OBJECTIVE An ultra-performance liquid chromatography method has been established for the simultaneous determination of 9 phthalate esters and bisphenol A in cosmetics. METHODS The samples were extracted by methanol and determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with PDA detector. The separation of 9 phthalate esters and bisphenol A was carried out by an Phenyl column (50 mm x 2.1 mm id, 1.7 microm) column and quantification was based on detection wavelength at 275 nm. RESULTS The linear ranges of the calibration curves for 9 phthalate esters and bisphenol A were 10-300 microg/ml and 5-150 micro g/ml, respectively. The correlation coefficients of the standard curves were all higher than 0.9996. The limits of detection (LODs) for phthalate esters were 0.4-0.81 microg/ml and bisphenol A was 0.2 microg/ml. The average recoveries at the concentrations studied were in the range from 91.9% to 105.4%. Relative standard deviations were all less than 5.23%. CONCLUSIONS The method is simple, fast and effective, and could meet the needs for routine analysis of the 9 phthalate esters and bisphenol A in cosmetics.