Parapharmacy.org

A reference on parapharmacy in Europe

About

Methodology & sourcing standards

Parapharmacy.org is a non-commercial reference site. It exists to make a domain primarily documented in continental-European languages accessible in English, and to maintain a citable resource that authors can rely on for verifiable regulatory and ingredient information.

Sourcing standards

  1. Regulatory citations are made by reference to the exact instrument and number on EUR-Lex or on the relevant national official-journal portal. Where a consolidated text exists, the consolidated text is linked; where it does not, the original act and any amending acts are referenced. Article-level citations are used where the article is specifically discussed.
  2. Scientific opinions from EU bodies (SCCS, EFSA, EMA, HMPC) are cited where they form the basis of a regulatory position. We do not cite specific primary studies unless we have verified them.
  3. Cosmetic ingredients are referenced through the European Commission's CosIng database. Statements on cosmetic function reflect declared CosIng functions, not vendor marketing.
  4. Strength-of-evidence framing is used in place of cherry-picked study citations. Possible characterisations are: well-established / supported by multiple controlled trials / supported by dermocosmetic studies of variable quality / limited evidence / mainly in-vitro or preclinical / mechanistic only.
  5. National authorities and standards are cited by their full name and by a direct link to their public portal.
  6. Court of Justice of the European Union case law is cited by case number and year. We do not paraphrase legal effect beyond the language used by the Court.

What we do not do

  1. No medical, dosing or treatment advice. We describe products, regulations and the published positions of regulators and scientific bodies. Clinical questions are referred to a pharmacist or a physician.
  2. No product or brand recommendations. We do not name commercial products or manufacturers except where a specific brand is itself the historical or legal subject of an entry.
  3. No affiliate links, advertising or sponsorships. The site is non-commercial; we do not accept paid placements.
  4. No tracking, no analytics, no forms. Static HTML only.
  5. No fabrication. If we do not have a verified source for a specific number, regulation article or historical claim, we omit it. Being more general is acceptable; inventing specifics is not.

Page structure and dating

Every page is structured with a clear topic and section hierarchy, a references section pointing to primary sources, and a "See also" list of internal cross-links. Each page carries a Last reviewed date in its footer; the date refers to the most recent editorial review and is updated when material changes are made.

Correction policy

Errors of fact, broken links, or outdated regulatory citations are corrected as quickly as they are noticed. Substantive corrections are made by editing the page and updating the Last reviewed date; non-substantive copy-edits (typographical fixes, link updates) are made without changing the review date. Where a correction materially changes the substantive content of a page, a brief note may be added at the end of the page describing what was changed and when. Corrections are welcome via the contact route on the about page.

Versioning

The site does not currently publish a public revision history per page. Pages are dated and citable: a reference to "parapharmacy.org/regulation/eu-cosmetic-regulation/, last reviewed May 2026" identifies the version of the page used. For citations that need to outlast the live page, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine snapshots are usable as a permanent reference.

Licensing

Text on Parapharmacy.org is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Code is under the MIT licence. Reuse is permitted with attribution.

Last reviewed: May 2026.