How to Import Cosmetics to Australia: AICIS, Labelling and Freight Guide

A pallet of Korean essences sat in a Sydney bonded warehouse for five weeks last year while its importer — a two-person online retailer — worked out what AICIS was. They had checked the duty rate. They had checked GST. Nobody had told them that the moment a jar of moisturiser crosses the Australian border for commercial sale, the importer becomes an “introducer of industrial chemicals” in the eyes of the law, with an annual registration obligation that should have been sorted before the ship left Busan.

That story ends fine — registration sorted, goods released, a storage bill that stung. Plenty don’t. Cosmetics look like the friendliest import category in the book: light, high-margin, no biosecurity drama, mostly duty free. Underneath, they sit at the junction of three regulators — AICIS for the chemistry, the TGA for anything that drifts toward a therapeutic claim, and the ACCC for labelling and safety — plus the Australian Border Force at the gate. This guide walks the whole path: registration, ingredients, the cosmetic-versus-therapeutic boundary, labels, banned substances, the animal testing rule, dangerous goods freight, and the money.

Who Regulates What: The Three-Agency Map

Start with the map, because most cosmetics import mistakes are really jurisdiction mistakes — solving the right problem with the wrong regulator.

AICIS (the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme) regulates the chemicals inside your products. In Australia, cosmetics are legally classified as industrial chemicals — not drugs, not food. AICIS replaced the old NICNAS scheme on 1 July 2020 and controls who may introduce chemicals, which chemicals need assessment, and what records you must keep.

The TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) takes over the moment a product makes therapeutic claims or falls into a category Australia deems therapeutic by default — sunscreen being the famous one. TGA territory means listing or registration on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG), manufacturing standards, and a completely different cost base.

The ACCC enforces the mandatory information standard for cosmetics ingredient labelling and general consumer law — misleading claims, product safety, recalls.

The Australian Border Force clears the goods, collects duty and GST, and cares about tariff classification and valuation, not chemistry. ABF will not stop your shipment for a missing AICIS registration — which is exactly why importers get caught later rather than at the wharf, often during an AICIS compliance audit with two years of unregistered introductions behind them.

AICIS Registration: You Are an “Introducer” Now

If you import cosmetics into Australia for commercial purposes — even one carton, even samples you intend to sell — you must register with AICIS as an introducer before the introduction happens. Registration is per business entity, not per product, and it renews annually on a registration year that runs 1 September to 31 August.

Fees are tiered by the value of industrial chemicals (including the chemicals in cosmetics) you introduce in the year. The tiers have moved with indexation, but the structure has been stable:

• Tier 1 — introductions up to $50,000 in value: roughly $100 or less per year. Most small e-commerce brands live here.
• Tier 2 — $50,000 to $500,000: several hundred dollars per year.
• Tier 3 — above $500,000: in the low thousands, with a further high-volume band above $5 million.

Check the current figures on the AICIS website before you budget, but notice the shape: for a small importer the registration cost is trivial. Sixty to a hundred dollars a year is the cheapest compliance insurance in the entire import chain. The penalty exposure for introducing without registration is not trivial — civil penalties run into six figures for a body corporate — and unregistered introduction taints every downstream declaration you make.

Registering takes an ABN, a business address, and about twenty minutes online. Do it before you pay your supplier deposit, not after the container is on the water.

Ingredient Obligations: Listed, Exempted, Reported or Assessed

Registration gets you in the door. The ingredient work is where the real diligence lives, and it operates at the level of each chemical, not each finished product.

Every ingredient in every SKU falls into one of five introduction categories:

• Listed. The chemical appears on the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals and your use fits within any conditions on its listing. This is the goal state — no further pre-introduction steps beyond your records. The Inventory holds around 40,000 chemicals, and the overwhelming majority of conventional cosmetic ingredients are on it.
• Exempted. Very low risk introductions — for cosmetics this typically means an ingredient at very low concentration, or introduced at 10 kilograms or less per year, or meeting other low-risk criteria. No pre-introduction report, but you must keep records proving you qualified and submit a once-off post-introduction declaration.
• Reported. Low risk but not exempt: you lodge a pre-introduction report before the goods arrive.
• Assessed. Medium to high risk — a novel active, a nanomaterial, certain UV filters. You need an assessment certificate before introduction. Budget serious time and money; this is rare for finished cosmetics but real for cutting-edge actives.
• Commercial evaluation — a niche category for market-testing new chemicals under volume caps.

