Cosmetic products may either be sold to consumers, to consumers and professionals, or exclusively to professionals, such as hairdressers, nail technicians, beauticians and others.
Whilst professional products may also be sold to consumers, products marked with the instruction ‘professional use only’ must only be sold to professionals because this is a legal requirement pertaining to one or more of the product’s ingredients. The Responsible Person (RP) placing that product on the market must therefore control the supply of such products.
The RP placing a product for ‘professional use only’ on the GB market must communicate with all downstream actors within the supply chain, including retailers, that such products cannot be sold directly to consumers due to restrictions under the UK Cosmetics Regulation. Retailers have the due diligence obligation to ensure that products marked as ‘professional use only’ are not sold directly to consumers, as there is a specific safety reason related to this restriction of distribution and use.
For more detailed advice on this topic, please download this document which clarifies the difference between ‘professional use’ and ‘professional use only’ products, as well as why the latter must only be sold to professionals and sale to consumers is prohibited.