Scope
The loaded rows cover Schedule 6 impurity requirements for carbon black and carbon black (nano) colouring agents used in cosmetic products, and Schedule 7 mercury-preservative entries for eye products. The Group Standard also contains many prohibited, restricted, preservative, and UV-filter entries that are not converted to finished-product HMI rows unless a routeable numeric metal value is stated.
Exact limit and units
| Metal | Matrix | Limit | Unit | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total arsenic (As) | Carbon black and carbon black (nano) colourants | ⇐ 3 | ppm | colourant impurity profile |
| Total lead (Pb) | Carbon black and carbon black (nano) colourants | ⇐ 10 | ppm | colourant impurity profile |
| Total mercury (Hg) | Carbon black and carbon black (nano) colourants | ⇐ 1 | ppm | colourant impurity profile |
| Mercury (Hg) | Thiomersal in eye products | 0.007 | % of mercury | preservative concentration |
| Mercury (Hg) | Phenylmercuric salts in eye products | 0.007 | % of mercury | preservative concentration |
How tested
The Group Standard states schedule conditions and concentration limits but does not print a dedicated analytical method for these heavy-metal schedule entries in the extracted text.
Enforcement posture
Cosmetic products covered by the Group Standard must comply with the applicable Schedule 4 to 8 restrictions and conditions. Nonconforming components, colouring agents, preservatives, or UV filters fall outside the allowed group-standard conditions.
History of changes
The Cosmetic Products Group Standard 2020 was issued under the HSNO Act and the source is consolidated and current as of 1 January 2026. The regulatory history table shows the 2024 amendment commencing on 1 January 2026 and the 2025 correction commencing on 31 December 2025.
How it compares
The carbon black rows are colourant impurity limits, not general finished-product cosmetic limits. The eye-product row is a preservative-use limit and should not be used as a general mercury allowance for cosmetics.
Sources
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 7 sections added |