A Study on the Consumer’s Attitude and Utilization Intention toward Full Ingredient Lists for Cosmetics: For Female Consumers

In an effort to protect consumers' rights to information and to promote their freedom of choice, the South Korean government has been enforcing a policy called the cosmetics full ingredients list system since 2008, which requires cosmetics manufacturers to list all of the ingredients used in their products.This policy aims to assist consumers in identifying the causes of possible side effects of cosmetic products.This study uses consumers' demographic information addition to their cosmetics purchase and usage characteristics to learn about consumers' attitudes and utilization intentions and the influence of information from the cosmetics full ingredients list.This study was conducted through a questionnaire based survey administered to women above the age of 20 years across South Korea who use cosmetic products.The questionnaire was distributed to 300 members on the panel of M Brain, an online research institute.The findings of this study are as follows:(1) The level of knowledge on cosmetics' ingredients positively affected the consumers' attitude and utilization intention of information on the cosmetics full ingredients list.(2) The higher the utilization intention for information, the more often consumers checked the packaging of goods.This implies that habitual behavior, such as checking information, leads to increasing intention to utilize of new information.(3) The brand, as a decision-making factor, negatively affected consumers' attitudes regarding information.