31,000 Tubes of Product Recalled by an Influencer-Favorite Skincare Brand

There’s never been a more direct purchasing funnel as social media, where an ad or post for a certain product is all the persuading you need to be convinced that this innovative beauty product will resolve an aesthetic issue that’s been on your mind.

The products developed by clinicians and biotechnology have also never been so plentiful. If you’re one of the nearly 80,000 followers of Prequel Skin on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you may want a heads-up on a recall from this brand that one Reddit user has said makes products that are “worth the hype.”

This week, a report published by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised that 30,946 tubes of Prequel Skin’s Barrier Therapy Skin Protectant Cream had been recalled on August 28, 2024. The brand’s site has published a statement that they “are voluntarily recalling four lots of Barrier Therapy Skin Protectant Cream … [d]ue to the possibility of bacterial contamination.” The FDA’s wording of the recall reason is “Microbial contamination of non-sterile Products.”

The brand says they “have not received reports of adverse events from customers with respect to this product and believe the potential of an adverse reaction is incredibly rare.” However, they note the bacteria that was discovered, Staphylococcus saprophyticus—a strain of staph—can cause irritation or infection.

Prequel says this recall affects four lots of 10-ounce product with UPC code 8 10129 11007 4 that the FDA says were distributed nationwide in the US and online:

• X4054A
• X4136A
• X4137A
• X4138A

The company says lot codes can be found along the top crimp of the tube. They advise customers who purchased product from any of these four lots to discontinue use, discard the product, and contact the company for a refund.

Prequel’s Barrier Therapy Skin Protectant Cream is said to contain 1% colloidal oatmeal. Oatmeal has been demonstrated to ease irritation and inflammation, but this marks the second recall on a moisturizer containing oatmeal in less than two months.

On September 9, the FDA categorized this as a Class II recall, which they define as “A situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.”

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