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 recordsALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE
The presence of the substance must be indicated in the list of ingredients referred to in Article 19(1)g when its concentration exceeds: - 0.001% in leave-on products - 0.01% in rinse-off products
Source reference: Annex III, entry 90 · 17/10/2010
EVERNIA PRUNASTRI EXTRACT
The presence of the substance must be indicated in the list of ingredients referred to in Article 19(1)g when its concentration exceeds: - 0.001% in leave-on products - 0.01% in rinse-off products
Source reference: Annex III, entry 91 · 17/10/2010
EVERNIA FURFURACEA EXTRACT
The presence of the substance must be indicated in the list of ingredients referred to in Article 19(1)g when its concentration exceeds: - 0.001% in leave-on products - 0.01% in rinse-off products
Source reference: Annex III, entry 92 · 17/10/2010
DIAMINOPYRIMIDINE OXIDE
Hair products
Source reference: Annex III, entry 93 · 04/11/2010
BENZOYL PEROXIDE
Professional use
Source reference: Annex III, entry 94 · 04/11/2010
P-HYDROXYANISOLE
Professional use
Source reference: Annex III, entry 95 · 04/11/2010
MUSK XYLENE
All cosmetic products, with the exception of oral products Note: 'Due to environmental concerns, musk xylene is included in the authorisation list (Annex IV) of REACH. Musk xylene cannot be placed on the market or used unless authorisation has been granted u…
Source reference: Annex III, entry 96 · 01/04/2021
MUSK KETONE
All cosmetic products, with the exception of oral care products
Source reference: Annex III, entry 97 · 23/05/2022
SALICYLIC ACID
(a) (b) (c) Not to be used in preparations for children under 3 years of age. Not to be used in applications that may lead to exposure of the end-user’s lungs by inhalation. Not to be used in oral products. For purposes other than inhibiting the development …
Source reference: Annex III, entry 98 · 07/12/2023
Inorganic sulfites and bisulfites (12)
For purposes other than inhibiting the development of micro-organisms in the product. This purpose has to be apparent from the presentation of the product
Source reference: Annex III, entry 99 · 17/10/2010
Toluene-2,5-diamine Toluene-2,5-diamine sulphate
(a) (i) General use (a) (ii) Professional use (b) Professional use For (a) and (b): After mixing under oxidative conditions the maximum concentration applied to hair or eyelashes must not exceed 2,0 % (calculated as free base) or 3,6 % (calculated as sulfa…
Source reference: Annex III, entry 9a · 02/09/2022
2,6-Dihydroxyethylaminotoluene
As from 3 September 2017, after mixing under oxidative conditions the maximum concentration applied to hair must not exceed 1,0 % —Do not use with nitrosating agents —Maximum nitrosamine content: 50 μg/kg —Keep in nitrite-free containers
Source reference: Annex III, entry 9b · 05/08/2019
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.
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.