Ceramides

The FDA restricts a short list of ingredients and sets no general strength ceiling on the rest. A figure marked "guidance, not law" is the Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel's recommendation.

21 CFR part 700, subpart B — Requirements for Specific Cosmetic Products (FDA)

One list does the work — Health Canada's Hotlist of prohibited and restricted cosmetic ingredients.

Health Canada — Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist

The Cosmetics Regulation's annexes, consolidated to 1 May 2026. A figure marked "guidance, not law" comes from the EU's cosmetic safety committee rather than from the annexes.

Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annexes II–VI

Great Britain kept the annexes as its own law and updates them only when it chooses; Northern Ireland follows the live EU Regulation, which is why some rows read differently for each.

Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as it applies in Great Britain · Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annexes II–VI

India writes its own standard, aligned to the European rules as they stood in 2012. Mandatory since 9 February 2026.

IS 4707 (Part 2):2025 — restricted and prohibited cosmetic ingredients · IS 4707 (Part 3):2025 — preservatives · Cosmetics Rules, 2020, Ninth Schedule

ANVISA rewrote its restricted list in June 2026, and a companion act amended the prohibited list at the same time.

RDC 1.029/2026 — restricted ingredients · RDC 529/2021 — prohibited ingredients, as amended by RDC 1.030/2026 · RDC 528/2021 — preservatives

Japan's cosmetics standard keeps drug ingredients out of cosmetics, so most of its figures sit in the ministry's list of the ones a cosmetic may still contain.

Cosmetics Standards (化粧品基準), Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare · Cosmetics Standards — the ministry's own English translation · Drug ingredients permitted in cosmetics — 2007 notification

One MFDS regulation carries both the prohibited list and the restricted list, in force 18 March 2026. Sunscreens and a few other categories are cleared product by product instead.

Regulation on Safety Standards for Cosmetics (MFDS Notification 2026-19) · Regulation on the Review of Functional Cosmetics (MFDS Notification 2025-88)

Kenya's standard applies the EU annexes as they stand rather than copying them, so its ingredient limits are the EU's — including the 2024 additions. A figure marked "guidance, not law" sits outside the annexes and does not carry over.

KS EAS 377-1, -2 and -3:2022 — cosmetics safety requirements, published by KEBS · Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annexes II–VI

Namibia sets no ingredient limits at all. Its cosmetic rule is a single line requiring a product to be free of any harmful ingredient.

Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Ordinance 18 of 1979, and the regulations under it

Ukraine's own transposition of the EU annexes, as they stood before the 2024 additions, fully in force since 3 August 2026. A further revision is due on 1 February 2027.

Technical Regulation on cosmetic products — Cabinet Resolution No. 65 of 20 January 2021

Georgia has no cosmetics rulebook — its register of technical regulations carries no cosmetics entry — so only the general product-safety duty applies.

Register of technical regulations — no cosmetics entry

Australia writes no cosmetic ingredient list. A figure here is the point at which a substance becomes a medicine or a scheduled substance carrying Caution labeling, so its numbers sit well above other markets'.

Poisons Standard — June 2026 · Therapeutic Goods (Excluded Goods) Determination 2018

The Gulf standard points at the EU annexes as amended, so its ingredient limits are the EU's. A figure marked "guidance, not law" sits outside the annexes and does not carry over.

GSO 1943:2024 — Cosmetic products: safety requirements (Gulf technical regulation) · Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annexes II–VI

The Gulf standard points at the EU annexes as amended, so its ingredient limits are the EU's. A figure marked "guidance, not law" sits outside the annexes and does not carry over.

GSO 1943:2024 — Cosmetic products: safety requirements (Gulf technical regulation) · Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annexes II–VI

Hong Kong writes no cosmetics rulebook. Its Poisons List (Cap. 138A, Schedule 10) decides which substances may be sold only as medicines, and general safety is judged case by case against whichever overseas standard the enforcer considers reasonable.

Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations (Cap. 138A), Schedule 10 — the poisons list · Pharmacy and Poisons Board — Guidance Notes on classifying pharmaceutical products, April 2026

Singapore writes the ASEAN annexes into its own schedule, and its regulator tells companies to check the current ASEAN release as well — which is why a figure here can read "guidance, not law".

Health Products (Cosmetic Products — ASEAN Cosmetic Directive) Regulations 2007, Third Schedule · ASEAN Cosmetic Directive annexes — release 2026-1, 22 June 2026

Brunei carries the 2007 ASEAN annexes in its own schedule and has not updated them since, so it reads differently from Singapore on several ingredients.

Medicines (Cosmetic Products) Regulations (Cap. 285 Rg 1), Schedule 1 — revised edition 2024

Jordan's cosmetic rules defer to "the approved references" and name none of them, so there is no Jordanian figure to read. The only number in the instrument governs the ingredient list on the pack.

JFDA instructions on cosmetics and pharmaceutical cosmetics, 2026

Trinidad and Tobago has had the power to set cosmetic standards since 1960 and has never used it. The regulations made under the Act cover food and drugs, with no cosmetics part; what binds is the Act's general rule against selling a cosmetic that may injure the user.

Food and Drugs Act, Chap. 30:01 · Food and Drugs Regulations