Product Compliance

On 30 July, the EU swaps the reference dictionary every cosmetics label is written against, and a product's ingredient list can go from compliant to illegal with the formula completely unchanged

From 30 July 2026, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175 becomes the sole compliant basis for cosmetic ingredient labelling in the EU: 348 new INCI names, a glossary now totalling 30,418 names, and mandatory Colour Index nomenclature for colorants other than hair dyes. Most coverage read this as adding entries. What it misses: the decision also revises names already in the glossary, so some correctly-labelled products fail on 30 July with an unchanged formula, one day before a second, unrelated EU cosmetics deadline lands on 31 July.

Naomie HaliouaCDO and co-founder 25 July 2026 · 6 min read

What actually changes on 30 July

The European Commission adopted Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175 on 16 June 2025 and published it in the Official Journal on 10 July 2025. It supersedes the previous version of the Glossary of Common Ingredient Names, Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/677, issued under Article 33 of the Cosmetic Products Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009: the legal text that requires cosmetic ingredients to be listed using standardised International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) names. The new decision entered into force 20 days after publication and opened a 12-month transitional period, running to 29 July 2026, during which brands could adopt the revised glossary voluntarily while the old one remained usable. From 30 July 2026, that option ends: the updated glossary is the only legally recognised reference for INCI names on cosmetic labels placed on the EU market. Separately, and under a different article of the same regulation, Article 19(1)(g), the decision also makes CI (Colour Index) nomenclature the required way to name colorants other than hair-dye colorants, where a CI number exists for that colorant.

Three nuances that separate signal from noise

It revises entries, not just adds them

Alongside the 348 new INCI names, the decision corrects and updates names already in the glossary, so some already-compliant labels stop matching the reference text on 30 July with zero formula change.

30 July is when the old glossary stops being an option

The decision itself took effect a year earlier, in July 2025. What lands on 30 July 2026 is the end of the transitional window during which the previous glossary remained a legally valid alternative.

It lands one day before a second, unrelated EU cosmetics deadline

The Annex III fragrance-allergen list under Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 becomes mandatory on 31 July 2026: a separate legal basis and a separate obligation from the glossary update landing the day before.

16 Jun 2025

The European Commission adopts Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175.

10 Jul 2025

The decision is published in the Official Journal of the EU, superseding Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/677.

29 Jul 2025

The decision enters into force; a 12-month transitional period begins, during which the revised glossary can be adopted voluntarily.

30 Jul 2026

The transitional period ends: the updated glossary, including mandatory CI nomenclature for colorants other than hair dyes, becomes the sole compliant basis for labelling.

31 Jul 2026

A separate deadline lands the next day: the Annex III fragrance-allergen list under Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 becomes mandatory for products placed on the market for the first time.

The numbers behind the glossary

One figure is the scale of what changed. One is the size of the reference set every label has to be checked against. The third is how long brands actually had to act: which is what makes 30 July a deadline, not a surprise.

348 entries

new INCI names added by Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175, on top of revisions to entries already in the glossary

30,418 names

the total size of the Glossary of Common Ingredient Names after this update: the reference set every EU cosmetics label is checked against

12 months

the transitional period, from 29 July 2025 to 29 July 2026, during which the revised glossary was optional before becoming mandatory

The real subject: the glossary is a reference layer, not a checklist

An INCI name is not marketing copy: it is the identifier a brand's label-management system, a customs authority, and an EU market-surveillance inspector all use to agree on what is actually in a product. Treat the glossary as a static checklist and a 30 July update reads as 'add 348 rows.' Treat it as the reference layer every existing label is mapped against, and the same update reads differently: any SKU whose colorant is currently named by a trade term instead of its CI number, or whose ingredient name is one the Commission corrected in this revision, is now pointing at a reference that no longer matches, with the formula inside the bottle completely unchanged. That gap is invisible from the product itself; it only shows up when someone re-checks every affected SKU's label text against the new glossary entry by entry, ingredient by ingredient, market by market.

Why it matters for brands

Retail, consumer-goods and luxury brands with cosmetics, personal-care or fragrance lines in their EU portfolio are directly in scope, whatever else they sell. A brand's exposure here is not about reformulating anything: it is about whether its label-management data can answer, at the SKU level and on demand, which products list a colorant by a non-CI name and which reference an ingredient name the Commission has since revised. Brands that manage INCI names as structured, versioned data, tied to the specific glossary edition each label was checked against, can run that check as a query and clear it before 30 July. Brands that manage ingredient names as static text on a packaging file have to re-open every affected SKU by hand, market by market, against a moving reference document, with five days left before the old glossary stops being usable.

Two ways to read 30 July

The narrow read

The EU added 348 names to its cosmetics ingredient dictionary and gave brands a year to catch up: a routine housekeeping update to check off before the deadline.

The structural read

The glossary is a shared reference layer, and this update revises entries already in it while making CI nomenclature mandatory for colorants, meaning some correctly-labelled products today fail on 30 July with an unchanged formula, one day before a second, unrelated EU cosmetics deadline lands on 31 July.

Frequently asked questions

What changes for cosmetics sold in the EU on 30 July 2026?

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175, adopted 16 June 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 10 July 2025, updates the EU's Glossary of Common Ingredient Names under Article 33 of the Cosmetic Products Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, adding 348 new INCI entries and bringing the glossary to 30,418 names. It also revises entries already in the glossary and makes Colour Index (CI) nomenclature mandatory for colorants other than hair dyes, under Article 19(1)(g). A 12-month transitional period, from 29 July 2025 to 29 July 2026, allowed voluntary adoption; from 30 July 2026 the updated glossary is the sole legally compliant reference for cosmetic ingredient labelling in the EU.

Is this the same deadline as the EU's fragrance allergen labelling update?

No. The glossary update under Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175 becomes mandatory on 30 July 2026, under Articles 19 and 33 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. The Annex III fragrance-allergen list under Regulation (EU) 2023/1545, which expanded the disclosure list from 26 to 82 substances, becomes mandatory the following day, 31 July 2026, for products placed on the market for the first time. They are separate legal instruments with separate obligations that happen to land within 48 hours of each other.

Why does the Colour Index (CI) nomenclature requirement matter if a product's formula hasn't changed?

Under Article 19(1)(g) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as updated by Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1175, colorants other than hair dyes must be named using CI nomenclature where a CI number exists. A product using the same colorant as before but naming it by a trade term or an older naming convention instead of its CI number is out of compliance with the labelling rule from 30 July 2026, even though nothing in the formulation itself has changed. This makes label-text accuracy, not reformulation, the actual compliance task.