China Expands Custom-Made Cosmetics Pilot to 23 Provinces

China’s cosmetics industry is taking a significant step toward personalized beauty, as the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) expands its custom-made cosmetics pilot program to 23 provinces. The expansion, effective August 1, adds eight new provinces and regions — Liaoning, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, and Xinjiang — to the second-phase pilot, which now covers most of the country’s major cosmetics markets, according to Xinhua News.

What Is Personalized Cosmetics Service?

Under the pilot framework, cosmetics registrants or domestic responsible persons authorized by overseas registrants can conduct on-site small-batch mixing and repackaging of two or more registered ordinary cosmetics products at their specialty stores or direct-sale stores, based on consumers’ personalized needs. The People’s Daily reports that dozens of pilot cosmetics companies across the 23 provinces have already launched personalized services, including in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Tianjin, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, and Hunan.

The typical service process involves skin testing using professional instruments that scan skin tone, elasticity, moisture content, and skin barrier indicators. A system then matches a personalized formula based on the test results, followed by on-site small-batch mixing or repackaging. Beijing Tongrentang, for example, has established a personalized cosmetics skincare experience center where consumers undergo skin testing covering more than 30 indicators to receive tailored skincare solutions.

Regulatory Evolution

The expansion marks the latest milestone in a regulatory journey that began in November 2022, when the NMPA launched the first phase of the personalized cosmetics pilot in five provinces and cities. The initial pilot notice aimed to explore feasible models and effective regulatory measures for personalized cosmetics services. Shanghai’s Pudong New Area subsequently passed pioneering regulations that encouraged small-batch, multi-variety, high-flexibility production models, providing the legal basis for on-site personalized services, as documented by the Shanghai Drug Administration.

In September 2025, the NMPA issued the second-phase pilot notice, expanding the program to 15 provinces for a two-year period. The latest expansion, announced in the NMPA’s July 2026 notice, brings the total to 23 provinces, with the pilot period running until September 30, 2027.

Safety and Quality Standards

Personalized service products must be registered ordinary cosmetics that are fully traceable through batch numbers. The program explicitly excludes children’s cosmetics, eye-area skincare products, and products using new ingredients. Pilot companies must hold cosmetics production licenses, maintain good social credit, complete quality management systems, and have no penalties for cosmetics quality safety issues in the past three years.

Provincial drug administrations are encouraged to establish whole-process supervision systems. For example, Shandong’s drug administration requires pilot companies to incorporate stores into their quality management systems, conduct safety assessments, and strictly implement personnel management, store quality management, product traceability, and product recall systems, as China Consumer News reported.

Industry Momentum and Challenges

The personalized beauty market is growing rapidly. A 2025 beauty customization market report shows that 72% of consumers care about the safety and exclusivity of customized products, and the global personalized beauty market is projected to exceed 500 billion yuan by 2028. Industry leaders see significant potential. “Personalization aligns with the major trend,” said Jia Haidong, CTO of Shanghai Jahwa, as reported by Securities Times. “Previously it was ‘one face for a thousand people,’ now consumers need personalization and customized precision skincare.”

However, the industry faces what analysts call “three thresholds”: detection accuracy, cost, and regulatory compliance. Tong Wenxin, director of the Policy and Regulation Department at the Beijing Daily Chemical Association, noted that current testing methods vary widely without unified standards. “The same person going to different companies with different instruments may get eight different results,” he said.

Cost remains another barrier. “Customization is definitely more expensive than ordinary cosmetics,” said a production manager from a personalized cosmetics company. “Different skin types require different ingredients, which directly affects cost.”

What’s Next

Despite these challenges, the trajectory appears clear. “If a policy pilot hasn’t shown obvious negative issues, in principle it won’t be stopped,” Tong Wenxin said. “The future trend will inevitably be to maintain or expand.” With 37 pilot companies nationwide achieving initial results — including significant increases in store revenue and a 90% product repurchase rate reported by Beijing Kousai Health Technology — the personalized cosmetics sector is positioned for continued growth as regulators and industry work to refine standards, reduce costs, and unlock the full potential of “量肤定制” (skin-tailored) beauty.