European Union cosmetic ingredient regulations
EU Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009 annexes and the CosIng discovery database.
- Regulator
- European Commission
- Source language
- English and EU languages
- Coverage version
- Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 consolidated to 1 May 2026
What this list is
The EU list is not one list. Regulation 1223/2009 splits substances across five annexes that answer different questions, and reading the wrong one is the most common way to get an EU answer wrong.
- Annex II prohibits 1,739 substances outright.
- Annex III permits 373 substances only within stated limits, product types and warnings.
- Annexes IV, V and VI are positive lists: 154 colourants, 54 preservatives, 33 UV filters.
- For those three categories, absence from the annex means not permitted — the opposite of Annex II's logic.
- CosIng is a discovery database, not the law; the annexes as published are.
Most markets on this site publish one list. The EU publishes five, and they do not work the same way. Annex II names substances that may not be used at all. Annex III names substances that may be used, but only within a concentration limit, for stated product types, and often with a warning that must appear on the label. Annexes IV, V and VI are positive lists for colourants, preservatives and UV filters.
That last distinction reverses the logic and catches people out. For a substance in general, absence from Annex II is not permission — nothing has been decided about it. For a preservative, absence from Annex V is a decision: it may not be used as a preservative in a cosmetic product. The same silence means opposite things depending on which annex you are reading.
CosIng is worth naming separately, because it is what most searches land on. It is the Commission's database for finding ingredients and their annex references, and it is genuinely useful for that. It is not the legal text. When CosIng and the published annex disagree — usually because an amendment has come into force and the database has not caught up — the annex governs.
An Annex III entry is also more than a number. The limit, the product-type condition and the warning text travel together, and quoting the concentration without the condition it applies to produces an answer that is right about the figure and wrong about the product.
Checked against
Official ingredient records
2353 matching recordsN-(5-Chlorobenzoxazol-2-yl)acetamide
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1 · 17/10/2010
2-Methoxyethoxy)ethanol (Diethylene glycol monomethyl ether; DEGME)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1000 · 17/05/2021
(+/-)-2-(2,4-Dichlorophenyl)-3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethylether (Tetraconazole - ISO)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1001 · 21/10/2010
4-[4-(1,3-Dihydroxyprop-2-yl)phenylamino]-1,8-dihydroxy-5-nitroanthraquinone
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1002 · 15/10/2010
5,6,12,13-Tetrachloroanthra(2,1,9-def:6,5,10-d'e'f')diisoquinoline-1,3,8,10(2H,9H)-tetrone
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1003 · 15/10/2010
tris(2-Chloroethyl) phosphate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1004 · 17/12/2010
4'-Ethoxy-2-benzimidazoleanilide
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1005 · 15/10/2010
Nickel dihydroxide [1]; nickel hydroxide [2]
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1006 · 29/10/2010
Bis(cyclopentadienyl)-bis(2,6-difluoro-3-(pyrrol-1-yl)-phenyl)titanium
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1009 · 15/10/2010
Cobalt benzenesulphonate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 101 · 17/10/2010
N,N,N',N'-Tetraglycidyl-4,4'-diamino-3,3'-diethyldiphenylmethane
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1010 · 15/10/2010
Divanadium pentaoxide
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1011 · 15/10/2010
Pentachlorophenol [1]; Sodium pentachlorophenolate [2]; Potassium pentachlorophenolate [3]
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1012 · 24/11/2016
N-(Trichloromethylthio)phthalimide (Folpet - ISO)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1014 · 29/10/2010
1-Bromo-3,4,5-trifluorobenzene
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1017 · 15/10/2010
3-(4-Chlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethyluronium trichloroacetate; monuron-TCA
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1019 · 15/10/2010
Colchicine, its salts and derivatives
Source reference: Annex II, entry 102 · 29/10/2010
2-ethylhexanoic acid and its salts with the exception of those specified elsewhere in Annex VI to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008.
