California Is Banning 24 Ingredients from Beauty Products starting in 2025

On Sept. 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Toxic-Free Cosmetis Act (AB 2762) into effect. The unprecedented bill is the nation's first state-level ban of 24 ingredients from beauty and personal care products. As of January 2025, the bill prohibits "a person or entity from manufacturing, selling, delivering, holding, or offering for sale, in commerce any cosmetic product that contains any of several specified intentionally added ingredients." These ingredients include dibutyl phthalate, diethylhexyl phthalate, formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde, methylene glycol, quaternium-15, mercury, isobutylparaben, isopropylparaben, m-Phenylenediamine and its salts, o-Phenylenediamine and its salts, and several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their salts. Many of the ingredients included in the bill are already banned or restricted in Europe. However, the bill clarifies an exception to the ban. "If a cosmetic product made through manufacturing processes intended to comply with this chapter contains a technically unavoidable trace quantity of an ingredient listed in subdivision and that trace quantity stems from impurities of natural or synthetic ingredients, the manufacturing process, storage, or migration from packaging, that trace quantity shall not cause the cosmetic product to be in violation of this section."  The Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act is largely supported and initiated by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization that "specializes in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and corporate accountability." The EWG provides Skin Deep, an online database that ranks cosmetics and personal products in terms of safety based on the "toxicity" of their ingredients.While California is the fist state to ban these ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products, it doesn't affect the bills introduced in congress, such as the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Act.