Abstract: The cosmetics industry is huge in scale, but safety and quality issues triggered by illegal additives in cosmetics have emerged repeatedly, not only endangering human health but also disrupting market order. Highly efficient and sensitive rapid detection methods were of great significance for the technical support of first-line inspection work. Therefore, the current status of illegal additions in cosmetics, common illegal additives and their hazards were briefly summarized. The research progress in pretreatment methods for cosmetic samples and rapid detection technologies including chromatography, spectrometry, sensor method, fluorescent probe method, and immunoassay were mainly reviewed, and the application prospects of these technologies were prospected (56 ref. cited).