What Must Appear on a Cosmetic Label in Canada

Print a label, hold it next to this list, and check off each item. That is really the fastest way to catch a gap before a customs officer or a retailer's compliance team catches it for you. Canadian label rules under the Cosmetic Regulations are not long, but they are specific, and small makers tend to miss the same two or three things over and over.

The core mandatory elements

Every cosmetic sold in Canada needs these on its label, regardless of product type or size:

• Product identity: what the product is, in plain terms (a soap bar, a facial serum, a shampoo)
• Net quantity: the amount in the container, in metric units
• Name and address of the manufacturer or the Canadian dealer responsible for the product
• Ingredient list in INCI names, in descending order of concentration above 1%, with ingredients at or below 1% listed in any order after that
• Bilingual text: English and French for all mandatory information

That last point trips up more sellers than anything else. A product made and labeled in the US, then shipped north with an English-only sticker slapped on, does not meet the bar. Both official languages need to appear for every required element, not just the ingredient list.

The ingredient list specifically

The ingredient list has its own internal rules worth separating out:

1. Use INCI names, not trade names or marketing names. Water is Aqua. Fragrance blends get listed under the applicable term for the mixture, not the supplier's brand name for it.
2. Order matters above 1% concentration. Below that threshold, order is flexible.
3. Colorants can be grouped and listed at the end regardless of concentration, following the convention used for color additives.

If you are already building your Cosmetic Notification Form with each ingredient mapped to its INCI name and CAS number, you already have the raw material for this list. The notification and the label should be pulling from the same underlying ingredient data, not two separately maintained versions that can drift apart from each other over time.

Fragrance allergen disclosure is changing

This is worth flagging separately because the timeline matters right now. Fragrance allergen List 1 becomes mandatory on both the CNF and the label on April 12, 2026. List 2, an expanded set aligned with international allergen lists, follows on August 1, 2026. If your formula contains common allergens like Limonene, Linalool, Citronellol, Geraniol, Eugenol, or Coumarin above the disclosure threshold, which is above 0.001% (10 ppm) in leave-on products and above 0.01% (100 ppm) in rinse-off products, those need to be named individually on the label rather than folded into a generic "fragrance" or "parfum" entry.

Essential oils are the usual source of surprise here. Lavender essential oil naturally carries linalool. Citrus oils carry limonene. If you have been listing "fragrance (essential oil blend)" as a single line, check whether any of the named allergens cross the threshold in your specific formula, because that determines whether they need their own line.

Precautionary and warning statements

Some product categories carry additional required statements. Aerosols, products intended for children, and anything with a specific hazard identified in its safety assessment may need extra wording beyond the baseline five items above. This is genuinely category-specific, so if your product falls outside a plain lotion or bar soap, it is worth checking the current Health Canada labeling guidance for your specific product type rather than assuming the general list covers you.

A label checklist to run before you print

Element	Present?	Bilingual?
Product identity
Net quantity (metric)
Manufacturer/dealer name and address
INCI ingredient list, correctly ordered
Fragrance allergens above threshold (from April 2026)
Any category-specific warning statement

Run your packaging proof through that table before it goes to print. Reprinting labels after the fact is expensive and slow, and it is one of the more avoidable costs in this business.

Where labels and notifications meet

Your Cosmetic Notification Form and your label should never disagree about what is actually in the bottle. If you update a formula and file an amendment, the label needs to update too, and vice versa. Cosmetic Comply builds the ingredient list from the same INCI-and-CAS mapping used for the notification itself, which keeps the two in sync instead of leaving you to reconcile two separate documents by hand. It will not design your artwork, but it gives you a verified ingredient list to hand to whoever does.