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 recordsGas oils (petroleum), thermal-cracked, hydrodesulfurized
Source reference: Annex II, entry 919 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), hydrogenated steam-cracked naphtha
Source reference: Annex II, entry 920 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), steam-cracked naphtha distn.
Source reference: Annex II, entry 921 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), light catalytic cracked, thermally degraded
Source reference: Annex II, entry 922 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), steam-cracked heat-soaked naphtha
Source reference: Annex II, entry 923 · 15/10/2010
Gas oils (petroleum), light vacuum, thermal-cracked hydrodesulfurized
Source reference: Annex II, entry 924 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized middle coker
Source reference: Annex II, entry 925 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), heavy steam-cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 926 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), atm. Tower
Source reference: Annex II, entry 927 · 15/10/2010
Gas oils (petroleum), heavy vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 928 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), heavy catalytic cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 929 · 15/10/2010
2-[2-(4-Chlorophenyl)-2-phenylacetyl]indan 1,3-dione (chlorophacinone - ISO)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 93 · 15/10/2010
Clarified oils (petroleum), catalytic cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 930 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), catalytic reformer fractionator
Source reference: Annex II, entry 931 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), hydrocracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 932 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), thermal cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 933 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), heavy thermal cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 934 · 15/10/2010
Gas oils (petroleum), hydrotreated vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 935 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized atmospheric tower
Source reference: Annex II, entry 936 · 15/10/2010
Gas oils (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized heavy vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 937 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), steam-cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 938 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), atmospheric
Source reference: Annex II, entry 939 · 15/10/2010
Chlorphenoxamine (INN)
Source reference: Annex II, entry 94 · 17/10/2010
Clarified oils (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized catalytic cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 940 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized intermediate catalytic cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 941 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized heavy catalytic cracked
Source reference: Annex II, entry 942 · 15/10/2010
Fuel oil, residues-straight-run gas oils, high-sulfur
Source reference: Annex II, entry 943 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), catalytic reformer fractionator residue distn.
Source reference: Annex II, entry 945 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), heavy coker gas oil and vacuum gas oil
Source reference: Annex II, entry 946 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), heavy coker and light vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 947 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), light vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 948 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), steam-cracked light
Source reference: Annex II, entry 949 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), topping plant, low-sulfur
Source reference: Annex II, entry 951 · 15/10/2010
Gas oils (petroleum), heavy atmospheric
Source reference: Annex II, entry 952 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), coker scrubber, condensed-ring-arom.-contg
Source reference: Annex II, entry 953 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), petroleum residues vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 954 · 24/11/2016
Residues (petroleum), steam-cracked, resinous
Source reference: Annex II, entry 955 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), intermediate vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 956 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), light vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 957 · 15/10/2010
Distillates (petroleum), vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 958 · 15/10/2010
Gas oils (petroleum), hydrodesulfurized coker heavy vacuum
Source reference: Annex II, entry 959 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), steam-cracked, distillates
Source reference: Annex II, entry 960 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), vacuum, light
Source reference: Annex II, entry 961 · 15/10/2010
Fuel oil, heavy, high-sulfur
Source reference: Annex II, entry 962 · 15/10/2010
Residues (petroleum), catalytic cracking
Source reference: Annex II, entry 963 · 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.
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.