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1024 · 21/08/2023
Morpholine-4-carbonyl chloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1026 · 15/10/2010
UVCB condensation product of: tetrakis-hydroxymethylphosphonium chloride, urea and distilled hydrogenated C16-18 tallow alkylamine
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1029 · 15/10/2010
Colchicoside and its derivatives
Source reference: Annex II, entry 103 · 15/10/2010
4-hydroxy-3,5-diiodobenzonitrile [1]; 4-Cyano-2,6-diiodophenyl octanoate [2]
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1030 · 24/11/2016
Bromoxynil (ISO) 3,5-Dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile [1] and Bromoxynil heptanoate (ISO) [2]
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1031 · 24/11/2016
2,6-Dibromo-4-cyanophenyl octanoate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1032 · 21/10/2010
5-Chloro-1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1034 · 15/10/2010
N'-(4-Chloro-o-tolyl)-N,N-dimethylformamidine monohydrochloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1037 · 15/10/2010
4,4'-Methylenebis(2-ethylaniline)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1038 · 15/10/2010
Colchicum autumnale L. and its galenical preparations
Source reference: Annex II, entry 104 · 15/10/2010
[(p-Tolyloxy)methyl]oxirane
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1040 · 15/10/2010
[(m-Tolyloxy)methyl]oxirane
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1041 · 15/10/2010
2,3-Epoxypropyl o-tolyl ether
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1042 · 15/10/2010
[(Tolyloxy)methyl]oxirane, cresyl glycidyl ether
Source reference: Annex II, entry 1043 · 15/10/2010
Market coverage contract
Complete annex dataset- Included scope
- Annexes II–VI: prohibited and restricted substances, colourants, preservatives and UV filters.
- If no match is found
- No annex match only means that these five annexes did not return a match; CosIng identity data and other EU obligations still need review.
Complete verification checklist
- Confirm the exact INCI/CAS/EC identity.
- Review every matching Annex II–VI row and its conditions.
- Check SCCS opinions, CMR/nanomaterial rules and later amendments.
- Verify product classification, claims, labelling and responsible-person duties.
How European Union differs from other markets
Comparing this market's imported rules against every other market's for the same substance. A market with no imported rule for a substance is left out of that comparison rather than treated as permitting it.
A formula cleared elsewhere can fail here.
and 22 more — see the full comparison
Permitted here under conditions and prohibited, or more tightly held, elsewhere — so a formula built for this market may not travel.
and 103 more — see the full comparison
Official sources and legal role
PubChem PUG-View annotations
Attributed physical-property, hazard, environmental, use and literature annotations for uniquely matched PubChem compounds
Legal meaning: Scientific context aggregated by PubChem; individual values retain their named depositor or publication source
EMBL-EBI ChEBI 2.0
Curated definitions, chemical classes, roles, names, relationships and cross-references
Legal meaning: Curated scientific ontology; not a cosmetics permission or prohibition list
FDA Global Substance Registration System
UNII identifiers, preferred names, substance types, codes and public substance relationships
Legal meaning: Identity registry only; UNII availability does not imply FDA review or approval
Cosmetic Ingredient Review safety assessments
Expert Panel conclusions, assessed ingredient groups, use conditions, dates and report documents
Legal meaning: Independent expert review considered by FDA; not a government approval or binding market rule
EU Safety Gate cosmetic product alerts
Published cosmetic product alerts, notifying country, risk, product identifiers and corrective measures
Legal meaning: Official market-surveillance alerts; not proof that a named ingredient caused an incident
Available language: English and EU languages
What this market page can answer
Source and authority
Identify the official material and the regulator responsible for it: European Commission.
Language and scope
See whether usable English or bilingual material exists and what the mapped source actually covers. Current source language: English and EU languages.
Evidence status
Browse ingredient-level records imported from official sources. Each row states whether it passed deterministic source checks or human editorial review.
How to verify an ingredient for this market
- Search the ingredient by INCI name, CAS number or EC number and record the exact identity.
- Open each official source above and check the current version, product scope, concentration limits and required warnings.
- Confirm effective dates and whether an English text is official, reviewed or only contextual.
- Treat a missing local match as unknown, never as permission or a safety conclusion.