Imported cosmetics must be registered: Rule 12 and how to check

India has registered imported cosmetics since 2010, and the Cosmetics Rules 2020 made the system the foundation of enforcement. Rule 12(1) says no cosmetic shall be imported unless it is registered by the Central Licensing Authority, which is the Drugs Controller General of India acting through CDSCO's cosmetics division. The application goes on Form COS-1 through the SUGAM portal, product by product and site by site, with the label, ingredient list and a declaration that the product was not tested on animals after 12 Nov 2014. The certificate is Form COS-2 and stays valid until cancelled.

Rule 15 requires the pack to carry the importer's name and address and the registration number, and that is the consumer's only check, because CDSCO's last published list of registered cosmetics is from October 2017 and there is no public search. Rule 16 lets the authority cancel a registration for label mismatches, false particulars or breaches, after hearing the holder.

Every cosmetics enforcement action of 2026 rests on this rule. Kult App's 27 registrations were cancelled because the labels on sale did not match the registered ones; Skintl's because it sold unregistered products and printed other products' numbers; and the Goree and Chandni alert because the creams were never registered at all. Section 10(b) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act makes the import of an unregistered cosmetic an offence.