Product Categories
Hair Care & Styling
Compliance for shampoos, conditioners, hair dyes and styling products. Oxidative dyes and aerosols carry the heaviest regulatory load in this category.
Hair care spans simple rinse-off products and some of the most heavily regulated formulations on the market. The assessment turns on which end of that range a product sits.
Hair colourants
Oxidative and direct hair dyes are tightly controlled under Annex III of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, which sets maximum concentrations for individual dye substances and mandates specific warning statements, including the allergy-alert and patch-test wording for products containing sensitisers such as p-phenylenediamine. Getting the warning set exactly right is as important as the formula itself.
Styling and aerosols
Rinse-off and leave-on products carry different exposure profiles, which the safety assessment reflects. Aerosol hairsprays raise a further point: ethanol and propellant content make them flammable, so they need flash point determination and the correct hazard labelling alongside the cosmetic assessment. Claims such as “sulphate-free” or “strengthening” must meet the same substantiation rules as any other. Keratin and similar smoothing treatments raise a separate point, because many release free formaldehyde: the threshold that triggers the “releases formaldehyde” warning has been cut to 0.001 per cent under Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1181 and, in Great Britain, under SI 2026/23.
Relevant services
CPSR
From £70 · 2 to 3 days
The Cosmetic Product Safety Report is the safety assessment required under Article 10 and Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 before a cosmetic product may be placed on the UK or EU market. Prepared and signed by a qualified safety assessor.
Learn more →Testing
From £75
Stability, microbiology, photoprotection and analytical testing carried out in our three in-house laboratories. Analytical work is not contracted out; results pass directly to the assessor preparing your CPSR.
Learn more →Labelling
From £195 · from receipt of artwork
Independent review of packaging artwork against Article 19, and of product claims against the six Common Criteria of Regulation (EU) 655/2013. Label review £195; per-claim review from £125; substantiation dossiers from £1,495.
Learn more →Frequently asked questions
What is a CPSR?
A Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR) is the safety assessment required by Article 10 and Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 before a cosmetic product is placed on the UK or EU market. Annex I sets out two parts: Part A, the cosmetic product safety information (composition, physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics, stability, exposure and the toxicological profile of each substance), and Part B, the safety assessment, in which a qualified assessor states and reasons the conclusion on safety. It is the pivotal scientific document held within the Product Information File.
What must appear on a cosmetic label?
Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 sets out the mandatory particulars: the Responsible Person's name and address, the nominal content, the date of minimum durability or the period-after-opening (PAO) symbol, precautions for use, the batch number, the product function, and the list of ingredients in INCI nomenclature. In Great Britain the same requirements apply through the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013, and since 1 January 2026 the UK Responsible Person's details must appear on the label of products sold in GB. Oxford Biosciences reviews packaging artwork against these requirements for £195.
What testing does Oxford Biosciences provide?
Oxford Biosciences operates three in-house laboratories supporting Annex I, sections 3 to 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. Services include microbiology (Preservative Efficacy Test to ISO 11930, Microbial Content Test to ISO 17516:2014), real-time and accelerated stability and packaging compatibility, photoprotection testing (in vitro and in vivo SPF and UVA-PF under the current ISO series), and analytical work including heavy metals by ICP-MS, antioxidant capacity by the DPPH assay, and GC/MS constituent analysis of essential oils, hydrolats and perfumes. Analytical work is not contracted out.