Cosmetics
Every cosmetic product sold in Great Britain must have a Responsible Person established in the UK, named on the label and answerable for the product's compliance. If your brand is based outside the UK, you cannot hold that role yourself. Taylored Consultancy acts as UK Responsible Person for cosmetics brands worldwide: we notify your products through the SCPN, hold your Product Information Files at our UK address, check your safety reports and review your labels, so you can sell in the UK without a UK office.
Built for cosmetics brands: SCPN, PIF, CPSR and labels under the UK Cosmetics Regulation.
Under the UK Cosmetics Regulation, every cosmetic product placed on the market in Great Britain must have a Responsible Person: a company or individual established in the UK who guarantees that the product meets the regulation and answers for it to the authorities. The name and address of the Responsible Person must appear on the product label.
The role is the UK counterpart of the EU Responsible Person created by Regulation (EC) 1223/2009. After Brexit the UK kept the same structure under its own regulation, so the duties are familiar to anyone who sells in Europe: a Product Information File (PIF) with a signed Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR), a product notification before launch, compliant labelling and claims, and a named contact for the regulator. In Great Britain the notification goes through the Submit Cosmetic Product Notification (SCPN) service and the regulator is the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).
The Responsible Person is not your importer, your distributor or your fulfilment warehouse. Those parties move and sell stock. The Responsible Person carries the legal responsibility for compliance, and the regulations name that role first when something goes wrong.
Taylored Consultancy is a UK regulatory consultancy that holds this role for cosmetics brands from the US, Europe, Asia and Australia, alongside the brands we support with safety assessments, labelling and claims. This page covers cosmetics only. Our UK Responsible Person hub covers the role for medical devices as well.
Yes, you need one. A business with no UK establishment cannot be its own Responsible Person, so you must appoint a UK company by written mandate before your first product is notified or sold in Great Britain. This applies to US, EU, Australian and Asian brands alike, whether you ship from abroad or hold stock in a UK warehouse.
By default, the UK manufacturer or the UK importer is the Responsible Person. Many UK brands choose to delegate the role to a specialist all the same, because holding the PIF, keeping notifications current and tracking ingredient changes is a standing workload rather than a one-off task.
Marketplaces and retailers now ask for your Responsible Person's details before they list cosmetics, and remove listings that cannot show them. A UK Responsible Person is a condition of trading on those channels, not just a regulatory nicety.
Northern Ireland follows EU cosmetics law under the Windsor Framework, so products sold there need an EU Responsible Person and a CPNP notification instead. If you sell across the whole of the UK and into Europe, you need UK and EU cover together. We provide both.
The regulation gives the Responsible Person a list of duties. These are the ones we carry for cosmetics brands, every day, as part of the service.
Before a cosmetic product can be sold in Great Britain it must be notified through the Submit Cosmetic Product Notification service, with its formulation, label and the details of the Responsible Person. We prepare and submit the notification for every product and every variant, and update it when something changes.
Your Product Information File, including the signed Cosmetic Product Safety Report, must be kept at the Responsible Person's address in the UK and produced for the authority on request. We hold yours, check that it is complete and keep it current for the full ten years the regulation requires after the last batch.
GB labels must carry our name and address as Responsible Person, along with the ingredient list, warnings, batch and durability information the regulation requires. We review artwork before it is printed and screen claims against the UK Cosmetics Regulation and advertising rules.
The ingredient annexes change several times a year. We monitor UK and EU legislation and tell you when a restriction, ban or labelling change affects a formula you actually sell, with the date you need to act by.
As your named UK contact we answer information requests, inspections and queries from the Office for Product Safety and Standards and local Trading Standards, so the regulator gets accurate answers quickly and you get warning and a plan.
If a product is linked to a serious undesirable effect or a safety issue, the Responsible Person must report it and manage corrective action. We run that process from first report to close-out, documented and defensible.
Everything above sits under the UK Cosmetics Regulation and the OPSS. Because our consultants also write safety assessments and review labels for a living, the documents we accept into your PIF are checked by people who know what the regulator looks for.
