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Great Britain cosmetic ingredient regulations

GB rules must be versioned separately from EU rules as they diverge.

Regulator
Office for Product Safety and Standards
Source language
English
Coverage version
GB retained Regulation 1223/2009 schedules, effective 15 August 2026

What this list is

Great Britain carried EU Regulation 1223/2009 onto its own statute book after Brexit and has amended it separately ever since. The two lists started identical and no longer are, which is why a GB check cannot be answered from an EU one.

  • 2,329 GB records: 1,758 prohibited, 326 restricted, 245 on a positive list.
  • The regulator is the Office for Product Safety and Standards, not the European Commission.
  • GB and EU annexes are amended by different bodies on different dates, so they drift apart substance by substance.
  • A substance absent from the GB list is not thereby permitted — absence is absence of a record, not a decision.

The Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013 kept Regulation 1223/2009 in force in Great Britain after EU exit, so the structure a formulator already knows — Annex II for prohibited substances, Annex III for restricted ones, Annexes IV to VI for colourants, preservatives and UV filters — is the same here. What changed is who amends it. The Office for Product Safety and Standards now does that for Great Britain, and the European Commission does it for the EU, on their own timetables.

That divergence is the practical point of this page. When the Commission adds a substance to Annex II, Great Britain does not follow automatically. The reverse holds too. Two lists that began as one copy now differ entry by entry, and the gap widens with each amendment cycle, so a compliance answer for one market is not evidence for the other even when the substance and the wording look identical.

Northern Ireland is not covered here. Under the Windsor Framework it continues to apply the EU regulation, so a product placed on the market across the whole United Kingdom is answering to two rulebooks at once. Check the EU records for that half.

The 2,329 records below carry the status the GB source gives them and nothing more. Where a record is marked restricted, the concentration limit, product-type condition and warning text come from the source as written; where a substance has no record at all, that means no GB entry was resolved here, not that its use has been considered and allowed.

Checked against

Official ingredient records

2329 matching records
ProhibitedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

Multi-walled carbon tubes (synthetic graphite in tubular shape) with a geometric tube diameter range ≥ 30 nm to < 3 µm and a length ≥ 5 µm and aspect ratio > 3:1, including Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes, MWC(N)T

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex II.

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex II, entry 1756 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

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RestrictedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

Musk ketone

CAS 81-14-1 · EC 201-328-9

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex III.

Conditions: All cosmetic products, with the exception of oral products · (a) 1,4% in fine fragrance (b) 0,56% in eau de toilette (c) 0,042% in other products

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex III, entry 97 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

View full recordIngredient profile
RestrictedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

Musk xylene

CAS 81-15-2 · EC 201-329-4

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex III.

Conditions: All cosmetic products, with the exception of oral products · (a) 1,0% in fine fragrance (b) 0,4% in eau de toilette (c) 0,03% in other products

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex III, entry 96 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

View full recordIngredient profile
Permitted list with conditionsBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

N,N'-(3,3'-Dimethyl[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diyl)bis[2-[(2,4-dichlorophenyl)azo]-3-oxobutyramide]

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex IV.

Conditions: Rinse-off products · Maximum 3,3'-dimethylbenzidine concentration in the colouring agent: 5 ppm

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex IV, entry 45 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

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RestrictedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

N,N-bis(2-Hydroxyethyl)-p-Phenylenediamine Sulfate

CAS 54381-16-7 · EC 259-134-5

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex III.

Conditions: Hair dye substance in oxidative hair dye products · After mixing under oxidative conditions the maximum concentration applied to hair must not exceed 2,5% (calculated as sulphate) Do not use with nitrosating agents Maximum nitrosamine content: 50 μg/kg Keep in nitrite-free containers · To be printed on the label: The mixing ratio. Read and follow instructions. This product is not intended for use on persons under the age of 16. Temporary “ black henna ” tattoos may increase your risk of allergy. Do not colour your hair if: you have a rash on your face or sensitive, irritated and damaged scalp, you have ever experienced any reaction after colouring your hair, you have experienced a reaction to a temporary “ black henna ” tattoo in the past. Hair colorants can cause severe allergic reactions.

