Finding
One banned fragrance ingredient, lilial, was behind a third of EU product alerts from 2023 to 2025
Numbers frozen on 1 October 2026. The reason page updates daily.</p>
Read the yearly totals of EU Safety Gate and the system looks as if it suddenly found far more dangerous products in 2023. Much of that jump is one chemical. Lilial (butylphenyl methylpropional, BMHCA) is a lily-of-the-valley fragrance found in perfumes, shower gels and deodorants. It was classified as toxic for reproduction and banned in EU cosmetics from 1 March 2022 (Regulation (EU) 2021/1902). After the ban took effect, alerts for products that still contained it ran into the thousands.
The numbers
| Year | Alerts naming lilial | Share of all EU Safety Gate alerts |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 79 | 3.6% |
| 2023 | 1,009 | 30.0% |
| 2024 | 1,405 | 34.2% |
| 2025 | 1,459 | 31.5% |
| 2026, to 1 October | 229 | 7.9% |
In total, 4,186 alerts name lilial in the official risk description. The wave peaked in the second quarter of 2025 with 539 alerts and has since faded: 21 in the third quarter of 2026.
What was flagged, and by whom
- Everyday cosmetics. About half were perfumes (2,049). The rest were mostly shampoos and shower gels (725), creams (372) and deodorants (299).
- Familiar brands. The brands named most often in the records are Nivea (124 alerts), Dove (86) and Palmolive (67). The records do not say when each item was made. Stock produced before the ban and still on shelves is one plausible explanation.
- One country did most of the checking. Italy's authorities filed 2,845 of the 4,186 alerts (68%), then Hungary (540) and Czechia (477). 38% of the products were themselves made in Italy.
- Little to do with online marketplaces. Only 25 of these alerts name a marketplace, and 90% have no recorded "sold online" status. The usual measure was a ban on marketing the product (81%), not a recall from consumers.
Why it matters
Anyone comparing yearly counts should treat 2023 to 2025 with care. Remove lilial and the rise in EU alerts is much flatter. The same pattern is starting again with the next banned ingredient: see TPO in gel nails.
What this does not show
- Lilial was banned for its hazard, not because these products harmed anyone. The alerts record products that broke the ban.
- Counts follow inspection effort. Italy's share reflects how hard its authorities looked, not where most lilial products were sold.
- We find lilial by its names in the English risk description (lilial, BMHCA, butylphenyl methylpropional). Alerts that describe it only by a code would be missed.