Can hair dye be exported to China, and must it be registered?

Q: Can hair dye be exported to China, and must it be registered?

Yes, hair dye can be placed on the China mainland market, and it must be registered. Cosmetics used to dye hair are special cosmetics under the Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation. The classification rules describe hair dye as a product used to change hair colour where immediate washing does not restore the original colour. Ordinary shampoo or conditioner filing is not a substitute. 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.

Published 11 November 2026 · Updated 11 November 2026

How to judge the path

Judge the function, not the texture. Permanent, oxidative, semi-permanent and many colour-depositing products can all belong to hair dye if they are used to change hair colour.

Colour-care products that only help keep an already dyed colour stable are classified separately from hair dye. If the product itself deposits a new colour that does not rinse away immediately, assess it as hair dye. See colour-depositing shampoo and when hair dye must be registered.

Typical documents, tests and labels

Use only permitted hair-dye colorants within the limits and labelling conditions of the Safety and Technical Standards for Cosmetics. Prepare the registration dossier, safety assessment and required tests. For hair-dye registration, oxidative testing is about 50 working days and non-oxidative testing about 35 working days; review is about 8 months after testing is finished. Actual time depends on completeness and supplementary requests. Do not use the about 10–20 day ordinary-filing cycle.

Announcement No. 70 of 2026 describes a toxicology-report waiver for non-oxidative hair-dye products when the manufacturer has a government-issued quality-system certificate and the safety assessment can fully confirm safety. Oxidative hair dyes are not described in the same sentence; apply the announcement as written. 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

Hair-dye products carry specific warning language. They are not for dyeing eyebrows or eyelashes under the usual technical-standard conditions.

Professional or salon-only positioning does not remove the need to register a product sold on the China market.

Questions we are often asked

Are temporary party colours registered as hair dye?

If the product is used to change hair colour and immediate washing does not restore the original colour, assess it as hair dye. A product that rinses off immediately and does not change hair colour is judged on its actual function.

Can I use overseas dye tests instead of China registration tests?

Registration still follows Chinese dossier and testing rules. Partner laboratories issue the reports they perform; overseas reports are not automatically a substitute.