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex III, entry 198 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

View full recordIngredient profile
RestrictedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

N,N′-Bis(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-Nitro-p-Phenylenediamine

CAS 84041-77-0 · EC 281-856-4

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex III.

Conditions: (a) Hair dye substance in oxidative hair dye products · (a) As from 3 September 2017 , after mixing under oxidative conditions the maximum concentration applied to hair must not exceed 1,0% For (a) and (b), as from 3 September 2017 : Do not use with nitrosating agents Maximum nitrosamine content: 50 μg/kg Keep in nitrite-free containers · (a) As from 3 March 2018 , to be printed on the label: The mixing ratio. Hair colourants can cause severe allergic reactions. Read and follow instructions. This product is not intended for use on persons under the age of 16. Temporary “ black henna ” tattoos may increase your risk of allergy. Do not colour your hair if: you have a rash on your face or sensitive, irritated and damaged scalp, you have ever experienced any reaction after colouring your hair, you have experienced a reaction to a temporary “ black henna ” tattoo in the past .

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex III, entry 8c · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

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ProhibitedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

N,N′-Methylenedimorpholine;N,N′-methylenebismorpholine; [formaldehyde released fromN,N′-Methylenebismorpholine]; [MBM]if the maximum theoretical concentration of releasable formaldehyde, irrespective of the source, in the mixture as placed on the market is ≥ 0,1% w/w

N,N′-Methylenedimorpholine;N,N′-methylenebismorpholine; [formaldehyde released fromN,N′-Methylenebismorpholine]; [MBM]if the maximum theoretical concentration of releasable formaldehyde, irrespective of the source, in the mixture as placed on the market i

CAS 5625-90-1 · EC 227-062-3

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex II.

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex II, entry 1605 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

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ProhibitedBinding ruleOriginal is EnglishOfficial-source import checked

N-(5-Chloro-2,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-4-[[5-[(diethylamino)sulphonyl]-2-methoxyphenyl]azo]-3-hydroxynaphthalene-2-carboxamide (Pigment Red 5; CI 12490) and its salts when used as a substance in hair dye products

CAS 6410-41-9 · EC 229-107-2

The consolidated GB Cosmetics Regulation lists this record in Annex II.

Source:GB Cosmetics Regulation, Annex II, entry 1347 · version 2026-08-15 · effective Aug. 15, 2026 · source checked 2026-08-30

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Market coverage contract

Complete consolidated annex dataset
Included scope
Current consolidated Annexes II–VI for England, Scotland and Wales.
If no match is found
No annex match is not approval and does not cover Northern Ireland, which follows the applicable EU framework.

Complete verification checklist

  1. Confirm INCI/CAS/EC identity.
  2. Review every current GB Annex II–VI match.
  3. Check commencement dates and later statutory instruments.
  4. Verify SCPN, responsible-person, safety-report and labelling duties.

Official sources and legal role

Great Britain Cosmetics Regulation — consolidated Annexes II–VI and amendments

Complete consolidated GB Annexes II–VI, with later amendments versioned separately

Legal meaning: Binding GB schedules and versioned amendments to retained Regulation 1223/2009; applies to England, Wales and Scotland, not Northern Ireland

Available language: English

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

What this market page can answer

Source and authority

Identify the official material and the regulator responsible for it: Office for Product Safety and Standards.

Language and scope

See whether usable English or bilingual material exists and what the mapped source actually covers. Current source language: English.

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

  1. Search the ingredient by INCI name, CAS number or EC number and record the exact identity.
  2. Open each official source above and check the current version, product scope, concentration limits and required warnings.
  3. Confirm effective dates and whether an English text is official, reviewed or only contextual.
  4. Treat a missing local match as unknown, never as permission or a safety conclusion.
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