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 recordsCantharides, Cantharis vesicatoria
Source reference: Annex II, entry 69 · 15/10/2010
Dinoterb, its salts and esters
Source reference: Annex II, entry 696 · 15/10/2010
Aminocaproic acid (INN) and its salts
Source reference: Annex II, entry 7 · 17/10/2010
1,4,5,8-Tetraaminoanthraquinone (Disperse Blue 1)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 700 · 15/10/2010
1-Methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine
Source reference: Annex II, entry 702 · 29/10/2010
4,4'-Methylenedianiline
Source reference: Annex II, entry 705 · 18/02/2011
4,4'-(4-Iminocyclohexa-2,5-dienylidenemethylene) dianiline hydrochloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 706 · 24/11/2016
4,4'-Methylenedi-o-toluidine
Source reference: Annex II, entry 707 · 15/10/2010
3,3'-Dimethoxybenzidine (ortho-Dianisidine) and its salts
Source reference: Annex II, entry 709 · 23/11/2016
o-Dianisidine based azo dyes
Source reference: Annex II, entry 711 · 21/10/2010
3,3'-Dichlorobenzidine
Source reference: Annex II, entry 712 · 20/10/2010
Benzidine dihydrochloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 713 · 15/10/2010
[[1,1'-Biphenyl]-4,4'-diyl]diammonium sulphate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 714 · 15/10/2010
3,3'-Dichlorobenzidine dihydrochloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 715 · 15/10/2010
3,3'-Dichlorobenzidine dihydrogen bis(sulphate)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 718 · 15/10/2010
3,3'-Dichlorobenzidine sulphate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 719 · 15/10/2010
Nitroderivatives of carbazole
Source reference: Annex II, entry 72 · 15/10/2010
Benzidine based azo dyes
Source reference: Annex II, entry 720 · 21/10/2010
4,4'-Bi-o-toluidine (ortho-Tolidine)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 721 · 21/10/2010
4,4'-Bi-o-toluidine dihydrochloride
Source reference: Annex II, entry 722 · 15/10/2010
[3,3'-Dimethyl[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diyl]diammonium bis(hydrogen sulphate)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 723 · 15/10/2010
4,4'-Bi-o-toluidine sulphate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 724 · 15/10/2010
o-Toluidine based dyes
Source reference: Annex II, entry 725 · 15/10/2010
Biphenyl-4-ylamine (4-Aminobiphenyl) and its salts
Source reference: Annex II, entry 726 · 24/11/2016
(Methyl-ONN-azoxy)methyl acetate
Source reference: Annex II, entry 728 · 15/10/2010
2-Methylaziridine (propyleneimine)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 730 · 15/10/2010
Imidazolidine-2-thione (Ethylene thiourea)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 731 · 21/10/2010
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.
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.