EU Cosmetics Regulation

Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 governs cosmetics sold in the EU. Fragrance can be listed simply as “parfum” or “aroma”, but fragrance allergens listed in Annex III must be named individually when they exceed 0.001% in leave-on products or 0.01% in rinse-off products. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 added 56 allergens to the original 24. Since 31 July 2026, non-compliant products cannot be newly placed on the EU market, but older stock may be sold until 31 July 2028 (European Commission). This lets parents of a fragrance-allergic child read the ingredient list for named allergens. US labels can say just “fragrance”.

Connections

• Fragrance Allergy — mandatory named labelling of fragrance allergens, source: European Commission
• Fragrance-Free Labelling — EU named-allergen labelling vs US “fragrance” catch-all, source: European Commission; Tam & Yu 2022