For perfume and beauty brands looking at Korea
Before the first carton ships, know what Korea will ask of it.
Korea Gate is two small tools and the reading behind them. The entry check walks through eight things Korean cosmetics law expects of an imported product. The price ladder shows what your export price becomes by the time it reaches a Korean shelf. Both run in your browser. Nothing you type leaves it.
Worked example HS 3303.00
- Export price (FOB)20.00
- Landed, ex VAT23.90
- Importer sells at36.77
- Shelf price, VAT in67.40
Three things that catch first-time exporters
You cannot simply ship to a buyer.
Cosmetics imported for sale come in through a company registered in Korea as a Responsible Cosmetic Distributor, which also files an electronic customs pre-report for each import. Choosing that partner is the first decision, not the last.
Cosmetics Act art. 3; MFDS interpretation of 28 Apr 2025
The Korean label is a legal list, not a translation.
Article 10 sets out what the outer pack and the bottle must say, and article 12 asks for it in Korean characters. Your existing pack copy is a starting point at best; the batch number, the use-by logic and the business address all have to be there.
Cosmetics Act arts. 10 and 12
“Fragrance” does not cover everything.
Allergens on the MFDS list must be named one by one once they pass 0.001% in a leave-on product such as perfume. For a fine fragrance that usually means asking your perfumer for the allergen breakdown before you print anything.
MFDS interpretation of 12 Dec 2024
How we keep it honest
Every rule on this site points to the article or official interpretation it came from, with the date we read it. Where we could not confirm something, such as the small-pack threshold or the allergen list itself, we say so and leave it out rather than guess.