Do you use Etude House and Aritaum products? Their parent company, Amore Pacific, recalled several items on Monday from stores after it was discovered that these products contained excessive amounts of antimony. In this report, we have the list of Etude House and Aritaum products recalled by Amore Pacific.
According to a report from the Korea Herald, the company apologised for the quality of the products, and said, “We apologize for the incident, we should have put all our focus on quality assurance. We will do our best to prevent similar cases from happening again.”
The recall happened on Monday, March 20, and included 13 products, some which include eyebrow products and concealers from Etude House and Aritaum.
The report also said that the amount of antimony exceeded the prescribed 10 micrograms per gram in each item.
What are the Etude House and Aritaum products recalled?
While a Korean list of products have been released, some helpful Reddit users have translated the item list for users who don’t understand and want to know which products have been recalled.
Here is a partial (and unofficial) list, as posted on Reddit:
Etude House
AC Clean Up Mild Concealer
Item code: AAH(2021. 01. 08)
Drawing Eyebrow Duo #3 Greybrown
Item code: GLG (2020. 12. 17)
ARITAUM
Full Cover Stick Concealer #1 Light Beige
Item code: AAH (2021. 01. 12)
Item code: BAH (2021. 01. 30)
Item code: CBH (2021. 02. 11)
Full Cover Stick Concealer #2 Natural Beige
Item code: ELG (2020. 12. 17)
Full Cover Cream Concealer #1
Item code: GLG (2020. 12. 14)
Item code: AAH (2021. 01. 30)
Full Cover Cream Concealer #2
Item code: AAH (2021. 01. 14)
A screenshot of the list may be seen here.
In the same report, the company said that people who purchased the items included in the list above (with the affected batches and expiry dates) can have the items refunded or replaced at their official stores.
Take note, however, that some items may have changes in formulation based on country laws, so the batches may or may not have been sold internationally.
Not the first time Amore Pacific recalls items
This is not the first time that the company has had to recall some of its items for problems. In 2016, it had to pull out 11 toothpaste products from the shelves.
In a report by the Korea Times, they said that, “The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Monday ordered a recall of 11 toothpaste products manufactured and sold by AmorePacific, saying the products contained methylisothiazolinone (MIT) and chloromethylisothiazolinone (CMIT).”
Here is the list of the items banned during that year:
- Median Fresh Forest Toothpaste,
- Median Fresh Marin Toothpaste,
- Median Vital Energy Toothpaste,
- Median Vital Clean Toothpaste and
- Median Vital Action Toothpaste.
These items, however, were not exported internationally.
What does excessive antimony do, anyway?
According to the US National Library of Medicine, excessive exposure to antimony has some adverse effects on the body.
While victims would need to be exposed over a certain time in a certain volume, they can expect these symptoms and problems if their body cannot handle the exposure:
- respiratory irritation,
- pneumoconiosis,
- antimony spots on the skin, which are erupting pustules on sebaceous and sweat glands.
- gastrointestinal symptoms which include abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and ulcers.
Do you use any of the items above? Let us know in the comments!
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Header image from Shutterstock.
