Australia's Cosmetic Ingredient Rules Explained: AICIS, the Poisons Standard and the TGA Line

Australia has no single ingredient annex for cosmetics. A formulator checking whether a substance is allowed, restricted or banned in an Australian cosmetic has to look in at least three different places, run by three different regulators, for three different reasons. This is a practical map of that system, with worked examples pulled from the Australian records held in cosingchecker's own database and checked against the underlying legal text.

Four regimes, not one list

In the EU, a formulator checks one regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 and its Annexes II-VI, plus the CosIng database that mirrors them. In Australia, the same question is split across four separate instruments, each with its own scope and its own regulator.

• AICIS - the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme regulates the industrial chemical used to make the cosmetic ingredient, not the finished cosmetic product.
• The Poisons Standard (the SUSMP) - schedules substances by the level of control needed for supply, and some schedule entries name cosmetic uses specifically.
• The ACCC's Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020 - a mandatory information standard that sets ingredient-labelling requirements for cosmetics sold in Australia.
• The TGA - draws the line between a cosmetic and a therapeutic good; a product that crosses that line, such as a sunscreen making a primary UV-protection claim, leaves cosmetics regulation entirely.

AICIS: the chemical, not the finished cosmetic

AICIS administers the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019. It regulates the introduction (manufacture in Australia or import) of industrial chemicals, and its own guidance states that almost all ingredients used in personal care, skin care, make-up and other cosmetic products are regulated as industrial chemicals under this scheme, including those described as 'organic' or 'natural'. AICIS assesses and categorises the introduction of the chemical itself - it does not approve, register or test the finished cosmetic product. A chemical's presence on the AICIS Inventory, or its being introduced under a reported or exempted category, is a chemical-introduction status, not a statement that the finished cosmetic is safe or compliant. AICIS also publishes specific guidance pages distinguishing cosmetic products from therapeutic goods, and on cosmetics that contain sunscreen.

The Poisons Standard: schedules, not a cosmetics list

The Poisons Standard, still widely known by its former name SUSMP (Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons), is a legislative instrument remade by the TGA roughly twice a year - the version behind the current cosingchecker Australian records is the Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard - June 2026) Instrument 2026. It schedules substances into ten schedules by the degree of control needed over their availability, covering medicines, poisons, agricultural and industrial chemicals - not cosmetics alone. Schedule 10 is the most restrictive: substances whose use is prohibited outright because of their dangerous properties. This is the schedule that historically corresponded to the old 'Appendix C' of the SUSMP; current instruments schedule prohibited substances directly into Schedule 10 rather than a separate lettered appendix. Many Schedule 10 and Schedule 6 entries carry cosmetic-specific wording - naming 'preparations for cosmetic use', hair dyes, nail products or aerosol cosmetics explicitly, with named concentration cut-offs and label warning text. A single substance can appear in more than one schedule at once, restricted differently depending on the use and concentration.

The ACCC's mandatory labelling standard

Ingredient labelling for cosmetics sold in Australia is governed by the Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020, a mandatory standard under the Australian Consumer Law that the ACCC enforces. It requires ingredients to be listed in descending order of volume or mass (with colour additives listed last), using either English names or INCI names, and requires that ingredient information be available to consumers at the point of sale - including, for online sales, on the product's own web page. This is a labelling and disclosure rule: it does not itself prohibit or restrict any ingredient. That job sits with the Poisons Standard.

The TGA line: cosmetic or therapeutic good

The TGA administers a separate boundary question: is the product a cosmetic at all, or a therapeutic good that needs to be on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG)? Sunscreens are the clearest example. The TGA classes a 'primary sunscreen' - a product represented as being primarily for protecting the skin from UV radiation - as a therapeutic good, regulated by the TGA rather than as a cosmetic. A 'secondary sunscreen', such as a moisturiser or foundation with SPF that is not primarily marketed for sun protection, can instead be an excluded good under the Therapeutic Goods (Excluded Goods) Determination 2018 and regulated as a cosmetic under AICIS - though it must still meet the testing and labelling requirements of the relevant Australian sunscreen standard. The same active ingredient can therefore sit under completely different regulatory oversight depending only on how the finished product is marketed.

Compared with the EU's single-annex model

The EU concentrates cosmetic ingredient control in one regulation, (EC) No 1223/2009, with five annexes that a formulator can check directly: Annex II (prohibited), Annex III (restricted, with named limits and warnings), Annex IV (permitted colorants), Annex V (permitted preservatives) and Annex VI (permitted UV filters). cosingchecker's own EU dataset currently holds 1,739 Annex II entries, 373 Annex III entries and 154 Annex IV entries, each carrying a CAS or EC number, concentration limits and warning text where they apply. There is no equivalent single annex for Australia. An EU-restricted substance like resorcinol appears once, in Annex III entry 22, with one concentration table covering hair dye, eyelash-colouring and shampoo uses. The same substance in the Australian Poisons Standard sits in Schedule 6, as one long conditional entry that carves out therapeutic use, three different cosmetic use-cases with their own concentration ceilings, and mandated warning statements per use - one schedule doing the job that the EU splits across an annex row plus a labelling annex.

Four worked examples from the site's Australian records

These examples are drawn directly from cosingchecker's Australian jurisdiction data, cross-checked against the current Poisons Standard text on legislation.gov.au.

