Cosmetic Labelling Requirements UK: A Plain-English Guide

A UK cosmetic label must carry the Responsible Person's name and address, the nominal content, a date of minimum durability or period-after-opening symbol where one applies, any precautions for use, a batch number, the product's function where it is not obvious, and an ingredients list headed "Ingredients" — plus the country of origin if the product is imported. Those requirements come from Article 19 of the UK Cosmetics Regulation (retained Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009), which says the information must be in "indelible, easily legible and visible lettering". They apply to soap, skincare, bath products and anything else applied to the body, and they are completely separate from the CLP labels used on candles and home fragrance.

This guide covers every element in plain English, with a worked example label.

Cosmetic Label Checklist at a Glance

Element	What to put	Container, packaging or both?	Article 19
Responsible Person	Name or registered name and address (UK-established, not a PO box)	Both	19(1)(a)
Country of origin	Only for imported products	Both	19(1)(a)
Nominal content	Weight or volume at packaging (not needed under 5 g / 5 ml)	Both	19(1)(b)
Durability	Best-before date if the product lasts 30 months or less; otherwise a period-after-opening symbol where relevant	Both	19(1)(c)
Precautions for use	Warnings required by the annexes, and any the safety assessment calls for	Both	19(1)(d)
Batch number	Batch or reference code	Both (packaging alone only if the product is too small)	19(1)(e)
Function	What the product does, unless obvious	Both	19(1)(f)
Ingredients	Headed "Ingredients"; parfum plus named allergens over threshold	Packaging alone is allowed	19(1)(g)

This covers GB cosmetic labelling requirements. This is not legal advice.

The Eight Required Label Elements

1. Responsible Person Name and Address

Article 4(1) says "A cosmetic product may not be placed on the market unless there is a responsible person established in the United Kingdom in respect of the cosmetic product." Their name and address must appear on the container and packaging.

For most craft sellers, you are the responsible person. Your business name and a physical UK address go on the label. PO box and mail-forwarding addresses are excluded — GOV.UK states that "A UK established address does not include mail forwarding or PO box addresses" — so you need an address where you can be contacted and where your product documentation (the PIF) can be held. Our dedicated guide explains who the Responsible Person is and what the role means.

2. Nominal Content

The net weight or volume of the product: grams for solid products (soap bars, bath bombs), millilitres for liquids (body oil, shampoo).

Article 19(1)(b) exempts "packaging containing less than five grams or five millilitres, free samples and single-application packs". For multipacks of items normally sold by number — where weight is not significant — the number of items can be shown instead of the weight.

3. Best-Before Date or Period After Opening (PAO)

Best-before date: Required where the product is likely to deteriorate "up to and including 30 months from the date of manufacture" so that it stops being safe or stops doing its job. Article 19(1)(c) says the date must be "preceded by the symbol shown in point 3 of Annex VII or the words: 'best used before the end of'", and expressed as "either the month and year or the day, month and year, in that order". Note the boundary — exactly 30 months sits inside the requirement, not outside it.

Period After Opening (PAO): A best-before date "is not mandatory for products with a minimum durability of more than 30 months". For those products the PAO applies instead — the open jar symbol with the number of months the product remains safe after first opening (e.g., "12M" for 12 months). But the PAO is not automatic either: the guidance is explicit that it "will not be necessary where there is no risk of harm to the consumer ... that is to say for single-use products, products not at risk of deterioration or products which do not open e.g. aerosols".

Many handmade soaps and anhydrous products (lip balms, solid lotion bars) stay stable well beyond 30 months, so a best-before date usually isn't mandatory for them — but that does not automatically mean a PAO. A plain soap bar has no container the consumer opens, so the carve-out above can leave it needing neither marking. Products containing water (lotions, shampoos) should be assessed for shelf life and may need a best-before date. Which marking applies is a judgement about your specific formulation and packaging — take the answer from your safety assessment, not from a rule of thumb. Our guide to soap-specific labelling requirements works through this in detail.

4. Precautions for Use

Any specific precautions or warnings required by the Cosmetics Regulation annexes. Common examples:

• "Avoid contact with eyes"
• "For external use only"
• "Discontinue use if irritation occurs"
• Specific allergen warnings where applicable

These must be included if the product or its ingredients trigger them under the regulation's annexes.

5. Batch Number

A code identifying the production batch. This allows you to trace the product back to specific manufacturing conditions and ingredient batches.

The format is up to you — it could be a date code (240301), a sequential number (B-0042), or any system that lets you identify exactly when and with what ingredients the product was made.

Batch codes are essential for product recalls and adverse event investigations. If you haven't settled on a system yet, our guide to how to create a cosmetic batch code works through the common formats and what each one lets you trace.