Taking us on as your UK Responsible Person is a short, well-trodden process. With launch-ready documentation, onboarding and first notifications typically complete within a working week. We will ask you for:
A signed mandate appointing Taylored Consultancy as your UK Responsible Person
Your Product Information File for each product, with the signed CPSR
Formulations with ingredient percentages and INCI names, for the SCPN notification
Current label artwork, so we can add our address and check the mandatory wording
Manufacturer details and a statement of Good Manufacturing Practice
Any existing EU CPNP notifications, so the two records stay in step
A list of the channels you sell through, including marketplaces that need our details
A contact at your business for undesirable effect reports and regulator queries
We review what you send, tell you what is missing and quote any gap work before we start. Once the files are in order we notify your range through the SCPN, confirm the label changes for your next print run and set up monitoring for the ingredients your formulas use. After that the service runs in the background until the day you need it.
Since Brexit the two roles are separate in law. An EU Responsible Person established in an EU member state covers the EU and Northern Ireland, with notifications through the Cosmetic Products Notification Portal (CPNP). A UK Responsible Person established in the UK covers Great Britain, with notifications through the SCPN. One does not stand in for the other.
The two regulations still share most of their text, so one well-built Product Information File can serve both markets with a safety assessment that addresses each set of annexes. The label must name both Responsible Persons if you sell in both markets, and both notifications must be kept current when a formula or artwork changes.
We act as UK and EU Responsible Person under one roof, so a single team holds your file, keeps both notifications aligned and watches both rulebooks for changes that affect you. Brands that sell in both markets usually find that simpler and cheaper than two providers who never speak to each other.
Our assessors write the CPSR your PIF needs, UK and EU in one report, with a data review first so you know what is missing before you commit.
UK Responsible Person cover for cosmetics is priced as a fixed annual fee, agreed in writing before you commit. What moves the number: how many products and variants you sell in Great Britain, whether your PIFs and safety reports are launch-ready or need remediation, how often your range changes, and whether you want EU cover alongside.
We do not publish a rate card, because a three-product skincare brand and a sixty-shade colour range are not the same workload. What we do promise is a fixed quote after one conversation, onboarding and any gap work quoted separately, and no per-question billing during the year.
See what a UK Responsible Person costs, then get a quote in one call
Already have a UK Responsible Person? Moving is a managed handover, not a relaunch. We agree a date with your outgoing provider, take transfer of your PIFs, update the SCPN notifications to our details and give you a label-change plan with sensible sell-through of existing stock. Products stay on sale throughout.
Selling on Amazon, TikTok Shop or another marketplace? The platforms ask for Responsible Person details before listing cosmetics and will remove products that cannot show them. We provide the documents sellers are asked for and act as the Responsible Person behind them.
Only if it agrees to take on the legal role by written mandate and is willing to hold your Product Information Files, notify your products and answer to the OPSS for them. Most distributors and fulfilment houses decline, because the liability sits with the Responsible Person rather than with the brand. A specialist UK Responsible Person keeps the role, and the liability, where it can be managed properly.
Yes. The regulation applies to any cosmetic product made available to consumers in Great Britain, including products shipped from overseas after an online order. Marketplaces enforce it too: Amazon and TikTok Shop ask for Responsible Person details before cosmetics can be listed.
They are separate legal roles under separate regulations. The EU Responsible Person covers the EU and Northern Ireland with CPNP notifications. The UK Responsible Person covers Great Britain with SCPN notifications. If you sell in both markets you need both, named on the label, and we provide the two together.
Yes, if the UK company places the products on the market. You then hold the PIFs, make the SCPN notifications, report serious undesirable effects and deal with the regulator yourself. Many UK brands appoint us anyway so that the workload and the horizon scanning sit with specialists.
With complete PIFs and final artwork, days rather than weeks. Onboarding, notifications and takeover typically complete inside a working week. If your files need remediation first, we tell you exactly what and quote it before we start.
Our name and address, in the place the UK Cosmetics Regulation requires, alongside the other mandatory particulars. If you also sell in the EU your EU Responsible Person appears too. We review the artwork before print so the wording is right first time.
Yes. Switching is a managed handover: your documentation transfers, the SCPN notifications are updated to our details and labels change on an agreed schedule with sell-through of existing stock. Products stay on sale throughout.
Appointing a Responsible Person means printing another company's name on your label, so it is a trust decision. Ours is held by first-launch founders notifying their first product, established skincare and colour brands running multi-market portfolios, and overseas houses entering the UK for the first time. The same team writes safety assessments, reviews labels and screens claims, so your Responsible Person understands the documents it is answering for.
