The New Cosmetic Import Rules 2020

Australian beauty and skin care brands are increasingly launching their products in India. Earlier this year, we hosted the "first ever" health & beauty trade mission from Australia. Some of our fascinating brands selling in India include Sukins, Sand&Sky, Natio, Jurlique, Australis. A'kin etc. You can easily find them across E-commerce platforms including the Australian store on Amazon India.

The big news today are the key changes by the India government authority re the import of cosmetics into India. The major ones:

• The product registration fees for each category of imported cosmetics is notified as US$ 1000, instead of US$ 2000 earlier. The fee for each variant of imported cosmetic is notified as US$ 50.
• The validity of the registration period in the case of imported cosmetics is increased from 3 years to 5 years.
• No cosmetics shall be imported unless the “Use Before or use by’’ date shown on the label, wrapper or container of the cosmetic is later than six months from the date of import. 
• No cosmetic containing hexachlorophene shall be imported.( There are exceptions which are allowed provided they meet the labelling requirements).

The complete notification can be read here:

https://nkgabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Gazette-Notification-Cosmetics-Rules-2020pdf.pdf (page 73 onwards for English version).

There is a growing interest among Indian consumers for Australian premium skincare products thanks to our indigenous plant-based ingredients & our clean, green and safe manufacturing ecosystem.

If you are an Australian company and looking to export your skincare/beauty products into India, reach out to Austrade India for more details. We can connect you with importers and retailers, including E-commerce platforms in the market.

Yaser Siddiqui is a Director at Austrade, working with Australian companies to export food, wine, health & beauty and fashion products to South Asia. As well as having an MBA in International Business, he has over 8 years of marketing and business development experience, working across several industry sectors in South Asia. When not working, you can find him creating new business and marketing content, collecting matchbox covers (yes you read it correct) or playing Peekaboo with his 2.9 year old!