What your state adds

A common question makers arrive with, and the answer is different from the one they expect, because they are thinking of food.

There is no state cosmetic regime to join

Cottage food laws are food laws. A cosmetic is not food, so there is no cottage-cosmetic license, no home-kitchen exemption to apply for and no state-mandated "made in an uninspected home kitchen" statement.

What governs a cosmetic is federal: labeling, MoCRA registration and listing where it applies, and safety substantiation, which has no exemption for the size of the business.

So the absence of a state scheme is not permission. It means the federal obligations are the whole of the product regulation, and they apply to you at any size.

What states do reach

Business registration, a sales tax permit and a local business license.

Zoning and, in a rented home, a landlord's view of running a business from it.

Market and fair permits, which are set by the market rather than by the state.

Some states have their own ingredient reporting or restricted-substance programs for cosmetics. These are real and they are not licensing schemes; they are disclosure and composition rules.

California, and ingredient disclosure

California runs the best-known of those programs, requiring reporting of certain ingredients in cosmetics sold there, alongside its general chemical warning regime.

It is worth checking whether anything in your formula is captured before you sell into the state, because the obligation attaches to selling there rather than to being based there, which catches anyone selling online.

The practical answer

Do the federal work properly, register the business locally, get the sales tax permit, insure it, and check ingredient disclosure for the states you actually sell into.

What you will not find is a state cosmetic license to obtain, and time spent looking for one is time not spent on safety substantiation, which is the obligation people actually miss.

References