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Pakistani beauty creams in India: Maharashtra FDA's 2026 stop-sale orders

Last checked 10 October 2026

Pakistani beauty creams. Status: Declared not of standard quality; sale stopped in Maharashtra (Jul 2026).
Failed a lab test

In two alerts on 4 and 10 Jul 2026 Maharashtra FDA declared 12 skin-whitening creams and one soap not of standard quality for mercury and lead above the Cosmetics Rules limits, stopped their sale in the state and told online platforms to delist them; most are Pakistan-made and none has an import registration.

Classification
Declared Not of Standard Quality (NSQ)
Decided by
Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (state drug controller)
Reference
Maharashtra FDA alerts of 4 Jul 2026 (3 products) and 10 Jul 2026 (9 products), reported; orders not published online
Latest action
9 October 2026
Last checked
10 October 2026
See the source Report a mistake

Photo: Woman applying cream to hand.jpg by Moose Photos (CC0). All photo credits.

Primary government sourceTier 1: government primary source

DGFT Notification 06/2025-26: prohibition on import or transit of goods originating in or exported from Pakistan (para 2.20A, FTP 2023)

Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (state drug controller) · Maharashtra FDA alerts of 4 Jul 2026 (3 products) and 10 Jul 2026 (9 products), reported; orders not published online · 2 May 2025

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Scope. A record here does not by itself mean a product or company is unsafe or banned today. Regulatory actions can apply to one batch, one formulation, one period or one state. Always check the linked government document for the current position, and tell us if something is out of date. How we label records.

Below: Blacklisted's explanationWe organise and explain what the document says. The document above is the authority.

Key facts

4 Jul 2026 alert
Goree Beauty Cream, Face Fresh Gold (cream and serum), Golden Star Beauty Cream: mercury and lead above limits, no labelling compliance
10 Jul 2026 alert
Skinia Korean Goree Beauty Cream, Face Fresh Gold Plus, Dazller Eterna Day Care Light Cream, Parley Beauty Cream, Malika Premium Beauty Cream, Goree Beauty Cream with Lycopene, Goree Whitening Soap, Parley Goldie Advanced, Hania Beauty Cream
Why it started
Nagpur nephrologists reported 18 women with kidney disease and over 100 neurology cases linked to long use of mercury creams (reported)
Enforcement
Raids in Sambhajinagar, Parbhani, Nanded, Mumbai and Nashik; six FIRs under section 27 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act; over Rs 70 lakh of stock seized; 37 varieties worth Rs 50 to 60 lakh seized in Nanded
Legal limit
Mercury not more than 1 ppm in finished cosmetics other than eye-area products (Rule 39(5), Cosmetics Rules 2020)

Maharashtra's action began with doctors. In the first half of 2026 nephrologists in Nagpur linked kidney disease in 18 women to years of daily use of skin-whitening creams, and neurologists reported more than a hundred cases of tremor and numbness. Lab tests found mercury at 18 to 40 times the legal limit in the creams the patients had used. From 29 Mar 2026 the state FDA and police raided sellers across Marathwada and Mumbai, registered six cases under section 27 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and seized stock worth more than Rs 70 lakh.

On 4 Jul 2026 the FDA declared three products not of standard quality: Goree Beauty Cream, Face Fresh Gold (the cream and the serum) and Golden Star Beauty Cream. The finding was mercury and lead above the limits in Rule 39 of the Cosmetics Rules 2020, with no compliant labelling. Sale in the state was stopped and online marketplaces were told to delist and recall. A second alert on 10 Jul 2026 added nine products, including variants of Goree, Face Fresh Gold Plus, Dazller Eterna, Parley, Malika and Hania creams and Goree Whitening Soap.

The environmental group Toxics Link used the second alert to ask for a national ban on mercury skin-lightening products, and on 8 Sep 2026 CDSCO issued its own public health alert for Goree and Chandni creams. Maharashtra's enforcement continued: by 9 Oct 2026 the FDA reported 29 cosmetics unit inspections since June, three licence suspensions and one cancellation, and a 72-hour drive that seized Rs 90 lakh of stock.

Two cautions. The product names come from press coverage of the alerts, not from a published order, so spellings and variants should be checked against the pack. And 'not of standard quality' is the regulator's term for a failed test; it does not say the product was counterfeit or who made it, only that the sample failed.

What this means for you

The products are not on any legal shelf

None of these creams has an import registration, and imports from Pakistan are barred. Whatever the shop says, a pack sold in India after May 2025 did not come in lawfully.

Symptoms to take seriously

Mercury from creams builds up over months. Maharashtra's cases involved swelling, protein in urine, tremor and numbness. A doctor can order a mercury test.

Report what you find

CDSCO asks the public to report Indian-made cosmetics to the State Drugs Controller and imported ones to the Drugs Controller General of India at cosmetics@cdsco.nic.in. Keep the pack and the bill.

This is a record of official orders, not medical advice. Do not stop a prescribed medicine without asking your doctor or pharmacist.

Common questions

Is this a ban across India?

The July 2026 orders are Maharashtra's. CDSCO's 8 Sep 2026 alert extends the stop-sale direction for Goree and Chandni to every state. For the other products on Maharashtra's list the national position is the same in practice: they are unregistered imports and cannot lawfully be sold anywhere in India.

Where are the orders?

Maharashtra FDA announced both alerts to the press; the orders themselves have not been published on the FDA website. The product list here follows the reporting of 5 and 14 Jul 2026 and the Toxics Link press release.

Official sources and primary records

Researched and written by The Blacklisted team
We are not doctors or pharmacists. Everything on this page comes from the documents listed above, which you can open and check. Last checked 10 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.