The 1,600 Forbidden Ingredients: EU vs US Cosmetics Regulation

Why Your Skincare Might Contain Ingredients Banned Elsewhere in the World

If you've ever wondered why the same brand sells different formulas in different countries, the answer is regulation — or the lack of it. The gap between how the European Union and the United States govern cosmetic ingredients is not a minor technicality. It's a 1,600-ingredient chasm that has real consequences for what ends up on your skin.

Understanding that gap is one of the clearest reasons Glaciara manufactures in Latvia, inside the EU, under the strictest cosmetics regulatory framework in the world.

The Numbers, Side by Side

The contrast is stark enough to repeat slowly: the European Union has banned or restricted over 1,600 substances from use in cosmetic products. The United States Food and Drug Administration has banned or restricted 11.

That's not a typo. Eleven.

The EU framework — governed by EC Regulation No 1223/2009 — operates on a precautionary principle. If there is reasonable scientific concern about a substance's safety, it is prohibited or tightly restricted until evidence of safety is established. The burden of proof falls on those who want to use an ingredient, not on consumers who want to avoid it.

In the United States, the inverse tends to be true. Ingredients remain permitted unless the FDA has sufficient evidence to act against them — a process that is slow, resource-intensive, and politically complicated. The primary US law governing cosmetics, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, is rooted in the 1938 FD&C Act — though the 2022 MoCRA act introduced modern registration and safety requirements, enforcement remains limited compared to the EU.

What This Means in Practice

The practical consequences are not abstract. There are entire categories of ingredients — certain preservatives, UV filters, formaldehyde-releasing agents, specific fragrance allergens, and plasticisers — that are either prohibited in the EU or subject to strict concentration limits, while remaining in common use across US formulations.

Some specific examples worth knowing:

• Formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives such as DMDM Hydantoin and Quaternium-15 are either banned or tightly restricted in the EU. They are still found in US hair care and skincare products.
• Certain UV filters widely used in American sunscreens — including oxybenzone — have been subject to EU restrictions for years. The FDA has repeatedly been unable to formally update its sunscreen monograph.
• Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), sometimes called "forever chemicals," have faced increasingly stringent EU action while remaining more broadly present in the US market.
• Coal tar dyes and specific synthetic colorants are prohibited under EU rules but still approved by the FDA.
• Lead acetate, once used in hair-darkening products, was only officially banned by the FDA in 2018 — decades after EU prohibition.

This is not a criticism of US consumers or brands operating within their legal framework. It is simply a recognition that regulatory environments shape what is available, and that the EU framework demands a meaningfully higher bar.

EU Regulation Doesn't Stop at a Banned List

What makes EU cosmetics regulation particularly comprehensive is that it goes well beyond a list of prohibited substances. The framework also requires:

• A mandatory safety assessment signed off by a qualified safety assessor before any product can be placed on the market.
• A product information file (PIF) — detailed documentation of every formula, assessment, and test — that must be available for inspection by authorities at all times.
• Notification to the CPNP (Cosmetic Products Notification Portal) before products are sold anywhere in the EU.
• Full ingredient transparency via INCI labelling, with specific rules around allergen disclosure.
• Responsible Person designation — a named legal entity within the EU that assumes accountability for compliance.

Every Glaciara product navigates this entire system. Formulated and manufactured in Latvia, each product goes through a formal safety assessment, is documented in a PIF, and is notified to the CPNP before it reaches a customer. This is not optional. It is the minimum legal requirement for selling cosmetics within the EU.

What COSMOS Natural Adds on Top

EU compliance is the floor. For Glaciara, COSMOS Natural certification is the standard built above it.

COSMOS Natural is an independent third-party certification that imposes additional requirements beyond EU law. It restricts the use of synthetic preservatives, parabens, silicones, synthetic fragrances, and a wide range of petrochemical-derived ingredients that would otherwise be legally permitted under EU regulation. It also sets standards for ingredient sourcing, processing methods, and the percentage of natural-origin content in a formula.

It's worth being precise here: COSMOS Natural is not the same as COSMOS Organic. The two share the same framework but impose different requirements around the proportion of organic-certified ingredients. We've explained the distinction in detail here — it's a nuance worth understanding before reading any certification label.

For Glaciara, holding COSMOS Natural certification means every formula has been independently verified to meet standards that go beyond what either EU or US law requires.

Why Manufacturing Location Matters

A brand can claim to be "EU-inspired" or "formulated to EU standards" from anywhere. But the legal accountability of manufacturing inside the EU is categorically different from aspiring to those standards voluntarily.

When a product is manufactured in Latvia and sold within the EU, the full weight of EC Regulation No 1223/2009 applies by law — not as a marketing decision. The safety assessor who signs off on each formula carries professional and legal liability. The responsible person designation is not a badge; it's a legal obligation. Non-compliant products face market withdrawal.

This is the regulatory environment in which every Glaciara product is made. Not as a point of national pride, but because we believe the framework itself — its precautionary logic, its documentation requirements, its independent verification layers — produces more tightly assessed and documented formulas. Our approach to that philosophy is detailed here.

Reading Labels as a Consequence of This Gap

For consumers, the practical implication of the EU–US regulatory gap is that reading an INCI ingredient list becomes meaningfully important — and meaningfully more reassuring when that list was assembled under EU rules.

Certain ingredients to research on any US-purchased product include: DMDM Hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Diazolidinyl Urea (all formaldehyde-releasers), BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), certain coal tar-derived colorants listed as FD&C or D&C dyes, and PEG-based compounds with high ethylene oxide contamination risk.

Under EU regulation, many of these are either banned outright or subject to restrictions that effectively remove them from compliant formulas. Under COSMOS Natural certification, the field narrows even further.

Glaciara publishes the full INCI list for every product. You can review our complete ingredient philosophy and full formulation transparency here. If a Glaciara formula contains something, it is there for a documented reason, assessed by a qualified professional, and compliant with both EU law and COSMOS Natural certification standards.

The Cleaner Formula Argument

There's a version of this conversation that can slide into alarmism — the implication that every product sold in the US is dangerous, or that every EU product is pure. Neither is accurate.

What is accurate is that the regulatory system shapes formulator behaviour. When the list of prohibited substances is 1,600 long and non-compliance carries legal consequences, formulators work within a narrower, more scrutinised space. That structural constraint tends to produce different ingredient choices than a system where the default is permissibility.

Glaciara's five products — the Cleansing Foam, Vitamin C Serum, Peptide Anti-Aging Serum, Hydrating Serum, and Niacinamide Gel Moisturiser — exist as a direct expression of the belief that a small number of well-formulated, rigorously compliant products is more valuable than a sprawling range assembled under less rigorous conditions.

The 1,600-ingredient gap is real. Where your products are made, and under what rules, is worth knowing.