How to start a skincare brand in Australia with products made in Korea

To start a skincare brand in Australia with products made in Korea, get an ABN, register your business with AICIS before the first import, categorize every ingredient, keep your claims cosmetic, list ingredients to the national standard, and import through the Australian Border Force with 10% GST. Korean-origin skincare pays no duty under KAFTA.

The steps below follow the order you meet them. They describe the rules as of 2026, and the official pages are listed at the end so you can check anything that changes.

Step 1: Set up the business

Most founders trade as a sole trader or through a Pty Ltd company. Registering for an Australian Business Number (ABN) is free, and most businesses need one to register with AICIS. If you trade under a name other than your own, ASIC charges A$47 to register a business name for one year or A$108 for three (fees from 1 July 2026).

You must register for GST within 21 days of your GST turnover reaching A$75,000. You can register earlier, and a registered business can generally claim credits for the GST it pays on imported stock. A standard trade mark application with IP Australia starts at A$250 per class.

Step 2: Keep it a cosmetic, or plan for the TGA

Australia splits skin products between cosmetics, which answer to AICIS and the ACCC, and therapeutic goods, which answer to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The TGA looks at claims, ingredients and how a product is used. Its own example is useful for Korean brightening products: "helps your skin look even and smooth" is cosmetic, while "reduces skin pigmentation and uneven skin tone" is therapeutic.

A therapeutic good must be entered in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) before it is imported, supplied or advertised. That changes the whole project, so reword treatment claims before you print anything.

Sunscreen needs the most care. A primary sunscreen, sold mainly to protect the skin from UV, is a therapeutic good: it needs an ARTG listing (an AUST L number), permitted ingredients and manufacture at a TGA-approved facility. A moisturizer with SPF stays a cosmetic only if it claims no more than SPF 15, is not water resistant, holds 300 mL or 300 g or less and makes no therapeutic claims, and it must still meet the testing and labeling rules of AS/NZS 2604:2021. Tinted foundations and lip products with SPF are treated as cosmetics when they meet their own conditions. Our private label sunscreen page shows how much the rules differ by market.

Step 3: Register with AICIS and categorize every ingredient

The Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) treats the ingredients in imported cosmetics as industrial chemicals. If you buy cosmetics overseas to sell in Australia, you must register your business before you import, whatever the value, even for finished and branded products.

Registration runs from 1 September to 31 August and is not pro rata. Your level depends on the value of industrial chemicals you introduced in the previous financial year. For 2026 to 2027, a new importer at Level 1 (under A$50,000) pays A$85, and every registrant also files a free annual declaration by 30 November.

Before import you categorize each ingredient. In practice that means checking it against the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals by CAS number, because INCI names are not reliable for the search. A listed ingredient is the simple case; others may be exempted or reported introductions, and an ingredient that fits none of those needs an assessment certificate, which starts at A$14,530. New animal test data (from tests on or after 1 July 2020) cannot be used for an ingredient whose only end use is cosmetics. Keep your records for 5 years.

So ask your manufacturer for CAS numbers and concentrations before you order. KoreanOEM gives every client the full INCI list, and a custom formula stays the client's.

Step 4: Label to the cosmetics information standard

Ingredient labels follow the Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020, a mandatory standard enforced by the ACCC.

• The list goes on the container, or on the product if there is no container. If size or shape rules that out, display it prominently next to the product.
• Use English names or INCI names; "fragrance" or "parfum" is allowed.
• Order: descending by mass or volume, or those at 1% or more in descending order, then those under 1% in any order, then color additives.
• Percentages are not required.

Two more rules catch importers. Imported prepacked goods need an English trade description naming the country where they were made, so print "Made in Korea" (packs under 25 g or 25 mL are exempt). The net quantity goes on the main display panel in grams or milliliters, with minimum character heights, unless the pack holds less than 15 g or 15 mL.

Claims must be true and provable under the Australian Consumer Law. KoreanOEM adapts your logo and writes compliant labels, so name Australia as the market at the brief.

Step 5: Import through the Australian Border Force

Consignments worth more than A$1,000 need an Import Declaration, and the ABF encourages first-time importers to use a licensed customs broker. Skincare falls under tariff subheading 3304.99.00, with a general duty rate of 5%. Goods of Korean origin under the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) are free, provided you hold a certificate of origin completed by the Korean exporter or producer when the duty is worked out.

GST of 10% is charged on the value of the taxable importation: the customs value, plus duty, plus the cost of transport and insurance to Australia. Each electronic declaration also carries an import processing charge (A$50 for consignments over A$1,000 and under A$10,000, A$152 above that) and a biosecurity charge. Check the cosmetics conditions in BICON, the government's biosecurity import conditions system, before the first shipment, and keep import records for 5 years.

Air freight from Korea takes about 5 to 10 days and sea freight about 4 to 6 weeks. The document pack is in our export guide, and our certifications page covers the ISO 22716 (GMP) certified, FDA registered factory the products come from.

What it costs, and your launch checklist

The fixed government fees for a first year come to about A$382 (business name, AICIS Level 1 and one trade mark class), before stock, freight, broker fees and GST. Starting prices assume a library formula, a stock container and a one-color label. Most skincare starts at 500 units per product, and smaller trial runs of library formulas are possible on request; our guide to low MOQ private label skincare explains the trade-offs.

1. Get an ABN, register the business name and decide on GST registration.
2. File your trade mark before printing packaging.
3. Check every claim, and any SPF, against the TGA rules.
4. Register with AICIS before the first import.
5. Get CAS numbers and concentrations, categorize each ingredient and keep the records.
6. Approve label proofs: ingredient order, "Made in Korea", net quantity.
7. Approve lab samples, then the pre-production sample.
8. Confirm the tariff code and ask for the KAFTA certificate of origin.
9. Check BICON, appoint a customs broker and book freight.
10. Renew AICIS by 31 August and file the annual declaration by 30 November.

Want a quote for Australia? Send us your brief and we reply within one business day.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• AICIS: Personal care, skincare, make-up and other cosmetic products
• AICIS: Fees and charges
• AICIS: Step 0, is your introduction in the listed category
• AICIS: Use of animal test data
• ACCC Product Safety: Cosmetics ingredients labelling mandatory standard
• Consumer Goods (Cosmetics) Information Standard 2020
• TGA: Determining if your product is a cosmetic or therapeutic good
• TGA: Sunscreen regulation in Australia
• Therapeutic Goods (Excluded Goods) Determination 2018
• ABF: Import declarations
• ABF: GST and other taxes when importing
• ABF: Schedule 10, Korean originating goods
• ABF: Labelling requirements to import goods
• DFAT: KAFTA and certificates of origin