How to use CosIng without treating it as approval

Use an ingredient lookup to prepare a review question

CosIng can help you investigate an ingredient name and locate references. It cannot decide whether your finished product can be sold. The European Commission's database guidance says the database is informative and that an INCI entry does not establish permission for cosmetic use. Its active and historical records also need to be distinguished.

Start with the actual supplier identity and your intended market. Keep the lookup name, identifiers, retrieval date and source location in a small trace record. Record uncertainty instead of selecting the closest-looking result.

Follow a real identity, without inventing a product decision

Use Phenoxyethanol, CAS 122-99-6, as a practice query. Open the Commission's CosIng search and compare the returned identity with the supplier record, including names and available identifiers. If the live search is unavailable or the identity does not match, record that outcome and stop the lookup step. A copied third-party database card is not a verified CosIng capture.

The supplied worked trace demonstrates how to record this research. It does not claim that a live CosIng ingredient screen was captured for this pack. Its independently inspected legal reference is Annex V, entry 29, in the 18 May 2026 consolidated Regulation 1223/2009, which identifies 2-Phenoxyethanol, Phenoxyethanol and CAS 122-99-6. A reference match is the starting point for checking the provision and its applicable version.

Check the legal destination and its date

Retain the annex and entry number, the legal-text URL and the version you actually opened. Use the current-version selector rather than assuming every link on an official overview leads to the latest consolidation. In this research, the regulation link on the Commission's CosIng overview opened a 2019 consolidation; EUR-Lex separately identified the 18 May 2026 version as current on the retrieval date.

A consolidation helps navigation. Check the authentic acts, amendments and relevant application or transition dates for the intended supply. A retrieval date or consolidation date is not automatically the date on which a new condition begins to apply. The trace therefore leaves the product-specific legal-date decision unresolved for specialist review.

Bring the missing product facts

The fictional sample cream has no supplied formulation, supplier composition or exposure information. Its concentration assessment, applicable conditions and finished-product safety finding remain unresolved. Do not enter a guessed percentage to make the row look complete.

Give the reviewer the exact formula revision, ingredient identity, intended function, product type and relevant supplier evidence. Where a blend contributes the ingredient, ask the reviewer what composition and calculation evidence is needed. A name match cannot perform that calculation.

Keep jurisdictions separate

This worked legal reference is an EU reference. Do not reuse its outcome as a GB decision. The GB official product guidance supplies the separate GB starting point; Northern Ireland needs a distinct market-scope check. No GB or NI ingredient permission is determined by this example.

Finish with an owned question, such as obtaining the supplier identity or asking the specialist to verify the current entry for formulation revision 3. Keep the lookup evidence alongside the eventual finding. The ingredients hub, I00, will provide the next released task guides; the sample workspace can already show how an unresolved review candidate becomes an owned action.

Sources and legal dates