Amendments to the Annexes of the UKCR Published

On 15 January 2026, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) published a Statutory Instrument (SI) amending the Annexes to the UK Cosmetics Regulation. 

Annex II amendments

• Addition of UV filter 4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4-MBC) and is therefore banned for use in cosmetic products. The ‘placing on the market deadline’ is 15 July 2026; the ‘making available on the market’ (off-shelf) deadline is 14 January 2027.
• Addition of a list of 16 CMR substances is added to Annex II of the UKCR and are therefore banned for use in cosmetic products.  Of these, one has an INCI name and is used in cosmetic products: trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide (TPO – CAS 75980-60-8).  The ‘placing on the market’ deadline is 15 August 2026; the ‘making available on the market’ (off-shelf) deadline is 14 February 2027.

Annex V amendments

• The preamble to Annex V (list of permitted preservatives) is amended in regard to the labelling requirements for formaldehyde-releasing preservatives: “All finished products containing substances in this Annex and which release formaldehyde must be labelled with the warning ‘releases formaldehyde’ where the concentration of formaldehyde in the finished product exceeds 0.001%”. The ‘placing on the market’ deadline is 15 July 2026; the ‘making available on the market’ (off-shelf) deadline is 14 January 2027.