Restricted Cosmetic Substances — Annex III

Reading an Annex III entry as a maximum concentration is the mistake this whole annex invites. The concentration is one term of a condition that also names the product types it applies to, often a pH range or a state after mixing, and usually a warning that has to appear on the label. A formula meeting the number in a product type the entry does not name has not met the entry.

The product-type conditions are lists rather than principles. Salicylic acid sits at 0.5% in body lotion, eye shadow, mascara, eyeliner, lipstick and roll-on deodorant, and at 2.0% in other products; there is no category underneath that list to reason from, and a product either is one of the named things or is not. Kojic acid is permitted in face and hand products, which means a body serum has no entry to use regardless of concentration.

Several entries set limits that are not percentages at all. Thioglycolic acid carries a ready-for-use pH range alongside its concentration. Sodium and potassium hydroxide, used to adjust pH, are limited by the pH reached rather than by how much is added. Hydrogen peroxide is measured as 'present or released', which reaches materials that are not hydrogen peroxide but yield it.

Finally, purpose. A substance that can both preserve a product and act in it appears twice — here for the active use and in Annex V for the preservative one — with different limits. Climbazole is 0.5% as a preservative in rinse-off shampoo and 2.0% as an anti-dandruff active in the same format. Which entry governs is settled by what the product presents itself as doing, so the claim on the pack becomes part of the compliance answer.