The European Commission's Regulation (EU) 2026/909, adopted on April 27, 2026 and published in the Official Journal on April 28, 2026, entered into force on May 18, 2026 and is now applicable across the European Union. The act amends Annexes II, III, V and VI of the Cosmetic Products Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, converting a cluster of Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) opinions into binding concentration caps, a new prohibition and one re-allowed preservative. Responsible Persons, fragrance houses and formulators selling into the EU market must now treat the new limits as the compliance floor for every product on the shelf.
The headline shift is the move from allergen labelling to hard concentration limits for several fragrance ingredients, plus the outright ban of a plasticiser the SCCS could not clear. Regulation (EU) 2026/909 binds formulators to substance-specific maxima that did not exist before April 2026.
| Substance | Before 2026/909 | Under 2026/909 |
|---|---|---|
| Benzyl Salicylate | Allergen labelling only (Annex III, entry 75) | Capped: 4% fragrance, 0.7% body lotion, 0.004% oral |
| Triphenyl Phosphate | Unregulated plasticiser | Banned (Annex II, entry 1752) |
| Silver zinc zeolite | Prohibited (Annex II, entry 1597) | Allowed preservative (Annex V, entry 61), 1%, silver max 2.5% |
| Aluminium (as Al) | Partial limits across Annexes III, IV, VI | New category caps: 43.31% eye shadow, 2.0% talcum powder |
| Citral | Allergen labelling only (Annex III, entry 70) | QRA2 sensitisation limits per product type |
Which substances are now capped, and at what levels?
Benzyl Salicylate moves from a labelling-only allergen to a restricted substance with category maxima: 4% in fragrance products, 1.3% in shower and bath products, 0.7% in body lotion and 0.004% in oral products. Citral, already listed as an allergen, now carries quantitative risk assessment (QRA2) sensitisation limits per product type: 0.6% in fragrance, 1.2% in rinse-off and hair leave-on products, 0.65% in eye products, 0.35% in oral products, 0.15% in leave-on skin care, 0.11% in lip products and 0.032% in deodorants. Acetylated vetiver oil, previously unregulated, is restricted for the first time at 0.9% in fragrance, 0.2% in rinse-off, 0.1% in leave-on and 0.05% in deodorant and make-up.
Aluminium gains category-specific ceilings expressed as Al: 43.31% in eye shadow, 23% in make-up, 14.62% in lip products and 2.0% in talcum powder, layered on top of the aluminium limits already fixed in Annexes III, IV and VI. Water-soluble zinc salts (entry 24) are narrowed to oral use: 1% as zinc in toothpaste for users above one year, 0.72% for infants between six months and one year, and 0.1% in mouthwash for age groups above six years. DHHB is set at a 10% maximum as a UV filter.
What is banned, and what is re-allowed?
Triphenyl Phosphate, until now unregulated and used as a plasticiser in synthetic polymers, is added to Annex II (entry 1752) as a prohibited substance. The SCCS could not conclude on its safety because industry data was insufficient to exclude potential genotoxicity, so the Commission applied the precautionary default and removed it from cosmetic products.
Three hair dye precursors and one oxidative dye (HC Blue No 18, HC Red No 18, HC Yellow No 16, and Hydroxypropyl-p-phenylenediamine and its dihydrochloride salt) are added to Annex II as prohibited CMR-classified substances.
Ammonium Silver Zinc Aluminium Silicate (silver zinc zeolite) moves the other way: deleted from the Annex II ban list and added to Annex V preservatives (entry 61), permitted up to 1% in spray deodorant and powder foundation provided the silver content does not exceed 2.5%. The reversal follows an SCCS opinion that the substance is safe within those bounds, partially reopening a preservative the industry had lost.
Who must act, and what should compliance teams do now?
The act applies directly in every Member State with no transposition step. Every Responsible Person placing cosmetics on the EU market, from major houses such as L'Oreal, Beiersdorf, Unilever, Estee Lauder, Procter and Gamble and Henkel to private-label and contract manufacturers, must bring formulations, the Product Information File (PIF) and the Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR) into line. Because the regulation is already in force, non-conforming products are technically on the market unlawfully and draw market-surveillance exposure.
The practical checklist is dense. Reformulate or withdraw any leave-on, oral or fragrance product exceeding the new Benzyl Salicylate, Citral, aluminium or zinc ceilings. Strip Triphenyl Phosphate from polymer-containing formats. Re-run the CPSR against the new maxima and update the PIF before the next CPNP notification cycle. For silver zinc zeolite, confirm the 1% cap and 2.5% silver sub-limit if reintroducing it as a preservative. Continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring surfaces an annex amendment the moment it publishes in the Official Journal, which is how this change was caught.
Take advantage of this real-time watch
Next, verify applicability against your full portfolio by product category, recompute each safety assessment against the Annex III maxima, and brief formulation and regulatory affairs before the next product notification. The SCCS opinions underpinning every limit in 2026/909 date from late 2023 and 2024, so the scientific basis is settled and no further grace period should be expected.