6. Product Function

A description of what the product does: "Hand soap," "Moisturising body butter," "Exfoliating facial scrub." This must be clear enough for the consumer to understand the product's purpose.

7. Ingredient List (INCI Format)

The full list of ingredients, using the common ingredient names (the INCI names in the glossary the regulation refers to), established "in descending order of weight of the ingredients at the time they are added to the cosmetic product".

INCI rules:

• Ingredients above 1% of the formulation: list in descending order of concentration
• Ingredients below 1%: may be listed in any order after the above-1% ingredients
• Fragrance: listed as "Parfum" or "Aroma"
• Individual fragrance allergens above the threshold (0.01% in rinse-off, 0.001% in leave-on products): must be named in the ingredient list "in addition to the terms parfum or aroma"
• Colourants: listed using the CI (Colour Index) number (e.g., CI 77891)

Where to find INCI names: Your ingredient suppliers should provide INCI names. Article 19(6) requires "the common ingredient name set out in the glossary" referred to in Article 33, and where there is none, "a term as contained in a generally accepted nomenclature". The text of Article 19 sets out the full rule.

The ingredient list is preceded by the word "Ingredients" and can go on the packaging alone. Where that is impossible for practical reasons, it can go on an enclosed or attached leaflet, label, tape, tag or card. Soap and bath bombs have their own fallback: Article 19(3) says that "In the case of soap, bath balls and other small products where it is impossible for practical reasons for the information referred to in point (g) of paragraph 1 to appear on a label, tag, tape or card or in an enclosed leaflet, this information shall appear on a notice in immediate proximity to the container in which the cosmetic product is exposed for sale." — useful for unwrapped soap on a market stall.

8. Country of Origin

If the product is manufactured outside the UK, the country of origin must be stated. For UK-made products, this is not required but can be included ("Made in the UK").

A Cosmetic Label Example

For a 100 g bar of handmade lavender soap, made and sold in the UK, the label could read:

On the label	Element
Lavender Soap — hand and body cleansing bar	Function (19(1)(f))
Ingredients: Sodium Olivate, Sodium Cocoate, Aqua, Glycerin, Parfum, Lavandula Angustifolia Oil, Linalool, Limonene	Ingredients (19(1)(g)) — the INCI names here are illustrative; take yours from your suppliers and your safety assessor
100 g	Nominal content (19(1)(b))
Batch: L-2611	Batch number (19(1)(e))
Avoid contact with eyes	Precautions for use (19(1)(d)) — only if your safety assessment calls for it
Your Business Ltd, 1 Example Street, Town, AB1 2CD	Responsible Person (19(1)(a))
Durability marking	Whichever your safety assessment supports — best-before date, period after opening, or neither (see above)

Linalool and limonene appear in this example only because they would exceed the allergen declaration threshold in the finished bar at the fragrance load used. At a lower load, or with a different oil, the allergen names change. For the threshold rules, see our soap labelling guide.

Cosmetic Labels vs CLP Labels

These are two different labelling regimes for two different product categories:

	Cosmetic Label	CLP Label
Applies to	Products applied to the body (soap, skincare, bath products)	Chemical mixtures not applied to the body (candles, wax melts, diffusers)
Ingredient format	INCI names	Chemical names of hazardous components only
Hazard symbols	Not required	GHS pictograms required
Safety report	CPSR required	Classification calculation required

If you sell both cosmetics and home fragrance products, each line follows its own labelling regime. See our CLP labels guide for the home fragrance requirements.

Label Placement and Format

• All required information must be in English for products sold in GB
• Text must be indelible, easily legible, and visible
• The ingredient list is required "on the outer packaging only, or – in its absence – on the primary container"; where practical difficulties make that impossible it can go on an enclosed leaflet, label, tag, tape or card, with the consumer referred to it by abbreviated text or the hand-and-book symbol on the container or packaging
• The batch number must be marked "on both the primary container and outer packaging", and may appear on the outer packaging alone only "where it is impossible for reasons of size" to carry it on both
• The minimum durability date and, where it applies instead, the PAO symbol must each appear on both the primary container and the outer packaging

Checking Your Labels

Use our free cosmetic labelling requirements checker to verify your labels include all eight required elements. For CPSR requirements, see our guide to cosmetic safety assessments — and for a practical walk-through of costs, process, and choosing an assessor, see our CPSR certification guide. Labelling is just one piece — for how it fits alongside assessments, notification, and record-keeping, see the full stack of cosmetic safety solutions.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Regulation 1223/2009 and the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013 (Great Britain)
• GOV.UK — Making Cosmetic Products Available to Consumers in Great Britain
• legislation.gov.uk — UK Cosmetics Regulation, Article 19 (labelling)
• legislation.gov.uk — UK Cosmetics Regulation, Article 4 (responsible person)