How to Register a Cosmetics Manufacturing Business — Facility Standards, Required Documents, and Whether Filling Alone Requires Registration

Procedure

1. 1. Decide the scope of manufacturing

   Decide whether you will only sell finished products supplied to you, receive bulk product and fill it, or weigh and mix raw materials and make the product yourself. Ampoule filling, sealing cream tubes, packing sheet masks into pouches and subdividing bulk product are also reviewed as manufacturing acts, so the space, equipment and personnel differ depending on the scope.

2. 2. Check the location in advance

   Check the use in the building register, and, for a knowledge industry center, the business types allowed to move in and whether factory registration is possible, as well as the water supply, drainage and ventilation facilities. If cosmetic ingredients are mixed into the water used to wash containers and discharged, also check whether a report of installation of a wastewater discharge facility is required.

3. 3. Set up the work area, storage area and laboratory

   Partition the space to follow the flow of raw material receipt, storage, weighing and mixing, filling, packaging, finished product storage and shipping. If quality testing is outsourced to an external institution, some facilities such as the laboratory need not be installed.

4. 4. Apply for registration

   Prepare the facility specifications and floor plan, the documents confirming that no grounds for disqualification apply, and other documents, and apply for registration with the competent Regional Office of Food and Drug Safety. Also make sure in advance that the business type and item in the business registration and the corporation's business purposes include manufacturing.

5. 5. Review the responsible sales business and factory registration together

   To distribute the manufactured cosmetics under your own name, a separate responsible cosmetics sales business registration is required. Depending on the size of the manufacturing facility, factory registration under the Industrial Cluster Development and Factory Establishment Act is also a separate procedure, so plan them together from the start.

Required documents

• Application for registration of a cosmetics manufacturing business
• Facility specifications and floor plan (partitioning of the work area, storage area and laboratory)
• Proof of the right to use the business site, such as the building register and lease contract
• Documents confirming that no grounds for disqualification apply to the representative (such as a medical certificate confirming that the person is not a person with a mental illness or a narcotics addict)
• For a corporation, the corporate registry certificate; business registration certificate
• Outsourcing contract, if quality testing is outsourced

Fees

Government costs such as the registration fee follow the standards of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. At Hwang Yunsang Administrative Office, the service fee for permits and reports starts from 300,000 won and varies with the scope of the preliminary location check and the preparation of the facility specifications and floor plan. We will advise on the fee after reviewing the business site and the manufacturing scope and a consultation.

See fees and official charges for this service →

Legal basis and review date

• Cosmetics Act, Article 2
• Cosmetics Act, Article 3
• Enforcement Decree of the Cosmetics Act, Article 2
• Enforcement Rule of the Cosmetics Act, Article 3
• Enforcement Rule of the Cosmetics Act, Article 6
• Cosmetics Act, Article 3-3

Checked against the statutes on 2026-09-30

Statutes and public notices change, so each case needs to be checked individually. Statute titles are given in English for reference. The Korean statutes are the authoritative text.

Check these first

• Before the lease contract and interior work, first check the building use and whether the work spaces can be partitioned.
• If bulk product is brought in from abroad, the procedure for imported cosmetics and the ingredient and manufacturer documents must be checked separately.

Frequently asked questions