The practical workflow for an importer of finished cosmetics: get the full ingredient list for each SKU from your supplier (a proper formulation disclosure, not just the marketing label), then check every INCI name against the AICIS Inventory search, which is free and public. Screenshot or export each result and date it — that record is your defence. Where an ingredient isn’t found under its INCI name, check synonyms and CAS numbers before panicking; the Inventory indexes chemical names that don’t always match cosmetic naming conventions.

The trap for small importers is assuming small volumes mean no obligations. The exemptions genuinely help — a boutique brand importing 8 kilograms a year of a niche botanical extract can often introduce it as exempted — but “exempted” is a category you must be able to evidence, not a shrug. Keep the volume records.

The TGA Boundary: Where a Cosmetic Stops Being a Cosmetic

Here is the question that decides more cosmetics import outcomes than any other, and the one worth investigating hardest before you commit to stock: is this product actually a cosmetic under Australian law, or has it crossed into therapeutic goods?

The legal test looks at what the product is, what it contains, and — critically — what you claim it does. A cosmetic cleans, perfumes, protects, changes appearance, or keeps the body in good condition. A therapeutic good prevents, treats or cures disease, or influences a physiological process. The same jar of cream can be either, depending on the words on the label and the listing page.

Sunscreen: therapeutic by default

The bright line everyone trips over: in Australia, sunscreen is a therapeutic good. A primary sunscreen — anything marketed principally for sun protection, SPF on the front of the pack — must be listed on the ARTG before import, made in TGA-licensed (or approved overseas) facilities, and tested to the Australian sunscreen standard. This is radically different from the EU and most of Asia, where sunscreen is a cosmetic. A K-beauty range that is fully compliant in Seoul, Tokyo and Paris still cannot ship its SPF 50 essence to Australia as a cosmetic. Full stop.

There is a narrow carve-out for secondary sunscreens: a moisturiser with SPF 15 or lower, making only incidental sun protection claims, can remain a cosmetic under conditions. But an importer who reads that carve-out optimistically — “it’s basically a moisturiser” — while the pack says SPF 50+ PA++++ is importing an unlisted therapeutic good, and the TGA treats that seriously: goods seized or re-exported, and penalties on top.

Claims: the slow drift into TGA territory

Beyond sunscreen, the boundary is patrolled by claims. Watch these:

• “Anti-ageing” claims that promise structural change. “Reduces the appearance of fine lines” is cosmetic. “Stimulates collagen production” or “repairs skin damage” is drifting therapeutic — you are claiming to influence a physiological process.
• Acne. “For blemish-prone skin” is cosmetic positioning. “Treats acne” is a therapeutic claim about a skin condition.
• Eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, rosacea — naming a condition and promising relief is therapeutic, always.
• Antibacterial and antifungal claims beyond ordinary cleaning.
• Hair loss. “Volumising” is cosmetic; “regrows hair” or “prevents hair loss” is therapeutic.

The audit that matters happens before import, and it must cover more than the physical label. The TGA and ACCC read your Shopify product pages, your marketplace listings, your Instagram captions. A compliant label under a product listing that says “clinically proven to treat rosacea” is a therapeutic claim, made by you, about a product you imported as a cosmetic. Do the claims audit across every surface: pack copy, inserts, website, ads, and — a recurring K-beauty issue — translated manufacturer copy pasted straight from the Korean listing, where regulatory claim culture differs.

The honest advice: if a product’s entire selling proposition depends on a claim that sits on the boundary, resolve the classification before you order stock. Reformulating a listing after the TGA writes to you is a bad week. Re-exporting a container is a worse one.

Labelling: The Cosmetics Standard and INCI Names

Australia’s mandatory cosmetics labelling rule — carried into the current framework as the Industrial Chemicals (Consumer Products) Rules 2020, and still widely called the Cosmetics Standard — is enforced by the ACCC and is refreshingly concrete:

• Full ingredient listing on the container or the product itself. Where the product is too small or is unpackaged at retail (think bath bombs sold loose), the listing may be displayed at the point of sale instead.
• Descending order by mass or volume for ingredients at concentrations above 1%. Ingredients at 1% or below may follow in any order. Colour additives can be listed in any order after the rest.
• Recognised names. INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) names are the accepted convention — “Aqua,” “Butyrospermum Parkii Butter,” “Niacinamide.” English names are acceptable; a label carrying only Korean, Chinese or French ingredient text is not compliant.

Practical implications for importers:

Overlabelling is legal and common. If your supplier’s packaging carries the ingredient list only in Korean, you can apply a compliant English INCI sticker in Australia before retail sale. It must be durable and legible; it does not need to be printed at origin. Many importers have their 3PL apply stickers during receipt — cheaper than a custom packaging run for a market test.

