An ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of 21 preservatives: 2-methyl-4-isothiazoline-3-ketone, bronopol, 5-chloro-2-methyl-4-isothiazoline-3-ketone, benzyl alcohol, 2-phenoxyethanol, methyl-p-hydroxy benzoate, ethyl-p-hydroxy benzoate, methyl benzoate, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid iso-propyl ester, propyl-p-hydroxy benzoate, 4-chloro-3-methylphenol, ethyl benzoate, 2-phenylphenol, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid iso-butyl ester, butyl-p-hydroxy benzoate, 4-chloro-3,5-dimethylphenol, phenyl benzoate, 2,4-dichloro-3,5-dimethylphenol, 2-benzyl-4-chlorophenol, triclocarban and triclosan in cosmetics. A Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C(18) column was used with 0.1% formic acid solution as the mobile phase under the condition of gradient elution. Preservatives were extracted with methanol by ultrasonicator, and then they were analysed by UPLC-PDA detector. All these preservatives were baseline separated in 8.5 min. The pre-treatment method of samples and the chromatographic condition of analysis were critically examined in this study. The recoveries ranged from 90.5 to 97.8%, with RSD values below 3.2%, and all correlation coefficients (r) were no less than 0.9997. Thus, this method could be used for analysing the preservatives in cosmetic products.