ASEAN cosmetic ingredient regulations

The ASEAN Cosmetic Directive harmonises the annexes across ten member states, and it is genuinely useful for that: one set of prohibited, restricted and positive lists covering a region that would otherwise need ten separate checks. What it is not is directly binding. The directive takes effect in a member state when that state gives it effect in national law, and those instruments are made at different times.

Two consequences follow, and both bite in practice. An annex amendment agreed regionally may be in force in Singapore and not yet in Indonesia, so the same substance can have two different answers on the same day. And a member state may impose requirements of its own — notification procedures, labelling in a national language, additional restrictions — that the regional annexes say nothing about.

Treat what follows as the regional baseline. For a product going to a specific market, the national instrument and its current effective date are the answer, and this list is where to start rather than where to stop.