China News Service, Hangzhou, November 3 (Lin Bo and Sun Linru) In the workshop of Zhejiang Hu Qingyutang Herbal Medicine Co., Ltd. in Shanxiahu, Zhuji, Zhejiang, staff are sifting out shell-adhesive and diseased pearls from piles of pearls to select high-quality pearl raw materials.
This cosmetics manufacturer, which inherited the time-honored pearl care concept from Hu Qingyutang, creates a variety of skin care products such as pearl masks, pearl powder, and brightening lotion.
In 2026, it won two "Shaoxing firsts" in succession: Shaoxing's first cosmetics electronic label product registration, and its store was selected as Shaoxing's first cosmetics personalized service pilot.
The new business extended from a century-old brand can be the first to be implemented at the forefront of regulatory innovation, which is a microcosm of the ecological construction of Zhejiang's cosmetics industry.
In 2025, Zhejiang's cosmetics industry chain sales revenue will reach 130.2 billion yuan, ranking third in the country; exports will be 14.73 billion yuan, ranking second in the country. In the first half of 2026, its retail sales of cosmetics above designated size were 28.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%; exports were 8.01 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%.
Numbers are results, and the real variables lie in the interaction between regulation and industry.
Recently, He Yandong, co-founder of Zhejiang Hu Qingyutang Herbal Medicine Co., Ltd., introduced cosmetics-related processes. Photo by Lin Bo
"Draining" filing capabilities to the doorstep of enterprises
Cosmetic registration is the first step for product launch, and it is also the link that is most likely to make companies feel "out of reach".
According to Deng Juan, deputy director of the Cosmetics Review and Monitoring Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Drug and Cosmetic Review Center, the center has focused on promoting "provincial and municipal standards" in recent years and established a 160-person provincial, city and county three-level inspection team with the goal of allowing the entire province to use "the same ruler."
The more critical step is "direct management at the county level." Take Yiwu as an example. In the past three years, the number of effective products in Yiwu has accounted for 25.3% in Zhejiang Province, ranking first among districts and counties. The Zhejiang Provincial Drug and Cosmetic Review Center allows grassroots backbones to work temporarily for 6 months, and the verification consistency rate must reach more than 85% at the end of the period, so that technical capabilities can truly be retained in the county.
Wenzhou has added another piece of the puzzle from the technical side.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Cangnan County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, the country's leading artificial intelligence-assisted verification system for cosmetics registration has been implemented locally. It uses a "visual + language + AI" multi-modal model to disassemble 56,000 raw material entries and compare 1,848 rules. The consistency rate between AI review and manual review exceeds 90%, and the average initial review time is shortened to less than 5 minutes. "What AI is good at is data collection and mechanical comparison, on-site verification, qualitative judgment and complex toxicology determination, which still requires human experience and judgment."
The Shaoxing Market Supervision and Administration Bureau’s approach is to “push” services directly to enterprises.
Li Wei, deputy director of the Cosmetics Supervision and Management Office of the Shaoxing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, said that the bureau has established "one enterprise, one file" to provide point-to-point assistance for specific problems in the registration of ordinary cosmetics and the declaration of new raw materials. This year alone, it has provided more than 640 registration consultations, and added 504 domestically produced ordinary cosmetics registered products; two pilot projects of electronic labels and personalized services have also been launched in Shaoxing. Supervisors follow up the entire process from system connection to data filling, allowing companies to get through the "first order".
"The essence of lowering the filing capability is not to relax the threshold, but to make the compliance path predictable and accessible." Li Wei said.
Recently, the production scene of a nail polish company in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Lin Bo
Building bridges and paving the way for the upstream of "raw materials"
"The raw materials are the chips of cosmetics." Zhejiang has spread pre-registration and verification services to the most upstream and most difficult link in the industry.
Jinhua is China's cosmetics industry base and accounts for half of the world's nail polish production. However, a core raw material in the nail polish light-curing system has not been included in the catalog of used raw materials. The company "does not need to be unable to keep up with the market and step on the red line of compliance."
Jinhua Jiuwei New Materials Co., Ltd. is targeting this gap. In February this year, before the company submitted complete application materials, the Zhejiang Provincial Drug and Cosmetic Review Center took the initiative to pre-review the research materials that had been formed; in March, a service team spanning chemistry, toxicology, and efficacy was established; in April, the service team went to Jinhua to answer 28 difficult questions at one time.
On June 25, 2026, the company's two new photoinitiator raw materials were registered on the same day, filling the gap in this category of domestic nail polish fine chemical materials.
Jin Jiyue, general manager of the company, said that after the localization of raw materials is registered, downstream nail companies can use them directly within the compliance framework and no longer rely on imports.
The effect of front-end services is spreading. As of September 30, 2026, Zhejiang has obtained a total of 66 registrations for new cosmetic raw materials, ranking third in the country; this year alone, there were 31 new ones, ranking second in the country in terms of new additions.
Deng Juan introduced that the center focuses on four major directions: first to market, special resources, domestic substitution, and green and low carbon. It builds a "pre-service, full-process guidance, and research and review collaboration" mechanism to learn and carry forward the latest technical requirements at the national level to provide enterprises with "targeted drip irrigation" assistance.
Recently, a scene was taken of a gardenia field in Taishun, Zhejiang Province. Photo by Ren Baoqiu
Let supervision and temperature arrive at the same time
If the registration reform and new raw material pre-production services solve the question of "whether it can be launched on the market," then the ecological beauty and closed-loop response answer is "whether it can grow into a chain."
In Taishun, Kanghong Biotechnology Group has developed raw materials based on gardenia fruit and gardenia flowers, and then empowered facial cleansing, anti-acne and other beauty products. It has launched nearly 60 models of condensed soaps, essences, etc., driving more than 5,000 farmers on the border of Zhejiang and Fujian to increase their income.
Zeng Qiu, chairman of the company, said that if farmers just grow gardenias, their incomes can increase five to seven times.
Gardenias have changed from "rotting in the ground" to "fixed purchase", from agricultural products to cosmetic raw materials, and then to scenery in the eyes of tourists.
Behind this is the role positioning of Wenzhou's market supervision department in "planning leadership, technology bridging, and full-chain escort": establishing Zhejiang's first municipal medicinal plant germplasm resource bank led by the municipal supervision department, using "one enterprise, one policy" to intervene in factory design and licensing applications in advance, and promote Taishun cosmetics manufacturers to achieve "breaking zero".
In the "last mile" of enterprise services, Zhejiang has moved the registration service desk to the site.
"One Code Access" allows companies to scan a QR code to complete consultation, submission, handling and progress tracking, and online questions will be responded to within 3 working days; the "fast lane" for filing can significantly reduce the filing and verification cycle. From county direct management to AI pre-examination, from new raw material pre-service to ecological beauty and cosmetics full-chain escort, Zhejiang’s regulatory power is being embedded in every link of the industry in a more refined way.
Strengthen the bottom line and keep the temperature to protect the ecology - when the "same ruler" is measured throughout Zhejiang, and when "one step ahead" becomes the norm, the new productivity of the "beautiful economy" will become more than just a vision.
