Skip to main content

APIs

Our APIs

Decoded Korea maintains two regulatory data APIs. Both are available on RapidAPI with free tiers.

K-Beauty Cosmetic Ingredients API

Regulatory data for cosmetic ingredients across 10 countries.

Coverage Details
Ingredients 21,796
Regulatory records 30,960
Countries 10 (EU, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, ASEAN, Brazil, Argentina, US, Canada)
Data source MFDS (Korea), EU CosIng

What you can query:

Query type Example
Search by ingredient name "retinol" → all retinol variants + regulations
Search by CAS number CAS 50-81-7 → Ascorbic Acid regulations
Filter by country All ingredients banned in the EU
Filter by regulation type All ingredients restricted in Korea with concentration limits
Compare across countries Oxybenzone regulation in all 10 markets

Pricing:

Tier Price Calls/month
BASIC Free 200
PRO $29/mo 3,000
ULTRA $79/mo 25,000
MEGA $199/mo 100,000

→ View on RapidAPI

K-REACH Chemical Substance API

Regulatory classification data for chemical substances registered under Korea's K-REACH.

Coverage Details
Substances 47,000+
Regulatory flags 9 per substance
GHS hazard data Included where available
Data source Korea Environment Corporation (data.go.kr)

9 regulatory flags per substance:

Flag Description
Toxic Designated as toxic substance
Restricted Handling restricted with conditions
Prohibited Handling completely banned
Priority management Requires enhanced monitoring
CMR Carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reprotoxic
Accident preparedness Subject to accident prevention measures
Registration required Must be registered before manufacture/import
Persistent organic pollutant Listed under Stockholm Convention
Rotterdam Convention Subject to prior informed consent in trade

What you can query:

Query type Example
Search by CAS number CAS 50-00-0 → Formaldehyde: 5 flags
Search by substance name "benzene" → all matching substances
Filter by flag All prohibited substances (97 results)
GHS hazard data Signal word, pictograms, H-statements

Pricing:

Tier Price Calls/month
BASIC Free 200
PRO $99/mo 3,000
ULTRA $299/mo 25,000
MEGA $899/mo 100,000

→ View on RapidAPI

Who uses this data

Regulatory affairs teams checking ingredient compliance before export. Cosmetic formulators verifying concentration limits across markets. Chemical safety officers screening substances against Korean regulations. Developers building compliance tools and regulatory dashboards.

Both APIs offer a free tier with 200 calls/month — enough to evaluate the data before committing.

Questions about the APIs or data coverage? See our About page or reach out via RapidAPI.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Your 20% Vitamin C Serum Has No Concentration Limit. In Any Country.

Vitamin C serums are sold at 10%, 15%, 20%, and sometimes 30% concentration. These are high numbers for an active ingredient. For comparison, the EU recently capped retinol at 0.3% in most cosmetics. So how is 20% vitamin C legal when 0.3% retinol is the EU limit? Because no country regulates L-Ascorbic Acid concentration in cosmetics. None of the 10 markets in our database — EU, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, ASEAN, Brazil, Argentina, the US, or Canada — has a limit. 76 forms of vitamin C Our database contains 76 ingredients with "Ascorbic" or "Ascorbyl" in their INCI names. Vitamin C in skincare is not a single ingredient — it is a family of compounds, each with different stability, potency, and skin penetration characteristics. The ones consumers encounter most often: Form INCI name Characteristics L-Ascorbic Acid Ascorbic Acid Most potent, least stable. Requires low pH. The form used in 10–20% serums MAP Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate Stable,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Retinol Had No Limits in Most Countries Until the EU Set Them in 2024

Retinol is probably the most recommended ingredient in skincare. Dermatologists recommend it. Beauty editors rank it above everything else. K-Beauty brands put it in serums, creams, and sleeping masks. It has decades of published research behind it. For most of that history, most countries did not regulate how much retinol a cosmetic product could contain. Canada had a limit (1.0% Retinol Equivalent), but Korea, Japan, China, the US, and the EU had none. That changed in April 2024, when the EU adopted Regulation 2024/996 and set concentration limits well below Canada's. We checked our database to see how this compares across 10 countries. What retinol is Retinol is a form of vitamin A. In skincare, it promotes cell turnover — old skin cells shed faster, new ones replace them. This is why retinol is used for fine lines, uneven skin tone, acne, and texture. It is one of the few cosmetic ingredients with clinical evidence supporting its anti-aging claims. Retinol is not a single...
Post a Comment
Read more

Banned in Europe, Legal in Korea: 5 Ingredients That Split Global Regulators

The same moisturizer that sits on a shelf in Seoul could be pulled from a store in Paris. Not because of a labeling error or a packaging defect — but because an ingredient inside is classified differently by two governments looking at the same scientific data. This happens more often than most consumers realize. The EU and South Korea — both major cosmetics markets with sophisticated regulatory systems — frequently disagree on where to draw the line. The EU's cosmetics regulation (EC 1223/2009) maintains one of the strictest banned substance lists in the world, with over 1,600 entries in Annex II. Korea's MFDS takes a different approach, often allowing the same ingredients under specific concentration limits or without restriction. Neither system is wrong. They operate under different regulatory philosophies: the EU leans toward the precautionary principle — restrict first, revisit later. Korea tends toward risk management — allow under controlled conditions, monitor outcomes...
Post a Comment
Read more