China NMPA Pilots Cosmetics Personalized Services in Five Provinces and Cities: An Upcoming Era of Cosmetics Personalization

The pilot project aims to explore feasible models and effective regulatory measures for cosmetics personalized services, to form replicable experiences and practices, and to promote the high-quality development of Chinese cosmetics brands and the industry.

General Requirements

The pilot project is organized by NMPA, and implemented by Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Guangdong medical products administration (MPA) departments. NMPA will evaluate the effect, and determine whether to extend the pilot time, expand the pilot scope, and increase the variety of pilot products. For the pilot model with good effect, NMPA will summarize its experience and promote it.

The MPAs of these five provinces (cities) shall submit the implementation plans for pilot project and other relevant documents to NMPA before December 1, 2022. The implementation plans shall meet the following requirements:

1) The pilot project shall not violate Cosmetic Supervision and Administration Regulation and its subsidiary regulations, and shall be implemented within the scope of NMPA’s authority;

2) The pilot object of personalized service shall be general cosmetics, excluding special cosmetics, children's cosmetics and cosmetics with new ingredients that are still in the monitoring period;

3) The pilot project should meet consumption needs of the public and have social promotion value.

Key Pilot Work

The pilot project shall focus on the following aspects:

• Explore personalized service models. Encourage enterprises participating in the pilot project (hereinafter referred to as “pilot enterprises”) to focus on 1) general cosmetics such as makeup and skin care product, as well as 2) areas such as skin testing, product tracking, and personalized skin care;

• Explore effective regulatory measures for the personalized service models. The MPAs of the five provinces (cities) are encouraged to innovate the supervision mode under the current cosmetic regulatory framework, and optimize the supervision methods in terms of product notification, testing, sample retention, and sales management;

• Research and formulate normative documents related to personalized services. Through the pilot project, under the premise of compliance with regulatory requirements on notification, production supervision and risk monitoring, the personalized services can be optimized to not only ensure the quality and safety of cosmetics, but also meet the individual needs of consumers.

Selection Criteria for Pilot Enterprises