Can perfume and eau de toilette be exported to mainland China?

Yes. Perfume, eau de toilette and similar fragrance products can be exported to mainland China as ordinary cosmetics when they are applied to the human body to add scent or help modify body odour as a fragrance. For general-trade import of a finished product, complete the required filing or registration before import, appoint a Domestic Responsible Person, and apply a Chinese label that meets the Cosmetics Labeling Rules. Customs and inspection-quarantine formalities are a separate process. Cross-border e-commerce retail import is a different channel with list, platform and personal-use limits; it is not a blanket “no filing” rule and not a path to unrestricted domestic resale. Testing and ordinary cosmetics filing may proceed in parallel. The ordinary filing cycle is about 10–20 days in total, depending on completeness and supplementary requests. That timing applies only to ordinary cosmetics filing, never to special cosmetics registration and not as a guaranteed import timeline. A product sold only to scent a room, a car or a candle is not a cosmetic. Alcoholic fine fragrance is still a cosmetic if the intended use is on the body.

Published 11 November 2026 · Updated 11 November 2026

How to judge the path

Fragrance ingredients should be identified in line with current formula and labelling rules. Safety assessment should cover leave-on skin exposure and alcohol content where relevant.

See perfume oils if the product is an oil concentrate rather than an alcohol spray.

Typical documents, tests and labels

Prepare an ordinary filing dossier and a Chinese label that includes the mandatory items for the sales unit. Jinshang Testing organizes the compliance work. Testing is coordinated with partner laboratories, and those laboratories issue the reports they perform. After a record is issued, check it on the official NMPA filing query https://hzpba.nmpa.gov.cn/gccx/ and the NMPA data-search page https://datasearch.nmpa.gov.cn/datasearch/home-index.html#category=hzp.

Cautions

Do not claim that a perfume treats disease, repels infection or is a medicine because of essential oils. Deodorant products that work only by inhibiting microbes are outside cosmetics.

Questions we are often asked

Do testers need their own filing?

A tester of the same filed product, formula and Chinese name is not automatically a new cosmetic, but it still has to match the filed information. A differently named or formulated testers SKU should be assessed as its own product.

Is a discovery set one filing?

A set of separately usable miniature perfumes is usually several products packaged together. See multi-product gift sets.

Next step

Discuss your China market path

Tell us whether you plan to import finished goods or manufacture in mainland China, and what the product claims. We will outline the likely filing or registration path. Testing, where needed, is arranged with partner laboratories.