EU & UK
A cosmetic label, explained
Most labelling questions come down to one thing: what has to be on the pack, and where. This is the anatomy of a compliant EU and UK cosmetic label, with each mandatory particular of Article 19(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 shown where it actually appears.
The mandatory particulars
Article 19(1) sets out what must appear on the container and the packaging: the name and address of the Responsible Person; the country of origin for imported products; the nominal content by weight or volume; the date of minimum durability or, for products that keep, the period after opening shown by the open-jar symbol; particular precautions for use, including any warnings required by Annexes III to VI; the batch number; the function of the product unless it is obvious; and the list of ingredients in INCI nomenclature, in descending order of weight, headed "Ingredients".
Two points are easy to miss. The particulars must be in the language of the member state where the product is made available (Article 19(5)), so a product sold across several markets needs the right language for each. And where the container is too small for all of it, Article 19(2) and (3) allow some information to move to a leaflet or to be shown by the open-book symbol, but the rules on what can move are specific.
Region by region
The Article 19 set is the EU and UK baseline. Other markets layer their own requirements on top, and some of those are easy to overlook because they sit outside cosmetics law. France is the clearest example: it requires the Triman and Info-tri sorting signage in addition to everything above, set out in our Triman labelling reference for France. The fuller written treatment of EU and UK labelling, including small-container rules and claims, is in our labelling requirements guide.
How Oxford Biosciences helps
A label review checks every Article 19 particular against the artwork, confirms the INCI list and order, sets the correct warnings and the PAO or durability marking, and flags the language and market-specific additions before the artwork goes to print. It is a fixed-fee piece of work, and the cheapest point to catch a labelling error is always before the print run, not after a rejected listing.