At the beginning of 2008, the Cosmetics Directive, adopted in 1976, had already been amended seven times and adapted forty eight times.

In light of this and the provisions of the Cosmetics Directive,[7] the necessity to reduce our dependency on animal experimentation is compelling.

(10) Whereas the Scientific Committee on Cosmetology was consulted on the safety of certain bovine products on 11 April 1996; whereas the Liaison Committee of European Associations of the Perfume, Cosmetic Products and Toiletries Industries (Colipa) has recommended its members not to use source materials from United Kingdom bovine animals; whereas that Committee has declared that its members follow that recommendation; whereas Commission Directive 97/1/EC of 10 January 1997 adapting to technical progress Annexes II, III, VI, and VII to Council Directive 76/768/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to cosme ...[+++]tic products (9), has provisionally prohibited the placing on the market of cosmetic products containing certain tissues and fluids;

1. Council Directive 93/35/EEC of 14 June 1993 amending for the sixth time Directive 76/768/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to cosmetic products () (hereafter called 'cosmetic products Directive') provides that the Commission shall, under the procedure involving the Committee on Adaptation to Technical Progress referred to in Article 10 of Directive 76/768/EEC, compile an inventory of ingredients employed in cosmetic products, on the basis in particular of information supplied by the industry concerned.

Any manufacturer or his agent or person on whose account a cosmetic product is manufactured, or any person responsible for placing an imported cosmetic product on the Community market, who, for reasons of trade secrecy, wishes not to include one or more ingredients of a cosmetic product on the list referred to in Article 6 (1) (g) of Directive 76/768/EEC, shall submit a request to that effect to the competent authority referred to in Article 10 of this Directive of the Member State of the place of manufacture or initial importation, prior to placing the product on the Community market.

Whereas this Directive relates only to cosmetic products and not to pharmaceutical specialities and medicinal products ; whereas for this purpose it is necessary to define the scope of the Directive by delimiting the field of cosmetics from that of pharmaceuticals ; whereas this delimitation follows in particular from the detailed definition of cosmetic products, which refers both to their areas of application and to the purposes of their use ; whereas this Directive is not applicable to the products that fall under the definition ...[+++]of cosmetic product but are exclusively intended to protect from disease ; whereas, moreover, it is advisable to specify that certain products come under this definition, whilst products containing substances or preparations intended to be ingested, inhaled, injected or implanted in the human body do not come under the field of cosmetics;