Cosmetics and personal care products are regulated goods in every major import market, which changes what the export paperwork needs to show. The EU and UK require a Cosmetic Product Safety Report and a Responsible Person established in that market before the product can be placed on sale — a detail that has nothing to do with freight but will stop a shipment at destination if it is missing.
Ingredient lists (INCI names), batch coding, and shelf-life or period-after-opening symbols are checked at several points: by the factory's own QC, by the importer's compliance team, and in some markets by customs on inspection. We do not perform compliance testing ourselves, but we do confirm that the documents travelling with the shipment — commercial invoice, packing list, any safety certificates the buyer has supplied — are internally consistent before export clearance.
Liquids and aerosols bring an additional layer for air freight specifically: aerosol cosmetics are frequently restricted or require Dangerous Goods declaration depending on propellant type, which affects routing choice between air and sea for a given SKU mix.
For a first cosmetics shipment from China, the sequencing that avoids delay is: confirm the destination market's labeling and safety-file requirements before finalizing packaging artwork, not after goods are produced.