A high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC） coupled with photodiode array detector （PDAD） method was developed for the determination of content of hydroquinone, phenol, salicylic acid, 2-phenoxyethanol, methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, ethyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, propyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, butyl 4-hydroxybenzoate, dichlorophen and triclosan in cosmetics sample. The restricted substances were extracted with acetonitrile in sonic bathing for 10 min. The chromatographic separation was completed with a column of Lichrosorp RP-18 （250 mm×4.6 mm, 5 μm） using methanol-acetonitrile- ammonium acetate （pH 4.0） as mobile phase. The quantification was carried out by the external standard method. The calibration curves of 10 restricted substances were linear in the range of 0.01-0.1 g/L. The recoveries at three spiked levels of 50, 100,200 mg/kg ranged from 80% to 113%. The relative standard deviations（RSD, n=7） ranged from 2.2% to 10.0% and the quantitation limits were in the range of 10- 50 mg/kg. The method was rapid, easy, accurate and sensitive, and could meet the detection requirements for domestic and foreign limited substances in cosmetics.