The company was established in 1976 by the Personal Care Products Council (then called the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association), with support of the Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Federation of America.
In 2013, Dr. F. Alan Andersen, the CIR's director, said that its annual budget "is not a matter of public record".
Overall funding for CIR comes from the cosmetic industry's main trade association, the Personal Care Products Council.
[2] In 2002, the CIR decided that it was safe for the industry to continue adding possible endocrine and reproductive disruptors known as phthalates to cosmetics marketed to women of childbearing age.
[1] In August 2008, Section 108 of the federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), public law 110–314,[3] banned the use of three phthalates, DEHP, DBP, and BBP, in children's toy and child care articles.