24 New Regulations! NMPA Releases Important Opinions on Deepening Cosmetics Regulatory Reform

On November 17, 2025, the NMPA released the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Cosmetic Regulation to Promote High-Quality Development of the Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions").

The "Opinions" propose 24 reform measures in five areas, aiming to further solidify the bottom line of cosmetic quality and safety, cultivate new productive forces, and promote the high-quality development of the cosmetic industry by encouraging innovation, optimizing registration and filing management, strengthening risk prevention and control throughout the entire supply chain, improving the level of intelligent supervision, and promoting the alignment of supervision with international standards.

Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Cosmetic Supervision and Promoting High-Quality Development of the Industry.

1. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second, Third, and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, this document implements the requirements for comprehensively deepening reform, is based on the new development stage, adheres to the new development philosophy, constructs a new development pattern, and insists on a scientific, rule-of-law-based, internationalized, and modernized regulatory development path. Following the requirements of "emphasizing politics, strengthening supervision, ensuring safety, promoting development, and benefiting the people," it focuses on coordinating development and safety, vitality and order, quality and efficiency, and supervision and service. It further enhances the systematic, holistic, and coordinated nature of regulatory reform, deepens cosmetic supervision reform throughout the entire process, comprehensively strengthens the bottom line of cosmetic safety, supports the high-quality development of the cosmetic industry across the entire chain, accelerates my country's leap from a "major cosmetic manufacturer" to a "strong cosmetic manufacturer," and effectively enhances the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security in the cosmetic field.

By 2030, the legal system for cosmetic supervision will be more complete, the standard system more sound, technical support more robust, industrial innovation vitality more abundant, risk prevention and control capabilities comprehensively strengthened, and the level of quality and safety significantly improved. By 2035, the cosmetics quality and safety supervision system will reach an internationally advanced level. The supervision system, mechanisms, and methods will better adapt to the inherent requirements of industrial innovation and high-quality development. The industry will possess stronger innovation and creativity and global competitiveness, and basic modernization of supervision will be achieved.

2. Increase Support for Innovation in the Cosmetics Industry

(1) Facilitate the Registration Channels for New Functional Cosmetics. Adapt to new social consumption demands and new industry development trends, support the registration application for new functional cosmetics, and conduct immediate review upon submission. Establish a pre-registration consultation mechanism for new functional cosmetics registration applications, and adjust cosmetic classification rules and catalogs as needed.

(2) Encourage the First Launch of New Cosmetics in China. Align with high-standard international trade rules, cultivate a first-launch economy in my country's cosmetics sector. For international new cosmetics launched in China for the first time, refer to the relevant regulations for production specifically for export to my country, and exempt them from submitting proof of market sales in the country (region) of production.

(3) Promote the Development of the Silver Economy in the Cosmetics Industry. Encourage enterprises to strengthen the technological research and development of cosmetics for the elderly, and conduct cutting-edge basic research on skin aging mechanisms. Support the development, application, and registration of cosmetics tailored to the characteristics and needs of the elderly population, meeting their diverse consumption demands.

(4) Innovate cosmetic label management. Adapt to the intelligent and green development needs of the cosmetics industry, accelerate the implementation of electronic cosmetic labels, formulate labeling and data management requirements for electronic cosmetic labels, and achieve digital upgrades, refined governance, and convenient services in label management.

(5) Innovate personalized service methods. Adapt to the personalized and precise consumption needs of the public, adhere to the principles of demand-oriented, safe and controllable, and standardized and orderly, explore personalized service paths for cosmetics, and allow cosmetic registrants to provide on-site simple mixing and repackaging services for registered ordinary cosmetics at their business premises according to consumer needs.

(6) Increase industry support. Encourage provincial drug regulatory departments to actively seek government support, coordinate with relevant departments to introduce cosmetic industry support policies, create a favorable environment for industrial innovation, support the industry's green and low-carbon development, promote brand rise through policy empowerment, and cultivate internationally competitive national brand cosmetics.

3. Improve the efficiency of cosmetic registration and filing management

(7) Support cosmetic ingredient technology innovation. Improve the classification management and technical evaluation system for new raw materials, explore the establishment of raw material naming rules that conform to national conditions and are in line with international standards, and focus on formulating standards for raw materials with wide industry use, high safety risks, and Chinese characteristics. Establish a collaborative mechanism for R&D review and evaluation, set up a pre-consultation channel for eligible new ingredients, and provide full-process services including early intervention, process guidance, and dynamic optimization.

