Seoul Skin Notes

Before a Korean sunscreen can print SPF 50+ on the box, it has to clear a test written into an MFDS notice called 기능성화장품 심사에 관한 규정, the Regulation on the Examination of Functional Cosmetics. The version in force is 식품의약품안전처고시 제2025-88호, effective December 16, 2025, and its page at the National Law Information Center lists it as 일부개정, a partial amendment. The testing method sits in 별표 3, 자외선 차단효과 측정방법 및 기준 , fifteen pages of procedure: how many people, which part of the body, how much product, what lamp. This is for anyone who has read a thread asking whether Korean SPF ratings can be trusted and wanted the underlying numbers rather than a summary of them. Everything below is quoted from the Korean text of Annex 3 as of September 16, 2026 (KST). Ten people, one back, 2 mg/cm² Clause 4 of Chapter 2 reads "피험자는 [부표1]의 피험자 선정기준에 따라 제품당 10명 이상을 선정한다," at least ten subjects per product, selected under the criteria in Sub-table 1. That sub-table narrows the pool to healthy men ...

Korean hair loss shampoo is a regulated product category in Korea. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (식품의약품안전처, MFDS) maintains a list of "functional cosmetics" (기능성화장품), and ChemLinked's summary of that regulation gives category 8 as "Cosmetics that help alleviate hair loss symptoms. Products that only physically thicken the appearance of hair (e.g., hair coating products) are excluded." The category is recent. The US International Trade Administration's market note on Korean hair loss products , published September 20, 2024, says that "In 2017, the MFDS reclassified hair loss alleviation products from quasi-drugs to functional cosmetics." This is for whoever reads the back of the bottle before the ad copy: thinning at the part line, an oily scalp through a humid summer, a cart sitting open at a Korean retailer. Everything below is as of September 16, 2026 (KST). The two recipes that skip the trial In October 2020 MFDS issued 공고 제2020-435호...