ALBANY, NY\u2014Consumer Reports (CR) and Black women-owned businesses are at the New York State Capitol today to urge the State Assembly to pass the Beauty Justice Act (S.2057B\/A.2054B). This legislation would ban intentionally added toxic substances from personal care and beauty products sold in New York State. The national nonprofit consumer organization CR and the beauty and salon businesses are headquartered in New York. The lobby day coincides with an anticipated Senate floor vote today, amplifying the coalition\u2019s push for the bill\u2019s passage and underscoring the urgent need for beauty and personal care product safety.<\/p>\n
While advocates look for the Senate to reaffirm its strong support from last session, today\u2019s meetings with\u00a0 New York State Assembly members delivered a unified call to advance the Beauty Justice Act out of the Ways and Means Committee. After passing two other committees unanimously last session<\/a>, the bill\u2019s progress was halted in Ways and Means, preventing it from reaching the full assembly for a vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill has already demonstrated strong legislative support. Last session, the State Senate passed it overwhelmingly, 49-10. Today\u2019s mobilization is aimed at urging the Assembly to follow suit and clear the path for the bill to go to the Governor\u2019s desk. In meetings with Assembly members, advocates thanked the bill\u2019s current champions and asked remaining members to officially co-sponsor.<\/p>\n \u201cToxic substances that are already banned in food and children\u2019s products are still showing up in the beauty products millions of New Yorkers use every day. California, Maryland, Washington, the European Union, and Canada have all acted. New York has a clear opportunity to close the gap in the state, and the Beauty Justice Act is the vehicle to do it. We thank the Senate for its overwhelming support and call on the Assembly to pass this bill now.\u201d \u2014 Oriene Shin, Safety Advocacy Manager, Consumer Reports<\/p>\n Support for the bill extends beyond consumer safety organizations. In 2025, nearly 40 New York business owners signed a letter<\/a> backing the legislation, pushing back against industry claims that stricter safety standards would harm small businesses. This lobby day makes clear that small business owners see the opposite as true\u2014that safer products are good for their customers, their brands, and their bottom lines.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a business owner, I chose to build a brand rooted in transparency, plant-based formulation, and hair wellness\u2014because it was necessary. Safer products are not only possible, they already exist. What we need now is accountability. New York has the opportunity to lead\u2014 protecting public health and setting a new national standard.\u201d \u2014 Debra Hare-Bey, Founder, On My Heavenly Hair, Inc.<\/p>\n \u201cToxic chemicals in beauty products are a serious public health issue that directly impacts Black women and the communities we serve. Through our upcoming show Mane Moves LIVE!, we\u2019re committed to raising awareness about how beauty practices intersect with health, culture, and policy. Passing the Beauty Justice Act is a critical step toward ensuring that the products we use every day support our well-being, not harm it.\u201d \u2014 Natasha Gaspard, Founder, Mane Moves Media, Inc.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Natural Hairstyle & Braid Coalition supports the Beauty Justice Act because this legislation aligns with our commitment to strong safety standards\u2014ensuring trained professionals, safer services, and a beauty industry that prioritizes health, wellness, and accountability.\u201d \u2014 Natural Hairstyle & Braid Coalition<\/p>\n Despite broad consumer, small business, and legislative support, major companies and industry trade associations\u2014 including L\u2019Oreal, Estee Lauder, and the Personal Care Products Council<\/a>\u2014formally opposed the legislation. CR and its coalition partners dispute their claims, noting that safer formulations are already widely available and that the cost of inaction falls disproportionately on consumers, particularly women of color.<\/p>\n Consumer Reports Testing:<\/p>\n Consumer Reports has tested popular beauty products\u2014from braiding hair to boxed dyes\u2014and found toxic chemicals, including heavy metals, phthalates, and VOCs, in these products. In 2024<\/a> and 2025<\/a>, CR tested 40 popular synthetic and natural braiding hair brands and found heavy metals (such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic) in 38 of the samples, and VOCs in every single sample. A separate CR investigation of 23 hair color products, published last week<\/a>, found that many contained VOCs, phthalates, and trace amounts of benzene and arsenic. Several of the toxic substances CR uncovered in the products tested are linked to serious health concerns and would be banned from personal care and beauty products if the Beauty Justice Act becomes law.<\/p>\n ***
Media Contact: Emily Akpan, emily.akpan@consumer.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, NY\u2014Consumer Reports (CR) and Black women-owned businesses are at the New York State Capitol today to urge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-204938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}