Exporting Cosmetics to the GCC: SFDA, Gulf Conformity, and What SASO Does Not Cover

The Gulf Cooperation Council is one of the most attractive export destinations for personal care brands and hotel amenity programmes, and one of the most misunderstood. Buyers often arrive with two assumptions: that "SASO certification" is the gate for cosmetics in Saudi Arabia, and that Halal certification is a legal requirement. Neither is quite right. This guide sets out how cosmetics actually enter Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the other GCC states, and what a manufacturer must supply to make that happen.

It is general guidance for buyers and brand owners, not legal advice. Requirements change, and the right final check is with the authority concerned or a regulatory agent in the destination country.

One rulebook, six gates

The GCC Standardization Organization (GSO) writes harmonised technical regulations for its member states: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. For cosmetics, the ones that matter are:

• GSO 1943:2024, the safety requirements for cosmetics and personal care products, in force since 1 May 2024. It defines what counts as a cosmetic, sets the lists of prohibited and restricted substances and permitted colourants, preservatives, and UV filters, and fixes the labelling rules.
• GSO 2528:2024, the technical regulation on cosmetic claims, in force since the same date. It governs which claims can be made and what evidence must sit behind them.
• GSO 2020, the good manufacturing practice guideline for cosmetics, closely aligned with ISO 22716.
• GSO 2636:2021, the requirements for the product information file.

The rulebook is shared. Enforcement is national, and each state has its own authority, platform, and paperwork. That is where the two big markets diverge.

Saudi Arabia: SFDA, not SASO

Cosmetics in Saudi Arabia are regulated by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) under the Cosmetic Law of 2015 and the GSO regulations above. SASO, the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization, and its SABER conformity platform cover most other consumer goods. A cosmetic shampoo, lotion, or bar soap does not go through SASO. Some items that ship alongside cosmetics, such as toothbrushes, razors, and combs in a hotel dental or vanity kit, may fall under SASO rather than SFDA, so a mixed amenity shipment can need both routes. Confirm the classification of each item before the shipment is booked.

The SFDA process has two stages.

Product notification. Before a cosmetic can be imported or sold, the Saudi importer or a licensed agent notifies it on the SFDA's electronic cosmetics system, historically known as eCosma and now part of the SFDA's unified GHAD platform. The notification is a record, not a safety approval. It requires, among other things, evidence that the manufacturing site operates under GMP (an ISO 22716 or equivalent GMP certificate), a certificate of free sale from the country of origin, legalised for Saudi use, the full ingredient list, and the label artwork. The SFDA typically issues a decision within around 15 working days, and an accepted notification is valid for five years.

Shipment conformity. Every shipment then needs a certificate of conformity issued through the SFDA's FASEH clearance system by an SFDA-approved conformity body, confirming that the consignment matches the notified product and complies with GSO 1943. Without it, the shipment is held at the border.

The United Arab Emirates: ECAS and Montaji

The UAE runs a federal layer and an emirate layer.

Federal. Cabinet Decision No. 18 of 2014 places cosmetics and personal care products under the Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme (ECAS), now administered by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT). Importers and manufacturers obtain a certificate of conformity for the product against GSO 1943 before customs clearance.

Emirate. Dubai Municipality requires cosmetics sold in Dubai to be registered on its Montaji system, and other emirates run their own municipal registrations. Montaji registration is valid for five years and, in practice, takes a few weeks once the documentation is complete. Registration must be made by a UAE-licensed entity, which for most overseas brands means the distributor.

The practical consequence is that a brand selling in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE needs two notification files, two local registrants, and two sets of shipment paperwork, built from one shared technical dossier.

Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman

The remaining four states apply GSO 1943 through their own ministries of health, commerce, or standards. The processes are generally lighter than the Saudi and UAE ones and rely heavily on the importer, so the operational question is the quality of the local distributor rather than the regulation itself. Hotel groups supplying their own properties across the region usually route through a regional distributor in the UAE or Saudi Arabia for this reason. Our post on Middle East hotel amenity trends describes how that supply chain typically looks.

