LEA MURPHY, GIOVANNI PISACANE

GWA (Greatway Advisory) Suite 2303, Huaihai China Building 885 Ren Min Road Shanghai, 200010, China

Abstract

This article offers an overview on the cosmetic market regulations in China to allow the reader to properly understand the main legislative critical issues pertaining to the cosmetic industry.
The article will offer an overview as well as more in depth analysis of the legislation regulating the registration procedure, labelling, licensing, ingredients restrictions, product safety requirements, testing and taxation. Further this article will highlight the main critical issues in the Chinese cosmetic regulatory system.

INTRODUCTION
Cosmetic products are subject to legislative regulatory requirements in almost every industrialized country, including China. A cosmetic can generally be defined as “any substance or preparation for human use for the purpose of cleansing, beautifying or altering the appearance commonly to include personal toiletry products (such as shampoos and lotion), beauty products and fragrances, certain cosmetic products (e.g. anti-dandruff shampoo) while as regulated in some countries as Over-The-Counter drugs (as for instance in the USA) or Quasi-drugs (as in Japan) are classified as cosmetics in China.

OVERVIEW OF CHINESE COSMETIC REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
China’s system of registration of cosmetic products can be regarded as quite complex and the procedures quite cumbersome.
The main competent Authority is the State Food and Drugs Administration (SFDA) which has divided Cosmetic products into two categories with different requirements for registration:

1. Non-special-purpose cosmetics;
2. Special-purpose cosmetics.

Non-special-p ...