Check the supplier’s INCI list against the actual formulation disclosure. Export-market artwork frequently lags reformulations. If the sticker says one thing and the AICIS ingredient check was done on another, both compliance exercises are broken.

Add the practical extras. Strict cosmetic labelling law in Australia is lighter than the EU’s, but consumer law still expects batch identification for recalls, and if you make any “free from” or “natural” claims, the ACCC’s misleading-conduct provisions apply with teeth. Period-after-opening symbols and expiry dates aren’t mandated for most cosmetics here, but retailers increasingly demand them — more on shelf life below.

Banned and Restricted Ingredients

Australia restricts cosmetic ingredients through a patchwork: the Poisons Standard (SUSMP) schedules substances with concentration limits, AICIS listing conditions constrain others, and consumer product bans cover the rest. The list is long; the ones that actually catch importers:

• Hydroquinone — the skin-lightening agent. Scheduled; above trace levels it is a prescription-only medicine, not a cosmetic. Skin-whitening products from Asian suppliers are the classic seizure category.
• Formaldehyde and strong releasers — restricted; relevant to nail hardeners and some keratin hair treatments (where free formaldehyde limits have been enforced hard after salon exposure incidents).
• Mercury compounds — banned in cosmetics; still found in grey-market lightening creams.
• Corticosteroids — any presence makes the product a medicine. Occasionally found undeclared in “miracle” eczema creams, which is a criminal problem, not a paperwork one.
• Certain UV filters, preservatives and colourants at capped concentrations — mostly aligned with international norms, but check the SUSMP entry for anything your formulation leans on heavily.

The workflow is the same as the Inventory check: take the formulation disclosure, screen it against the SUSMP schedules, and document the pass. For most mainstream skincare and colour cosmetics this takes an hour and finds nothing. The hour is still worth it, because the failure mode — retailing a scheduled poison — is one of the few cosmetics mistakes that escalates beyond commercial pain.

The Animal Testing Ban

From 1 July 2020, Australia bans reliance on new animal test data for chemicals introduced solely for use in cosmetics. Note the precise shape of this rule, because it’s widely misreported: it is not a ban on importing products that were ever animal-tested, and it is not a finished-product testing ban like the EU’s. It is a data ban — animal test data generated after 1 July 2020 cannot be used to support an AICIS categorisation or assessment for a cosmetic-only chemical.

What it means in practice: if your supplier’s safety dossier for a novel ingredient leans on post-2020 animal studies (common where the supplier also sells into markets that require animal testing), that data is unusable for your Australian introduction, and you may not be able to categorise the ingredient at all without alternative (in vitro, computational) data. For finished products built from Inventory-listed ingredients — the vast majority of imports — the ban changes nothing operationally. For anyone importing genuinely novel actives, ask the supplier the data-provenance question early.

Freight: Cosmetics Are Not As Innocent As They Look

Now the part your forwarder cares about. Cosmetics freight has two recurring hazards: dangerous goods hiding in ordinary-looking SKUs, and heat.

Dangerous goods in the beauty aisle

A surprising share of a typical cosmetics catalogue is classified dangerous goods:

• Aerosols — hairspray, dry shampoo, setting sprays, mousse — are Class 2.1 (flammable gas) or 2.2, UN1950. Propellant, not product, drives the classification.
• Perfumes and fragrances — high-ethanol, Class 3 flammable liquid, typically UN1266 (“Perfumery products”).
• Nail polish and remover — Class 3, commonly UN1263 or UN1090 territory; nail polish is one of the most frequently undeclared DG items in retail freight.
• Alcohol-based toners, hand sanitisers, some setting sprays — check the SDS; above certain ethanol content they’re Class 3.

Every one of these needs a Safety Data Sheet, correct UN classification, compliant packing (inner receptacle limits matter — limited quantity provisions save many retail shipments), a dangerous goods declaration, and DG-capable carriers. Air freight is stricter than sea: many aerosols and flammables that move comfortably in a container under IMDG limited quantities face tight or prohibitive restrictions under IATA rules, which is why perfume and aerosol lines usually go by sea even when the rest of the range flies.

The temptation to not declare — because DG surcharges and paperwork are annoying — is the single most dangerous shortcut in this category. Undeclared dangerous goods discovered in an air consignment trigger fines that dwarf the freight bill, carrier bans, and voided cargo insurance. Declared DG cosmetics move every day without drama. Build the surcharge into your landed cost and move on.

