Benton Cosmetics Controversy & Contamination

Note: "Contamination" is used loosely here to refer to the alleged different types of fungal/bacteria/mold that have been discussed by Benton users.  There is some speculation that the problems are due to a lack of preservatives in the product.  I have not confirmed this officially with Benton that this is the specific reason.  There are many Benton products currently being sold that have no problems.  This post does *NOT* describe all Benton products as unsafe, contaminated, etc.  Please use common sense and caution when evaluating the skincare products you buy online! 

I was really hesitant about writing this post because it is not my intention to write a bad review to maliciously ruin the reputation of a company, particularly a relatively small skincare company.  As a former small business owner, I know how difficult it is to create something, nuture it, and grow it from the ground up.  And I do truly sympathize with how difficult it is to manage business risks that someone is facing for the first time. 

Now if you haven't figured it out from the post title yet, or if you're new to the issue circulating online in skincare circles, then let me provide a small backgrounder on what's been going on since early 2014.  A lot of reports have come out against Benton Cosmetics - founded by Lee Jang Won - about bacterial and fungal contamination in their Snail Bee Essence products.  They have publicly admitted to the contamination after several complaints of break outs, irritation, and rashes. I first read about these complaints online and through affiliates of Benton Cosmetics, where Jang Won eventually publicly admitted to the issues with the products.

My experience with this company has been mainly as a consumer of their toner, essence, soothing gel, sheet masks, and steam cream products.  I've used them for the better part of a year now (recently stopped), and I've tried almost everything they offer with the exception of the Snail Bee lotion. It is worth noting before I continue on, however, that even without the reports of contamination, I wouldn't have considered their products to be HG or must-haves.  What initially drew me to them were the reviews from other bloggers on how gentle they are for all skin types and, of course, how reasonably priced they are.  The formulations are quite nice and contain very little, if any, acne triggers and skin irritants.  Overall, this would have been a product I'd recommend to someone if they had very sensitive or troubled-skin and were looking for added moisture without breakouts.  But of course, these recommendations would've been part of a typical review of Benton Cosmetics here at Skin & Beauty Story if the contamination - including how the company handled the situation - hadn't happened.

Recently, there has been a lot of anger online over the poor communication between Lee Jang Won and consumers of Benton products.  There have been allegations from bloggers that the contamination issue was not isolated to one batch back in March as Jang Won has claimed through various mouthpieces.  But by far the worse accusations that have flown around have been on Benton's lack of transparency, concern, and acknowledgement over other possible products outside the Essence line being contaminated as well.  Yup, that's right, there may be other products in their line up that have contanmination issues other than the Snail Bee Essence and they may still be out there for sale. Scary thought, huh?

There's currently a thread over at Reddit discussing this here and here (links include photos of users infected/irritated skin) and other bloggers have been actively documenting their experience here and here.  While I did not have any skin problems when I first started with their products, I did develop acne and stubborn closed comedones after I repurchased their aloe toner.  Now, I cannot say with certainty that my skin issues this summer are a result of Benton's products, so I can't make any certain claims about it.  All I can say though is that around the time I started noticing skin issues was around the same time my BHA Aloe Toner had developed a strong, mildew-like odour.  The acne flare ups across my cheeks  didn't start immediately after using  it, since I stopped applying it until I was reassured via email by Benton Cosmetics that there was nothing wrong with the toner. Once I was told that there wasn't anything wrong with the toner, and against my better judgement, I began using it again and that's when I started getting angry red pimples across my cheeks and along my chin. 

Whether or not those two things are directly correlated, I can't say for sure because I do not have the resources to test the toner (which I threw out after) and draw any strong conclusions. However, I had used this toner previously from another production batch, and had NEVER noticed it smelling like mold or anything nasty. Furthermore, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that my skin problems at that time are connected to those products when so many other people have reported issues with it this past spring and throughout this summer.   

I emailed Jang Won about my concerns over their toner being possibly contaminated and I was reassured by him that the contamination was limited to only the essence products. Well, I continued to use it after his reassurance until the smell of mold got REAL bad and I threw it out.  Here is my exchange with Jang Won (some info has been redacted for privacy reasons) with the earliest emails at the bottom of the chain:

벤튼화장품 <bentonkorea@naver.com>	Jun 24
to REDACTED , me

Dear Alice REDACTED
Thanks again for your contact.  
It is normal for the liquid is cloudy.
It is the color of the BHA.
We do not add artificial flavor.
The flavor of the raw material itself.
We listen to your story and I'll check further.(check again)
If the products have problems, we'll make it, you know.
Always healthy and happy. 