(8) Optimize cosmetic registration and filing materials. Under the premise of ensuring the quality and safety of cosmetics and meeting regulatory requirements, allow products of the same brand with similar formulation systems but differences only in the types or contents of colorants, fragrances, etc., to share product safety technical data during registration and filing. For cosmetics that need to be re-registered and filed due to changes in production sites, the original registration and filing technical data can be used, except for microbiological and physicochemical test reports. Strengthen the main responsibility of cosmetic registrants and filers for quality and safety, and adjust the relevant information on cosmetic ingredient safety to be archived by the enterprises themselves for future reference.

(9) Improve the quality and efficiency of technical review. Explore the establishment of a joint review and collaboration mechanism between the National Medical Products Administration and provincial drug regulatory authorities, and entrust capable provincial drug regulatory departments to undertake some technical review work for special cosmetics. The review period for changes to special cosmetics will be categorized and managed. The review period for high-risk and low-risk changes will be shortened from 90 working days to 60 working days and 45 working days respectively. For changes not involving safety or efficacy claims, registrants are allowed to maintain their own product registration information.

(10) Optimize the safety assessment system. Strengthen research and innovation in cosmetic safety assessment technology, promote the application of advanced assessment technologies and strategies, continuously improve the technical guidelines for cosmetic safety assessment, and enhance the scientific rigor, accuracy, and applicability of assessment work. Guide and urge cosmetic companies to strengthen their safety assessment concepts, implement full life-cycle product management responsibilities, and continuously improve their product quality and safety assurance capabilities.

(11) Optimize efficacy claim management. Except for whitening, sun protection, and hair loss prevention effects, cosmetic registrants and filers are allowed to independently choose efficacy claim evaluation test methods for efficacy claim evaluation. Products of the same brand with similar formulation systems but differences only in the types or contents of colorants, fragrances, preservatives, etc., are allowed to share efficacy claim evaluation test data. Support cosmetic industry associations and other social organizations in strengthening industry self-regulation, focusing on key efficacy categories of general concern in the industry, researching guidelines for cosmetic efficacy claims, and guiding the standardization of labeling terminology.

4. Improve the regulatory mechanism for cosmetic production and operation

(12) Promote graded and classified supervision of enterprises. Encourage local drug regulatory departments at all levels to establish and improve a graded and classified management mechanism for cosmetic production and operation entities in accordance with the principle of risk management. Based on key elements such as the enterprise's quality management system and risk control capabilities, scientifically assess risk levels, rationally allocate regulatory resources, and effectively improve regulatory efficiency.

(13) Optimize production quality management. Deepen the action to improve the production quality management system of cosmetic enterprises, explore ways to optimize production management systems, and comprehensively improve the operational efficiency of the enterprise's production quality management system and its ability to ensure product quality and safety. Encourage provincial drug regulatory departments to explore product release management requirements for external warehouses that implement the same production quality management system as the production site and to adapt to the quality management requirements for intelligent cosmetic production, and promote the establishment of a professional title evaluation system for quality and safety professionals in cosmetic R&D and production, testing and analysis, and safety and efficacy evaluation.

(14) Strengthen the supervision of online operations. Improve the "network-based" regulatory mechanism, continuously optimize the functions of the National Cosmetics Online Sales Monitoring Platform, and enhance risk identification capabilities and network monitoring efficiency. Strengthen the management responsibilities of e-commerce platforms for operators within their platforms, continuously enhance regulatory collaboration and risk co-governance mechanisms, promote coordinated efforts between administrative supervision and platform governance, and identify and resolve potential safety risks in cosmetics. Strengthen key monitoring of typical illegal activities such as unregistered or unfiled products, illegal addition of prohibited substances, and self-preparation by operators, to improve the quality and safety level of cosmetics sold online.

(15) Strengthen adverse reaction monitoring and evaluation. Improve the cosmetics adverse reaction monitoring system, optimize and upgrade the functions of the adverse reaction monitoring platform, strengthen data quality management, and enhance the accuracy and usability of monitoring data. Promote the sharing of national adverse reaction monitoring data, implement the main responsibility of cosmetic registrants and filers for analysis and evaluation, further strengthen in-depth analysis, scientific evaluation, and risk assessment of monitoring data, and promote the transformation and application of evaluation results.

