Method: how this site decides what to state as fact

A page about cosmetics manufacturing is only useful if you can check it. These are the rules this site follows so that every claim can be traced back to a source you can inspect.

Three kinds of statement, never mixed

• Law. Stated directly, and accompanied by a link to the primary source — the regulator's own page or the official legal text.
• Industry convention. Labelled as convention, never presented as law. What most factories do is not the same as what the rules require.
• Not yet published. Where a rule is proposed but not final, the page says so plainly rather than supplying a date. This site does not invent effective dates.

Sources we accept

• Regulators and official legal databases, such as the US FDA, the US electronic code of federal regulations, and the EU's official legal repository.
• The regulation text itself, including its annexes, rather than a summary of it.
• Certification bodies' own registers for verifying a certificate number.

What this site does not do

• No supplier lists or rankings. This is not a directory, and no factory pays to appear here.
• No invented dates. Where sources disagree, the page states the status and points to the source, instead of picking the version that reads best.
• No legal advice. The pages explain how the rules and the manufacturing chain work; they do not replace advice for your specific product and market.

Corrections

If a page states something the primary source does not support, that is a defect and should be reported through the contact form. Pages carry a "last reviewed" date in the footer so you can see how current the review is.