Have a licensed contract manufacturer make your perfume rather than building a factory: perfume is a cosmetic under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, and manufacturing it in India needs a cosmetic manufacturing licence from the State Licensing Authority, which a third-party manufacturer already holds, while importing finished fragrances needs each product registered with CDSCO on the SUGAM portal before import. Every pack needs the Legal Metrology declarations (maker, net quantity, MRP inclusive of taxes, consumer care) and a Rs 500 packer or importer registration, and the formula should follow the IFRA Standards, which restrict or ban specific fragrance ingredients. Brief the manufacturer on two or three scents, order the smallest batch they allow, test with buyers through samplers, and file your trademark early. What kills most perfume brands is the cost of letting people smell the product: online buyers cannot, so budget for discovery sets and offline trials.
The regulator's own page on cosmetics: manufacture is licensed by State Licensing Authorities, every imported cosmetic must be registered with the Central Licensing Authority under the Cosmetics Rules 2020 before import, and applications run on the SUGAM portal.
This is the one guide that ties each cosmetic license (CDSCO manufacturing or import registration, LMPC label certificate, BIS where a Quality Control Order applies) directly to what Amazon, Flipkart and Nykaa demand before they approve your listing. It names the exact forms (COS-1/COS-2, Form 31/32) so you know what your manufacturer must hand you, and it flags that a missing or wrongly-named license gets the listing blocked, which is the launch blocker most D2C founders discover too late.
Marketplaces (Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa) verify a valid CDSCO manufacturing or import certificate plus LMPC-compliant labels before they let you list, so approvals gate your launch date.
CDSCO import registration (Form COS-1/COS-2) is mandatory for imported cosmetics, and a foreign manufacturer needs an Authorized Indian Representative on record.
BIS is voluntary for most cosmetics today but becomes mandatory once a product category falls under a Quality Control Order, so check your specific category rather than assuming.
IFRA's library of standards that restrict, limit or prohibit specific fragrance ingredients, the safety reference perfumers and manufacturers formulate against.
An August 2026 guide to the Legal Metrology rules every packed product meets: the Rs 500 one-time registration for manufacturers, packers and importers within 90 days of starting, the mandatory label declarations (MRP inclusive of taxes, net quantity, unit sale price, consumer care), and the stamping of trade scales.
Once you know cosmetics fall under CDSCO, this is the step-by-step of actually getting the license: the two routes (manufacturing license Form COS-8, import license Form COS-2), the SUGAM portal filing flow, and the GMP plus ingredient safety data that trip up most first applications. The case studies of approvals delayed by missing safety dossiers or GMP gaps show you where founders lose weeks, so you build the dossier right the first time.
Cosmetics are governed by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and the Cosmetics Rules 2020, with CDSCO as the licensing authority via the online SUGAM portal.
You file either a manufacturing license (Form COS-8) or an import license (Form COS-2), backed by formulation and ingredient safety data and GMP compliance.
Incomplete ingredient safety data or GMP gaps are the top reasons approvals stall, so prepare the full dossier before you submit.
A state Legal Metrology department's own FAQ: who counts as a packer, the declarations every pre-packed commodity must carry, and registration of manufacturers, packers and importers under Rule 27 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, with a Rs 500 fee for new registration. Registration is with your own state's Controller of Legal Metrology.
