On October 30, Paul Penders China signed an agreement with LeRoy International Ltd where PPChina will produce a special brand with Paul Penders formulation for Chinese consumers.

LeRoy, a long standing homegrown direct selling company, has thousands of specialty distributors in Malaysia alone and is branching out into other countries, including China. The manufacturing of the LeRoy brand specialty cosmetics will be done at PPChina’s GMP licensed factory while for the other countries in Southeast Asia, the new LeRoy brand products will be manufactured by Paul Penders Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

“It is an honor for Paul Penders Co. that such a large and well respected company as LeRoy will introduce our formulas to their distributors, who only sell the highest quality vitamins and other health related products,” says company founder Paul Penders.

Cooperating with such a large company is particularly beneficial for launching Paul Penders organic products in China, he notes, and organic is an inevitable trend in the Chinese cosmetics industry.

LeRoy president Mr. Edward Khoo visited the PPChina facility in Hangzhou, where he toured the facility’s development lab, manufacturing plant, clean rooms, and warehouses. In the materials warehouse, Mr. Khoo remarked on the elegant look of the newly-redesigned Paul Penders packaging.

“The smiles brimmed on our faces after his high compliment – we spent so much time redesigning the package,” says PPChina’s Sophia. “Nature and organic was our main theme”.

During the course of the day-long discussions, Mr. Khoo asked many questions about the products’ manufacture, source of materials and production equipment used. He particularly noted the family-like spirit of cooperation evident amongst the PPChina team.

The agreement was signed in Hangzhou by Mr. Khoo and Mr. Jim Wu, president of PPChina.

On October 19, Malaysian holistic wellness center Green Meadow Corp. visited PPChina. The team of four visitors included Green Meadow president Mrs. Andrea Chin, M.D.

After a warm welcome, PPChina Production Manager Mr. Zhao, who is in charge of R&D and manufacturing, led the four guests into the modern new GMP-licensed factory.  

Company founder Paul Penders also met the visitors and toured the facility with them.

“Paul is really a kind and easy going person,” says Lucy, who works in the laboratory. “He shook hands with all the workers and nicely greeted them and they felt excited. Although they didn't understand completely what Paul was saying because of the language barrier, they felt his caring and enthusiastic charisma.”

Green Meadow consists of a group of strategic partners active in holistic preventative medicine that sell products and services throughout Southeast Asia. It includes the Wellness & Aesthetic Academy, a nationwide nutrition company that offers a wide range of holistic health services from vegetarian restaurants, quantum touch healing, dietary therapies, holistic nutrition, iridology and acupuncture to specific programs for beauty therapy certificate training including advanced diplomas.

After visiting the Paul Penders facilities in Malaysia this past summer, Green Meadow began to distribute Paul Penders natural organic cosmetics.

On October 21, Malaysian newspaper Utusan Malaysia published an interview with Paul Penders entitled, “Paul Penders Travels the World Looking for Herbs”.

The story chronicles Paul Penders’ career in the beauty industry, from his early days as a cosmetologist through the launch of his first shampoo in the early 1960 to the global growth of the Paul Penders organic skin and hair care products today.

As with that first shampoo, which was developed as a joint effort of Dutch herbalist Herma Eeftink and Dr. Ab Steyn, all Paul Penders products incorporate only natural ingredients and are never tested on animals. The basis of the products remains LevensEssentie, a unique blend of 21 different herbs.

As noted in the story, Paul Penders came to Langkawi, Malaysia in 1997 in search of herbs and essential oils for new products. The growing company is now headquartered on Langkawi Geopark, with full-scale manufacturing in Kuala Lumpur. In 2004, the company expanded into China and earlier this year, began its first shipments of Paul Penders products for sale through Chinese department stores.

To read the article, please click here.

The safety of the common skin whitener kojic acid has recently been called into question by Europe’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP).
Investigating the ingredient at the request of one of the EU member states, the SCCP found that kojic acid, at a maximum concentration of 1% in skin care formulations, may pose a health risk.
According to the SCCP, kojic acid is not toxic or carcinogenic to humans at likely exposures.

However, patch tests in women found that skin regularly exposed to kojic acid becomes more sensitive to the compound, leading the SCCP to suggest it is a skin sensitizer in humans.

As kojic acid is one of the most common skin lightening ingredients it is likely that the industry will react quickly to provide further data that will provide greater insight into the effects of kojic acid on the body.

Kojic acid has been commercially used in Japan for many years as a food additive in fresh vegetables, crabs and shrimps in order to maintain their freshness and to inhibit discoloration, as a preservative, and as an antioxidant for fats and oils. It is also used in flavorings to add luster, to prevent discoloration on vegetables, as well as in flour and meat production.

Kojic acid is not the only skin lightening compound whose safety has been questioned, however.  Hydroquinone was banned as a skin lightener in Europe, and its use limited to certain concentrations in the US, over fears that it could provoke severe skin irritation and patchy pigmentation.

The 19-member SCCP was set up in 2004 by the European Commission to provide the Commission with scientific advice on the safety of consumer products. It replaced the former Scientific Committee on Cosmetic Products and Non-Food Products (SCCNFP).

To read the SCCP’s full report on kojic acid, please click here.