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 recordsBenz[e]acephenanthrylene
Source reference: Annex II, entry 641 · 15/10/2010
1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane
Source reference: Annex II, entry 646 · 15/10/2010
2,3-Dibromopropan-1-ol
Source reference: Annex II, entry 647 · 15/10/2010
1,3-Dichloropropan-2-ol
Source reference: Annex II, entry 648 · 15/10/2010
alpha,alpha,alpha-Trichlorotoluene
Source reference: Annex II, entry 649 · 15/10/2010
alpha-Chlorotoluene (Benzyl chloride)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 650 · 21/10/2010
Bromoethylene (Vinyl bromide)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 653 · 09/01/2011
1,4-Dichlorobut-2-ene
Source reference: Annex II, entry 654 · 15/10/2010
Methyloxirane (Propylene oxide)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 655 · 21/10/2010
(Epoxyethyl)benzene (Styrene oxide)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 656 · 21/10/2010
1-Chloro-2,3-epoxypropane (Epichlorohydrin)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 657 · 21/10/2010
R-1-Chloro-2,3-epoxypropane
Source reference: Annex II, entry 658 · 21/10/2010
1,2-Epoxy-3-phenoxypropane (Phenylglycidyl ether)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 659 · 21/10/2010
2,3-Epoxypropan-1-ol (Glycidol)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 660 · 21/10/2010
R-2,3-Epoxy-1-propanol
Source reference: Annex II, entry 661 · 15/10/2010
2,2'-Bioxirane (1,2:3,4-Diepoxybutane)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 662 · 21/10/2010
(2RS,3RS)-3-(2-Chlorophenyl)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-[1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methyl]oxirane; Epoxiconazole
Source reference: Annex II, entry 663 · 21/10/2010
Chloromethyl methyl ether
Source reference: Annex II, entry 664 · 15/10/2010
2-Methoxyethanol [1] and its acetate (2-Methoxyethyl acetate) [2]
Source reference: Annex II, entry 665 · 12/08/2019
2-Ethoxyethanol and its acetate (2-Ethoxyethyl acetate)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 666 · 31/03/2016
Oxybis[chloromethane]; bis (Chloromethyl) ether
Source reference: Annex II, entry 667 · 29/10/2010
Dimethylcarbamoyl chloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 670 · 15/10/2010
Urethane (Ethyl carbamate)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 671 · 21/10/2010
bis(2-Methoxyethyl) ether (Dimethoxydiglycol)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 676 · 21/10/2010
bis(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate; (Diethylhexyl phthalate)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 677 · 18/02/2011
bis(2-Methoxyethyl) phthalate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 678 · 21/10/2010
2-Methoxypropyl acetate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 679 · 15/10/2010
Cadmium and its compounds
Source reference: Annex II, entry 68 · 07/05/2025
2-Ethylhexyl[[[3,5-bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4-hydroxyphenyl]-methyl]thio]acetate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 680 · 15/10/2010
Acrylamide, unless regulated elsewhere in this Regulation
Source reference: Annex II, entry 681 · 21/10/2010
Dinoseb, its salts and esters with the exception of those specified elsewhere in this list
Source reference: Annex II, entry 684 · 15/10/2010
2,4-Dinitrotoluene [1]; Dinitrotoluene, technical grade [2]
Source reference: Annex II, entry 687 · 12/08/2019
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.
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.