Heat: the silent quality killer

A sealed shipping container on a summer deck run through the tropics — and every routing from Asia or Europe to Australia crosses the tropics — can hit internal temperatures of 60°C and beyond. That is oven territory for formulations:

• Emulsions (creams, lotions) split, separating into oil and water phases.
• Lipsticks, balms and solid formulations with melt points around 55–65°C soften, slump or bloom.
• Actives like vitamin C and retinol degrade measurably; fragrances shift.
• Aerosol cans build internal pressure toward their rated limits.

Mitigations, in ascending cost order: ship on winter-favourable schedules where the calendar allows; ask for below-deck stowage; use thermal blankets or liners on the pallets (a few hundred dollars per container, effective against radiant peaks); and for genuinely sensitive lines — high-active serums, luxury lipstick — price a reefer container at a controlled 20–25°C. A reefer costs meaningfully more than a dry box, but one melted lipstick production run pays for years of them. Australian summer adds a final leg risk: a container sitting on a Brisbane or Perth wharf in January cooks just as effectively as one at sea. Plan quick dehire in summer months.

Shelf Life and Batch Documentation

Australia doesn’t mandate expiry dating for most cosmetics (sunscreens, being therapeutic, do carry expiries). But shelf life still runs your commercial maths. Standard cosmetic shelf life is 24–36 months from manufacture; a typical sea freight import cycle — production, consolidation, 3–5 weeks transit, clearance, receipt — consumes two to three months of it before the first unit sells. Retailers commonly refuse stock with less than 12 months remaining. So insist on fresh production in your purchase terms (e.g., “manufactured within 60 days of shipment”), get batch codes and manufacture dates on the packing list, and keep batch-level records tying each import shipment to its production lot. That batch trail is also your recall mechanism — the thing the ACCC will ask for first if a safety issue ever surfaces — and your evidence chain for AICIS record-keeping.

Duty and GST: The Pleasant Surprise

After the regulatory chapters, the money is easy. Cosmetics classify under HS Chapter 33 — heading 3304 covers beauty and skincare preparations, 3305 hair products, 3303 perfumes, 3307 shaving and deodorants. General duty rates run 0–5%, and free trade agreements erase most of what’s left:

• South Korea (KAFTA): 0% with a certificate or declaration of origin.
• China (ChAFTA): 0% with origin documentation.
• France/EU: no FTA in force, so the general rate applies — for most heading 3304 lines that’s 5%, with some lines free. Check your specific code.

GST is the bigger number: 10% on the value of the taxable importation (customs value + duty + international freight and insurance) for consignments over AUD 1,000, creditable if you’re GST-registered. Under AUD 1,000, GST is collected at point of sale by the platform or the vendor. One classification note: a product that has crossed into therapeutic territory can change classification (heading 3004 or sunscreen-specific codes) — another reason the cosmetic/therapeutic boundary decision comes first.

Worked Example: A K-Beauty Skincare Import from Seoul

Put the pieces together. An Australian online retailer orders a first commercial shipment from a Korean brand: 6,000 units across four SKUs — a foaming cleanser, a snail mucin essence, a niacinamide serum, and a moisturiser with SPF 50+ — at USD 21,000 FOB Busan (about AUD 32,300), one pallet-heavy LCL shipment, roughly 4.5 cubic metres.

Step 1 — the claims and classification audit kills a SKU. The SPF 50+ moisturiser is a primary sunscreen: therapeutic good, ARTG listing required, not achievable for this order. It’s cut from the purchase order (or redirected to the brand’s NZ distributor, where the rules differ). The serum’s Korean listing claims “fades hyperpigmentation and treats acne scarring” — the Australian product page is rewritten to “brightens the appearance of uneven skin tone.” Order revised: 5,000 units, USD 17,500 (≈ AUD 26,900).

Step 2 — AICIS. The retailer registers as an introducer. First-year introduction value sits well under $50,000: Tier 1, about $100. All 62 ingredients across the three SKUs are checked against the Inventory; 61 are listed. One botanical extract in the essence isn’t found by INCI name but matches under its CAS number — listed. Records exported and filed. Total elapsed time: one afternoon.

Step 3 — labels. Korean-market packaging carries English INCI lists already (common for export-oriented K-beauty), in descending order. Compliant as-is; batch codes confirmed on cartons. Manufacture dates within 45 days of shipment, per the revised purchase terms.

Step 4 — freight. No aerosols, no fragrance-alcohol SKUs — no DG. It’s a February shipment (southern summer), so the pallets get thermal covers and the forwarder books below-deck LCL. Busan to Sydney, about 14 days on the water, door-to-door 26 days. Freight, thermal covers and local charges: ≈ AUD 1,650.

