Product record
Blue Heaven and imported lipsticks: mercury test failures (Kerala, Mar 2025)
Last checked 10 October 2026
CDSCO's March 2025 alert lists three lipsticks tested in Kerala as failing the mercury test: Blue Heaven Get Matte Lipstick (batch KA4A1), Top Up Matte Super Light Liquid Lipstick and a Seven Seas twist matte lipstick, the last two imported from China; these are batch findings and no ban has been published.
- Classification
- Declared Not of Standard Quality (NSQ)
- Decided by
- Kerala State Drugs Control Department (state lab); listed by CDSCO
- Reference
- CDSCO NSQ alert, March 2025, state lab list
- Latest action
- 1 March 2025
- Last checked
- 10 October 2026
Photo: DifferentColorsOfLipsticks.JPG by Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine (CC0). All photo credits.
CDSCO: Not of Standard Quality (NSQ) alerts, public portal (monthly lists from state and central labs)
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 Always check the linked government document for the current position, and tell us if something is out of date.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
- Blue Heaven
- Get Matte Lipstick, batch KA4A1, Indian brand (Blue Heaven Cosmetics, Delhi): failed the mercury test
- Imported
- Top Up Matte Super Light Liquid Lipstick and Red Four Seven Seas twist matte lipstick, China: failed the mercury test
- Limit
- 1 ppm mercury in finished cosmetics (Rule 39(5))
- Lab
- Drugs Testing Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram
The March 2025 'not of standard quality' alert published by CDSCO carries the results of Kerala's Operation Soundarya sampling. Among the failures are three lipsticks: Blue Heaven's Get Matte Lipstick, batch KA4A1, an Indian brand made in Delhi, and two imports, Top Up Matte Super Light Liquid Lipstick and a Red Four Seven Seas twist matte lipstick, both from China. Each 'fails the test for the content of mercury in finished cosmetics'.
Mercury is not a permitted ingredient in lipstick. Rule 39(5)(b) of the Cosmetics Rules 2020 allows no more than 1 ppm, and only as an unintentional trace. The Kerala health minister said in January 2025 that some lipstick samples carried mercury at thousands of times the limit; the CDSCO list records the failure, not the number.
The imported lipsticks have a second problem. Rule 12 requires every imported cosmetic to be registered with CDSCO and to carry the registration number on the label. Neither Chinese product shows one, so their sale is unlawful regardless of the test. For Blue Heaven the finding is limited to the batch named; no recall or licence action has followed.
What this means for you
One batch, not the brand
A failed lab test names a batch number and the lab that tested it. It does not mean every pack of that product is affected. Check the batch on your pack against the one in the record.
Imports need a registration
An imported cosmetic must carry its import registration number on the pack. A Chinese lipstick with no registration number cannot lawfully be sold, whatever its test result.
Mercury in lipstick
Lipstick is swallowed in small amounts over time. Mercury has no place in it at any level above a trace. Stop using a batch that is on the list.
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 Blue Heaven banned in India?
No. One lipstick batch (KA4A1) failed a mercury test in March 2025. There is no recall or licence action on record.
Official sources and primary records
- Regulator
- Kerala health minister on Operation Soundarya: mercury in creams and lipsticks far above the limitNewsOnmanorama · 29 January 2025