Thank you.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[벤튼화장품] BENTON 피부,시간을 거스르다.

대표 이장원 / LEE JANG WON

TEL 070 8805 0606
FAX 02 6280 6605
MOBILE 010 4707 4630
E-mail bentonkorea@naver.com

우)156-811 서울시 동작구 여의대방로24사길 8 부명빌딩 102호(대방동) 벤튼코리아
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

-----Original Message-----
From: "AliceREDACTED"<REDACTED> 

To: "벤튼화장품"<bentonkorea@naver.com>;
Cc:
Sent: 2014-06-24 (화) 21:52:15
Subject: Re: Aloe BHA Contamination?

Hi Mr. Lee,

My concern isn't about obtaining a refund, but to highlight a potential issue with the products.

The toner in question has a strong odor, kind of like mold. It has not caused me any skin problems but the smell is strong enough to bother me when applied. The liquid itself is cloudy in the bottle. I hope this helps.

Alice REDACTED

Alternate E-mail: REDACTED 

On 2014-06-24, at 12:17 AM, "벤튼화장품" <bentonkorea@naver.com> wrote:
 

Dear REDACTED, Alice

Refunds issue are only provided to 05.03.2014(2014.03.05) Essence products.
Other products(other Date) are fine.
So far, the issue of aloe toner have not been confirmed.
but, depending on your feedback, I'll check it out.
Thank you.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[벤튼화장품] BENTON 피부,시간을 거스르다.

대표 이장원 / LEE JANG WON

TEL 070 8805 0606
FAX 02 6280 6605
MOBILE 010 4707 4630
E-mail bentonkorea@naver.com

우)156-811 서울시 동작구 여의대방로24사길 8 부명빌딩 102호(대방동) 벤튼코리아
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

-----Original Message-----
From: "AliceREDACTED"<REDACTED> 

To: <bentonkorea@naver.com>;
Cc:
Sent: 2014-06-23 (월) 22:49:19
Subject: Aloe BHA Contamination?

Hello Mr. Lee,

I have the Aloe BHA Toner from this 2014.03.05 batch and I've noticed it has a strong, mildew-like smell. It is strong enough for me to stop using it. I've purchased this toner before and never noticed an issue until this batch.

I thought that I'd bring this to your attention in the event that the contamination issue with the essence also extends to the BHA toner.

Regards,

-- 

REDACTED, Alice

REDACTED

As you can see, his initial response was to state that I wouldn't get a refund, even though I never ASKED for one and it really wasn't professional for him to approach my concerns that way.  It would've been way more courteous and professional for him to inquire about my experiences with the toner first and what was wrong with it, etc. He didn't even ask me to send the bottle back to him, so that they can do proper sampling and testing for contamination.  

Anyway, from the general tone of his responses, it really didn't seem like he was too interested in investigating the issues I raised with him.  Clearly, there is an issue within the company as a whole in terms of customer service and, of course, the big elephant(s) in the room - quality control, post-production inspections, and product recall processes and policies.  It is also hugely damning and very concerning that a lot of bloggers are reporting that their emails are going unanswered, and it is even more concerning to hear that new batches are suspected of causing skin infections. 

I acknowledge that even BIG skincare companies have had contamination issues, most famously being SK-II, which had batches contaminated with neodymium and chromium - chemicals with human toxicity and carcinogeneity concerns.  Things like this do happen and it can be very scary for consumers since we can never really know what's contained in our products.  Sure, there are ingredient labels, but there are no laws that hold companies accountable for information that they choose to include or exclude.  So, what can a company do in the aftermath of a quality control failure? Well, in this case, how a company like Benton Cosmetics chooses to REACT to its quality control and contamination issues can really impact consumers' confidence moving forward.  From what I've seen online, and from my own personal experience, I feel that Jang Won and his company have not dealt with these issues in a clear, accountable way that shows they are taking measurable steps to prevent this from happening again.  The first thing they should've done was send an announcement to all retailers to pull the product from their shelves, and also aanounce detailed information on the batches contaminated, including what the actual bacteria/fungus is.  Second, they should publicly announce an internal investigation into the quality control, post-production inspection, and oversight mechanisms in their manufacturing plants.  Third, they should announce an action plan on how they will address these contamination issues moving forward.  Taking these steps, being open and clearly accountable to their consumers, can be so vital in helping this company win back the trust of their consumers.

Mr. Lee, this isn't the time to stay quiet. Your product benefits from the good reviews of bloggers and you shouldn't turn your backs on them just yet.