Health Canada Updates the Cosmetic Notification Form (CNF)

On October 6, 2025, Health Canada announced updates to the Cosmetic Notification Form (CNF), along with corresponding revisions to the Industry Guide for Cosmetic Notification. The key updates are summarized as follows:

1. Section 4 – Manufacturing, Importing, Label, and Other Contact Information

To streamline the completion of the contact information section, users can now prepopulate contact fields using previously entered details.

To do so, click “Select Contact”, choose the appropriate contact from the drop-down list, and then select the relevant “Contact Type” for the added entry.

2. Section 5 – Ingredients

1) The field previously titled “Other Chemical Name” has been renamed to “If no INCI name is available, the Chemical Name.”

As a reminder, in accordance with paragraph 30(2)(d) of the Cosmetic Regulations (CR), notifiers must provide the INCI name of each ingredient, or, if unavailable, the Chemical name must be submitted.

2) A new checkbox titled “Fragrance Allergen” has been added in preparation for upcoming regulatory requirements.

Health Canada encourages notifiers to begin using this feature to indicate when a fragrance allergen is present in the product above the disclosure threshold.

Starting April 12, 2026, the presence and concentration (or concentration range code) of any fragrance allergens must be disclosed in the CNF if present at levels exceeding 0.01% in rinse-off products or 0.001% in leave-on products.

Additional details regarding fragrance allergens can be found in Section 8.7, Appendix 1: List of Fragrance Allergens.

3) An error message will now appear if a product label is not provided for products containing certain ingredients.

As a reminder, under paragraph 30(1)(b) of CR, cosmetics that present avoidable hazards must include a label at the time of notification. For example, hair dye products containing p-Phenylenediamine or other coal tar dyes must include appropriate warning statements on the label. The label can be uploaded in “Documents and Pictures – Section 6.”

Health Canada may contact notifiers to request labels or additional information where necessary to ensure compliance.