For Korean beauty and fragrance brands
In Dubai, the importer files. The date on the bottle decides whether the shipment gets in.
Every cosmetic and every perfume sold in Dubai has to be registered in Dubai Municipality’s Montaji system first, and only a Dubai-licensed company can file. Your part as the Korean brand is the paper: a free sale certificate, an ingredient report signed by the factory, test reports, an English or Arabic label. Then the shipment has to arrive with at least half its shelf life, and never less than six months, still on the clock. Dubai Desk sorts your product into the right guideline, lists the file it needs, and tells you the last day a batch can land. It runs in your browser; nothing is sent or kept.
Worked exampleEDP 50 ml
A Seoul niche house fills an eau de parfum on 1 March 2026 with a 36-month shelf life. When must the batch land in Dubai?
L2603AMFG2026-03-01EXP2029-03-01
- 50% of shelf life used
- 31 Aug 2027
- Six months before expiry
- 1 Sep 2028
- Last day to arrive
- 31 Aug 2027
Three things Korean brands get wrong about Dubai
You cannot register your own product.
The applicant must be a company incorporated in Dubai, or holding a warehouse in Dubai, with a Dubai trade licence that covers cosmetics. For fragrance, a UAE commercial or industrial licence with a fragrance activity also works, as do the Tajer, Intelaq and E-Trader licences. Choosing the importer is choosing who holds your registration.
GU116 §8.1-8.2; GU117 §6-1A perfume is filed under its own guideline.
Eau de parfum, eau de toilette, cologne, body mist, aftershave, perfume oils, and also room sprays, diffusers and scented candles sit in the fragrance guideline. It asks for the exact percentage of every ingredient and every allergen above 0.001%, and a free sale certificate attested by a government authority in Korea.
GU117 §5.1, §7.2, §7.4Calm, sleep and mood are not cosmetic claims in Dubai.
The cosmetics guideline puts products with “spiritual or mental” claims (calming, uplifting mood, better focus, meditation), products to improve breathing and sleep, and massage oils outside the cosmetic scope, together with acne, eczema and hair-loss treatments. A K-beauty “calming” toner may need its words checked before its file.
GU116 §5.2
What is on this desk
Route and dossier check · which guideline, who files, which documents, which flags.
Shelf-life gate and fee count · the last day a batch can arrive, and the Montaji fee for a range.
Label sheet · every label item for cosmetics and for fragrance, side by side.
Built from three Dubai Municipality guidelines, read in full on 2 November 2026. Federal UAE conformity rules and the other emirates are not covered; the sources page says what we left out.