India cosmetic ingredient regulations

India's ingredient rules sit inside a wider approval structure, and the ingredient answer alone will not get a product to market. The Cosmetics Rules 2020, made under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, govern manufacture and import, and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation administers them. An imported cosmetic needs registration with CDSCO before it may be sold, regardless of how unremarkable its formula is.

Composition is handled partly by reference. The Bureau of Indian Standards publishes standards for cosmetic products and their ingredients — IS 4707 among them — and the Rules pull those in. That means a complete Indian answer can require reading a standard that is published separately from the Rules and is not always freely available.

One further point of difference: India prohibits the import and manufacture of cosmetics tested on animals, and prohibits certain substances outright such as hexachlorophene and mercury compounds. The 1,931 records below carry the status the Indian source gives them.