Step 5 — the border. HS 3304.99 for the skincare, 3304.99/3401-adjacent for the cleanser (broker confirms 3304). KAFTA declaration of origin supplied: duty $0. GST = 10% × (26,900 + 0 + 1,650) ≈ AUD 2,855, claimed back as an input tax credit on the next BAS. Broker and clearance fees ≈ AUD 420.

Landed outcome: AUD 26,900 goods + 1,650 freight + 0 duty + 420 clearance = AUD 28,970 cash cost before creditable GST — about AUD 5.79 per unit against a planned AUD 34 retail price. The compliance work added roughly $100 in fees and two days of effort, and removed the one SKU that would have put the entire consignment at risk. The same skeleton works for a French pharmacy-brand order (swap KAFTA for 5% duty and re-run the numbers) or a Guangzhou private-label run under ChAFTA — the regulators don’t care about origin glamour, only chemistry and claims.

Common Mistakes (and How Each One Ends)

• No AICIS registration. The default state of first-time cosmetics importers, discovered in audits rather than at the border. Ends with backdated compliance work and penalty exposure that a $100 registration would have prevented. Register before you order.
• Importing sunscreen as a cosmetic. The most expensive single misunderstanding in the category. SPF-led products need ARTG listing before import — no workaround, no “small quantities” exception for commercial sale.
• Therapeutic claims on the listing, not the label. The pack is clean; the website says “treats eczema.” Regulators read websites. Audit every claim surface, including translated supplier copy, before launch.
• Aerosols and nail polish shipped undeclared. Ends with fines, carrier blacklisting and voided insurance if discovered — and it is increasingly discovered, because carriers screen for exactly these SKUs. Declare, pack to code, pay the surcharge.
• Ignoring container heat. A January shipment of lip products arrives as a returns pallet. Thermal covers cost less than one carton of writeoffs.
• Stale stock. Buying a “bargain” clearance lot with 14 months of shelf life left, losing three to freight and receipt, and discovering retailers won’t take it at eleven. Fix it in the purchase contract, not the warehouse.

The Order of Operations

If this guide compresses to a checklist, it’s this, in sequence: classify first (cosmetic or therapeutic — audit every claim), register with AICIS second, verify every ingredient against the Inventory and the SUSMP third, sort compliant English INCI labelling fourth, then and only then book freight — with dangerous goods declared and heat managed — and clear the border with correct HS codes and FTA origin paperwork. The chemistry and claims work costs a few days and a hundred dollars. Done in the right order, the freight part is the easy bit — and that part is what a good forwarder is for.

Related Reading

• E-commerce Importing to Australia: The Complete Guide
• The Most Common Import Mistakes in Australia (and How to Avoid Them)
• Total Landed Cost: What Importing to Australia Really Costs
• Importing Supplements from the USA to Australia

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to register with AICIS to import cosmetics into Australia?

Yes — any commercial import of cosmetics makes you an introducer of industrial chemicals, and registration must be in place before the goods arrive. It’s annual (1 September to 31 August), tiered by introduction value, and starts at around $100 for small importers. Register before you order stock.

Is sunscreen a cosmetic or a therapeutic good in Australia?

Primary sunscreens are therapeutic goods regulated by the TGA and must be on the ARTG before import — regardless of how they’re classified in the country of origin. Only limited secondary sunscreens (SPF 15 or lower moisturisers with restrained claims) can remain cosmetics.

What labelling do imported cosmetics need in Australia?

A full ingredient list in recognised (INCI) names, in descending order above 1% concentration, on the product or in limited cases at the point of sale. English overlabelling applied in Australia is an acceptable and common fix for foreign-language packaging.

How much duty and GST do imported cosmetics attract?

Most cosmetics under HS Chapter 33 carry 0–5% duty, and FTA origins like South Korea and China are typically duty free with origin documentation. GST of 10% applies on the landed value and is creditable for GST-registered businesses.

Can I air freight aerosols, perfumes or nail polish to Australia?

Only as declared dangerous goods — aerosols are typically Class 2.1 and perfumes and nail polish Class 3 — with correct UN numbers, compliant packing and a DG declaration. Air rules are tighter than sea, which is why most flammable cosmetic lines travel by ocean under limited quantity provisions.

Does Australia ban animal-tested cosmetics?

Australia bans reliance on new animal test data (generated after 1 July 2020) for cosmetic-only chemical introductions. It’s a data ban rather than a finished-product import ban, but it matters when categorising novel ingredients with AICIS.