Cosmetic Labelling Requirements UK: A Plain-English Guide

Cosmetic product labels in the UK have their own set of requirements — completely separate from CLP labels. If you make soap, skincare, bath products, or anything else applied to the body, your labels must comply with the UK Cosmetics Regulation (retained Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009).

This guide covers every element your cosmetic label needs, in plain English.

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

The Eight Required Label Elements

1. Responsible Person Name and Address

Corrected on 2026-07-30: PO box addresses — this section previously said a PO Box "alone is not sufficient". GOV.UK excludes them outright: "A UK established address does not include mail forwarding or PO box addresses." Corrected following re-verification against the GOV.UK guidance on making cosmetic products available to consumers in Great Britain.

Every cosmetic product sold in GB must have a UK-based responsible person. Their name and address must appear on the label or 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.

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).

Products under 5 g or 5 ml are exempt from this requirement. Products between 5–50 g/ml must show the content but are exempt from average weight rules.

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. Show the date as "Best before end: MM/YYYY", or the hourglass symbol followed by the date. 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 soap labelling guide 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 in INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) format, listed in descending order of concentration.

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" for taste/smell products)
• Individual fragrance allergens above the threshold (0.01% in rinse-off, 0.001% in leave-on products): must be listed by their INCI name after "Parfum"
• Colourants: listed using the CI (Colour Index) number (e.g., CI 77891)

Where to find INCI names: Your ingredient suppliers should provide INCI names. If not, the official reference is the International Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary and Handbook.

The ingredient list is preceded by the word "Ingredients:" and must be on the product or its packaging. If the product is too small, it can be on a leaflet, label, or tag attached to the product.

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").

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

Corrected on 2026-07-30: placement of the batch number and PAO/best-before — this section previously said both "must be on the product itself". The guidance requires each of them on both the primary container and the outer packaging, with the batch number permitted on the outer packaging alone where size makes both impossible. Corrected following re-verification against the GOV.UK Regulation 1223/2009 / Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013 guidance.

• 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