The customs clearance of cosmetics is a complex process! 90% of people make mistakes at the first step

Ms. Li recently purchased a popular overseas face cream through purchasing agents, but it was detained at the customs for a full two weeks; Mr. Zhang's cross - border e - commerce platform had a batch of eyeshadow palettes returned due to incomplete customs declaration materials, resulting in a loss of tens of thousands of yuan... Cosmetics import customs clearance, this seemingly simple process, actually has hidden mysteries. Today, we are going to uncover this mysterious veil.

Unlike ordinary goods, due to special requirements such as ingredient safety and hygiene permits, the customs clearance process of cosmetics needs to overcome three hurdles:

• Ingredient compliance review: China has strict restrictions on cosmetic ingredients. Prohibited ingredients such as hydroquinone and mercury compounds need to be screened;
• Completeness of qualification documents: 12 types of documents such as certificates of origin, ingredient analysis reports, and production licenses are indispensable;
• Label standardization transformation: Chinese labels need to include elements such as ingredient lists, expiration dates, and countries of origin, and the font height must not be less than 1.8 millimeters.

Zhongshitong customs clearance experts revealed that 90% of the failure cases are concentrated in the following links:

• Case 1: Dispute over the SPF value of sunscreen: A certain brand marked SPF50+, but the actual detected value was 48, which was as false advertising;
• Case 2: Failure to declare plant ingredients: A serum containing rosemary extract was detained because a phytosanitary certificate was not provided;
• Case 3: Failure to declare gifts: The samples given as gifts with the regular products were not included in the customs declaration form, and the entire batch of goods was required to be returned.

Want to clear customs quickly? Remember this golden process:

1. Pre - review stage: Check the ingredient list against the 2022 version of the Cosmetics Safety Technical Specifications 6 months in advance;
2. Document preparation stage: Ensure that foreign language materials are authenticated by the embassy, and Chinese translation copies are stamped with a professional translation seal;
3. Declaration stage: Submit electronic data and paper documents simultaneously through the "single window" system;
4. Emergency handling: If spot - checked, immediately cooperate to provide the original sample test report.

With the implementation of the new cross - border e - commerce policies, cosmetics imported through bonded warehouses can enjoy:

• Filing system for the first import of non - special - use cosmetics (the approval time limit is shortened from 6 months to 5 working days);
• The single - transaction limit is increased to 5000 yuan, and the annual limit is 26000 yuan;
• The "online shopping bonded + offline self - pick - up" model is allowed for pilot implementation.