase reporting frequency across all systems to identify safety signals faster,” said the HHS spokesperson.