Labelling: Arabic first

GSO 1943 requires product labelling in Arabic. Other languages may appear alongside it, and most exporters run bilingual Arabic and English labels. The mandatory elements are the familiar ones: product name and function, ingredient list in INCI order, nominal content, batch number, durability or period-after-opening, warnings and precautions, the name and address of the manufacturer or the responsible party, and the country of origin.

Two points catch exporters out. First, Arabic labelling cannot be an afterthought; the label artwork is part of the notification file, so it must be finalised before the product is registered, not after the first order ships. Second, stickers over an English label are tolerated in some cases but are a weak solution for a brand product, and they are unacceptable for premium hotel amenities. Printing the bilingual label at the factory is cleaner. Our guide to private label cosmetic labelling covers the US, EU, and UK equivalents; the structure is similar, the language is different.

Ingredients and claims

The GSO 1943 ingredient annexes broadly follow the EU Cosmetics Regulation's approach, with lists of prohibited and restricted substances and positive lists for colourants, preservatives, and UV filters. A formula that is compliant in the EU is a good starting point for the Gulf, but it is not automatically compliant, and each destination's current lists should be checked. Our comparison of EU, US, and ASEAN ingredient restrictions explains how these lists differ in structure.

Claims are governed separately by GSO 2528, which requires substantiation for efficacy and marketing claims and restricts medical-sounding claims. "Antibacterial", "dermatologist tested", "hypoallergenic", and "natural" all need evidence in the file. Alcohol is not prohibited in cosmetics, but alcohol content interacts with Halal positioning and, in some product categories, with import classification, so it should be declared clearly to the importer.

Halal: expected, not mandated

Halal certification is not a legal requirement for cosmetics in Saudi Arabia or the UAE. GSO 2055-4 sets the requirements for Halal cosmetics and personal care products, and it applies when a Halal claim is made, not to every product. In practice, though, many retailers, hotel groups, and government-linked buyers in the region treat Halal certification as a selection criterion, and a certified product removes a conversation from every tender.

For a Malaysian manufacturer this is a structural advantage. JAKIM, Malaysia's Halal authority, is widely recognised by Gulf certification bodies, and a factory that already runs a JAKIM-certified Halal system can supply the certificate, the ingredient declarations, and the process controls the buyer's Halal review will ask for. Our posts on Halal certification in personal care manufacturing and how to vet a Halal-certified factory explain what the certificate does and does not cover.

What the manufacturer must supply

The importer or distributor owns the notification, but almost every document in the file comes from the factory. Before the first Gulf order, a manufacturer should be able to hand over:

1. A GMP or ISO 22716 certificate for the manufacturing site, current and from a recognised certification body.
2. A certificate of free sale for each product from the country of origin, ready for legalisation. In Malaysia this is issued against the product's notification with the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency.
3. The full quantitative ingredient list and INCI list, with CAS numbers where requested.
4. A product information file or safety assessment. The GSO requirements for the file mirror the EU's, so a CPSR prepared for Europe is usually the fastest route.
5. Stability data supporting the declared shelf life, plus challenge test results for water-based products.
6. Certificates of analysis for the shipped batches.
7. Final label artwork in Arabic and English.
8. The Halal certificate and, where relevant, Halal ingredient declarations.
9. For mixed amenity shipments, a classification of every item so the SFDA and SASO routes are handled separately.

The general shipping paperwork sits on top of this list; our import documentation checklist covers the commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, and the rest. For chemicals-classified products such as concentrated cleaners, GHS labelling requirements also apply.

Timeline and sequencing

A first shipment into Saudi Arabia or the UAE realistically runs on this sequence: distributor appointment and licensing, label localisation, notification or registration, shipment conformity, then customs clearance. Registration steps can overlap with production, but the label has to be final before notification, so the artwork stage on the sample-to-production timeline becomes the critical path. Buyers who start the regulatory file at the same time as the formulation brief, rather than after production, save weeks.

HE Manufacturing supplies distributors, brand owners, and hotel groups internationally from our GMP, ISO 9001, and JAKIM Halal-certified facility in Malaysia. If you are planning a GCC launch or a regional amenity programme, contact our team with the target countries and product list, and we will confirm which documents we can supply from stock and which need to be prepared for your file.