Cosmetics Registration in Saudi Arabia (SFDA eCosma / GHAD): Notification Requirements & Process

The SFDA regulates cosmetics through a notification (listing) procedure: the company declares that its product complies with Saudi cosmetic regulations and submits the product file through eCosma. The SFDA does not necessarily review the submitted file before the product enters the market — it accepts the notification and enforces compliance afterwards, at the port of entry and in the market.

This is what makes the Saudi route deceptively easy. A non-compliant file will not be rejected at submission; the consequences arrive later as shipment rejections at customs, product withdrawals, or enforcement action during market inspections. Getting the file right before notifying is therefore the real work of cosmetics registration in Saudi Arabia.

In 2023, the SFDA began consolidating its electronic services into GHAD, a unified digital platform covering product notification, establishment licensing, and regulatory compliance across the sectors it regulates. From March 30, 2023, GHAD became the mandatory route for cosmetics services — companies registered in the legacy eCosma platform were instructed to create GHAD accounts, with their existing eCosma records linked and migrated to the new system.

In practice, the industry still calls the cosmetics notification “eCosma,” and the notification logic described in this guide is unchanged — what changed is the portal. New applicants should plan for GHAD account setup from the start: the account structure (company, then establishment, then products) must be in place before any product can be notified.

Only a local Saudi company can submit cosmetics notifications: an importer or distributor licensed by the SFDA for cosmetics activities, with an SFDA-inspected warehouse. A foreign brand cannot notify its own products directly — it must work through a licensed local agent or service provider, who registers the manufacturer and its products under its eCosma account.

The foreign manufacturing site must also be registered with the SFDA before its products can be notified. International manufacturers are not physically inspected; instead, the local agent submits the site file — GMP or ISO 22716 certificate, license in the country of origin, production line information, and the authorization letter for marketing in Saudi Arabia.

For each product, the eCosma notification covers the manufacturer, the product, and its full composition:

Compliance in the EU or GCC does not guarantee compliance in Saudi Arabia. The SFDA maintains broader prohibited and restricted substance lists than most markets, applies its own concentration limits to individual ingredients, and enforces some of the strictest labeling and claims rules in the region — implicit medical claims and absolute claims are the most common reasons for shipment rejection and product withdrawal.

Classification is a second trap: products sold as cosmetics elsewhere — whitening ampoules, peeling products, micro-needling preparations — may be classified by the SFDA as health products or medical devices, which changes the registration pathway entirely. An ingredient and classification review before notification is the cheapest insurance in the entire process.

The SFDA does not charge a fee for the product notification itself; costs sit in the local company licensing, warehouse, and manufacturer registration that precede it. Notification processing is fast — the SFDA's published timeline for cosmetic product and manufacturer registration is around 15 working days.

In practice, first-time market entry takes longer end to end: preparing compliant Arabic artwork, assembling the product information file, and registering the manufacturing site typically brings the full pathway to one to three months, depending on how much remediation the formulation and labels need.

Because the SFDA enforces post-market, the obligations continue after listing: keeping notifications current when formulations, packaging, or claims change; renewing before expiry; and reporting adverse events through the SFDA's cosmetovigilance channels. SFDA officials verify shipments at customs against the notified artwork and ingredients, and inspectors sample products from retail shelves and online stores for laboratory analysis.

Advertising is monitored as strictly as labeling — marketing campaigns and influencer content for cosmetics are subject to SFDA claims rules, and non-compliant advertising can trigger penalties even for a correctly notified product.

MRG holds SFDA Consultation Office license CO-2023-FO-0022 covering cosmetic activities and supports the full eCosma pathway: ingredient and classification review against SFDA restricted lists, Arabic label and claims compliance, manufacturer site registration, product notification, and post-market support for variations, renewals, and adverse event reporting — with offices in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt for brands entering the wider MENA region.

If you are planning cosmetics registration in Saudi Arabia, talk to our consultants about your formulation and the fastest compliant route to the Saudi market — or explore our cosmetics registration services in Saudi Arabia.