What it does
The EU's CosIng database lists two functions for phenoxyethanol: preservative and antimicrobial.1 EU law defines a preservative as a substance mainly intended to inhibit the development of microorganisms in the cosmetic product itself.2 It protects the product, in other words, not your skin.
Despite the "ethanol" in its name, it is not the drinking alcohol. CosIng describes phenoxyethanol as an aromatic ether alcohol1, while the ingredient labelled Alcohol is ethyl alcohol.3
The EU limit
Phenoxyethanol is entry 29 of Annex V, the EU's list of permitted preservatives, with a maximum of 1.0% in the ready-for-use product and no restriction by product type.2 A cosmetic may only be preserved with substances on that list, used within their conditions.4
At these levels its place in the list says little. EU rules let ingredients below 1% be listed in any order after the others4, so a preservative can appear before an ingredient there is more of, or after one there is less of.
What the EU's scientific committee concluded
In 2012 the French medicines and health products agency, ANSM, sent the European Commission an assessment raising concerns about phenoxyethanol. It proposed lowering the limit to 0.4% in products for children under three, and not using it in products for the nappy area. Other member states raised similar concerns, in particular about children.5
The Commission asked its Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) to assess it. In its final opinion of October 2016, the SCCS wrote that it "considers 2-phenoxyethanol safe for use as a preservative with a maximum concentration of 1.0%". It accepted that children up to three may be more exposed than adults, and found that its margin of safety for children covers that age group too. The exposure estimates in the opinion assumed one person using many products on the same day, from shower gel and shampoo to face cream, mascara and lipstick, each at 1%. Exposure from sources other than cosmetics was not taken into account.5 The EU limit is still 1%.2
Skin and eyes
The SCCS summarised the tests this way: undiluted, phenoxyethanol was a mild irritant to rabbit skin and an irritant to rabbit eyes; it did not sensitise skin in a guinea pig test; and data from patients with suspected allergic contact dermatitis indicated that skin sensitisation from phenoxyethanol in cosmetics is low in prevalence.5 A cosmetic contains it diluted, at no more than 1% in the EU.2
Separately, the pure substance carries EU hazard classifications, listed further down this page under what official sources say. Those describe the concentrated chemical; the cosmetic limit comes from assessing the exposure products cause.
How it appears on a label
As Phenoxyethanol, its name in the EU glossary; the regulation gives the chemical name as 2-Phenoxyethanol.2 The list will not say how much is present, or which other ingredients in the formula help keep it preserved. The guide to what an ingredient scanner can and cannot tell you explains why a list is not a verdict.