Formaldehyde. The site holds three separate Australian entries for 'formaldehyde (excluding its derivatives)': a Schedule 10 (prohibited) entry that applies above stated free-formaldehyde thresholds specific to oral hygiene products, aerosol cosmetics and nail hardeners; a Schedule 2 (restricted) entry for human therapeutic use; and a Schedule 6 (restricted) entry covering other cosmetic preparations at or above 0.05% free formaldehyde. Whether a given product is 'prohibited' or merely 'restricted' therefore depends on the product category and the exact concentration, not on the substance name alone. In the EU, formaldehyde itself is prohibited in cosmetic products: it is Annex II entry 1577, moved there from the preservatives annex by Regulation (EU) 2019/831 on CMR grounds. Several formaldehyde-releasing preservatives remain in Annex V, and a product in which released formaldehyde reaches 0.001% must carry the warning "releases formaldehyde" under Regulation (EU) 2022/1181.

Hydroquinone. The Australian data shows two live schedule entries: a Schedule 2 entry for preparations containing 2% or less of hydroquinone for external therapeutic or cosmetic use (with lower carve-outs for hair and nail preparations), and a Schedule 4 (prescription-only) entry catching hydroquinone preparations outside the Schedule 2 thresholds. There is no Schedule 10 entry for hydroquinone itself in the current instrument - control is exercised entirely through concentration-based scheduling, unlike the EU, where hydroquinone is prohibited for cosmetic use (Annex II, entry 1339) with a single exception unrelated to skin lightening: artificial nail systems, at up to 0.02% after mixing and for professional use only (Annex III, entry 14).

Resorcinol (CAS 108-46-3). This is a case where the AU and EU records can be compared side by side. The Australian entry places resorcinol in Schedule 6, prohibiting general use except in oxidative hair dye preparations up to 1.25% after mixing, oxidative eyelash/eyebrow dye up to 1.25%, and hair lotions/shampoos up to 0.5%, each carrying its own mandated warning wording. cosingchecker's EU record for the same CAS number, Annex III entry 22, permits resorcinol as a hair-dye substance and for colouring eyelashes with the same 1.25% after-mixing ceiling, and separately caps hair lotions and shampoos at 0.5% - the two regimes reach very similar numeric limits by different legal routes, one row in an EU annex versus one long conditional Schedule 6 entry in Australia.

Triclosan. The Australian record places triclosan in Schedule 6 as a restricted substance for cosmetic and personal-care use, with conditions and concentration language specific to the current Poisons Standard entry. This is a substance the EU addresses through Annex V (permitted preservatives, with named maximum concentrations) rather than a general schedule - illustrating that a 'restricted' status in Australia and a 'permitted with a cap' status in the EU are not necessarily incompatible outcomes reached through different legal architectures.

What the site's Australian data does and does not cover

cosingchecker's Australian jurisdiction currently holds 125 published records (confirm the live figure at cosingchecker.com/api/v1/jurisdictions/), sourced from the Poisons Standard schedule entries that name cosmetic or personal-care use, as published on legislation.gov.au. That count reflects what has been imported and source-validated from the Poisons Standard into this dataset - not the full extent of Australian rules that touch cosmetic ingredients. It does not include the AICIS Inventory (tens of thousands of industrial chemical listings, most never cosmetic-specific), the ACCC labelling standard's own text, or the TGA's therapeutic-goods boundary guidance, none of which take the form of a substance-by-substance restriction list. A substance absent from cosingchecker's 125 Australian records may still be controlled through AICIS categorisation, the ACCC labelling standard, or a TGA therapeutic-goods determination; absence from this dataset is not evidence of absence from Australian law. For the full picture on any one ingredient, cross-check the record against the cited legislation.gov.au or tga.gov.au source text linked from each entry.

To see how a specific Australian entry compares with the same substance's EU Annex status side by side, use cosingchecker.com/market-compare/. For a wider view of where jurisdictions diverge on the same CAS number across all 13 markets in the dataset, see cosingchecker.com/market-divergence/. The full list of current Australian records is browsable at cosingchecker.com/regulations/au/.

None of this is legal advice, and a record in any of these datasets is identity evidence for a substance, not a permission slip - always confirm against the current official text before making a formulation or labelling decision.

Sources

• Cosmetics and soap - AICIS - https://www.industrialchemicals.gov.au/cosmetics-and-soap
• Cosmetics and therapeutics - AICIS - https://www.industrialchemicals.gov.au/cosmetics-and-soap/cosmetics-and-therapeutics
• Cosmetics with sunscreen - AICIS - https://www.industrialchemicals.gov.au/cosmetics-and-soap/cosmetics-sunscreen
• Sunscreen regulation in Australia - TGA - https://www.tga.gov.au/products/medicines/therapeutic-sunscreens/overview/sunscreen-regulation-australia
• Determining if your product is a cosmetic or therapeutic good - TGA - https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/guidance/determining-if-your-product-cosmetic-or-therapeutic-good
• The Poisons Standard (the SUSMP) - TGA - https://www.tga.gov.au/how-we-regulate/ingredients-and-scheduling-medicines-and-chemicals/poisons-standard-and-scheduling-medicines-and-chemicals/poisons-standard-susmp
• Therapeutic Goods (Poisons Standard-June 2026) Instrument 2026 - legislation.gov.au - https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L00633/latest/text
• Cosmetics ingredients labelling mandatory standard - ACCC Product Safety - https://www.productsafety.gov.au/business/search-mandatory-standards/cosmetics-ingredients-labelling-mandatory-standard
• Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020 - ChemLinked database record - https://cosmetic.chemlinked.com/database/view/1821
• Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products - EUR-Lex - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32009R1223
• cosingchecker Australia jurisdiction rules - https://cosingchecker.com/api/v1/jurisdictions/au/rules/
• cosingchecker jurisdictions list - https://cosingchecker.com/api/v1/jurisdictions/
• cosingchecker EU entries by CAS (resorcinol, 108-46-3) - https://cosingchecker.com/api/v1/entries/?cas=108-46-3
• cosingchecker stats - https://cosingchecker.com/api/v1/stats/