(16) Strengthen extended supervision of registration and filing. Promote provincial drug regulatory departments to strengthen the verification of the authenticity of registration and filing data according to the needs of cosmetics registration and filing work, explore extended inspections of testing institutions, etc., and promote the construction of a full-chain risk prevention and control system.

5. Strengthen Technical Support for Cosmetic Regulation

(17) Strengthen the regulatory team and capacity building. Enrich the professional and technical personnel for cosmetic review, optimize the structure of the cosmetic inspector team, and strengthen the systematic training, professional management, and scientific assessment of the cosmetic review and inspection teams. Encourage provincial drug regulatory departments to deepen exchanges and cooperation, strengthen resource sharing, information exchange, and regulatory coordination, and actively explore innovative regulatory models. Encourage provincial drug regulatory departments to actively participate in the registration of special cosmetics and pre-registration consultation for new cosmetic raw materials.

(18) Improve the standard system. Accelerate the development of a scientific, unified, authoritative, and efficient cosmetic standard management system, and research and formulate a cosmetic standard development plan. Accelerate the development of mandatory national standards with safety as the core, and strengthen the binding force of basic safety standards. Focus on key areas and weak links such as raw material safety control, safety and efficacy evaluation, and the application of emerging technologies, accurately fill gaps in the standard system, and provide standardized support for the standardized development of the industry and the improvement of quality and safety.

(19) Deepen regulatory science research. Fully leverage the role of the cosmetics regulatory science innovation research base, focusing on key areas such as safety assessment, innovative products and raw materials, and risk warning, and deploy major scientific research tasks. Improve the mechanism for the transformation and application of regulatory science research results, accelerate the development of new regulatory tools, standards, and methods, and enhance the scientific and modern level of regulation.

(20) Strengthen the construction of regulatory informatization. Further enhance the intelligent regulatory capabilities for cosmetics, promote the digitalization of the entire business and process of cosmetics regulation, enable online processing of all aspects of government affairs involving enterprises, optimize and upgrade the cosmetics regulatory APP, and improve the efficiency of grassroots regulatory services and public science popularization services. Improve the information archives of cosmetics registrants and filers, strengthen data collection and governance, promote scenario applications, and fully leverage the role of archive data in regulation. Encourage provincial drug regulatory departments to accelerate intelligent transformation, strengthen the application research of artificial intelligence in cosmetics filing, production, and operation supervision, and improve the efficiency of regulatory work.

6. Promote the alignment of cosmetics regulation with international standards

(21) Deepen international exchanges and cooperation. Deeply participate in the formulation of technical documents and regulatory coordination under the framework of the International Cosmetics Regulatory Cooperation Organization, and establish and improve a normalized tracking, analysis, and response mechanism for international cosmetics regulatory dynamics. Actively promote convergence, coordination, and trust in cosmetic regulation, and encourage social organizations such as cosmetic industry associations to serve the "going global" of domestically produced cosmetics, thereby contributing to the international development of China's cosmetic industry.

(22) Enhance the internationalization level of standards. Deepen research on the international cosmetic standards system, accelerate the transformation and application of internationally accepted standards, and promote the alignment of domestic standards with international standards. Actively participate in and promote the establishment, research, and formulation of international standards, enhancing my country's influence and voice in the field of international cosmetic standards.

(23) Accelerate the reduction and exemption of animal testing. Following the principles of "reduction, substitution, and optimization," accelerate the reduction of reliance on animal testing for cosmetics, starting with hair perming, non-oxidative hair dyeing, and cosmetics using new ingredients during the monitoring period, and gradually implement animal testing exemptions. Adhere to the principle of "transferring as much as possible," and accelerate the development, transformation, and application of animal alternative testing methods.

(24) Optimize the management mechanism for permitted ingredients. Establish a dynamic updating mechanism for standards of preservatives, sunscreens, colorants, hair dyes, etc., and support the timely inclusion of ingredients that have been scientifically evaluated by international authoritative institutions and have a history of safe use abroad into my country's permitted raw material catalog.

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