For perfume, home-fragrance and Gulf-scent brands
In Korea, the same oil is a perfume on the wrist and a chemical product in the room.
Korea splits scent by where it goes. Sprayed or rubbed on the body, it is a cosmetic under MFDS. Released into a home, a car or a sofa, it is an air freshener, a deodorizer or a candle under the environment ministry, and it needs a laboratory safety confirmation, a report within 30 days and a Korean label with a report number before the first sale. Scent Border puts your product on one side of that line, shows what that side asks for, and plans the tests for a range of scents. It runs in your browser; nothing is sent or kept.
Worked example3 SKU
A Gulf house brings three products to Seoul: an oud attar, a bakhoor, and a "room and body" mist.
- Oud attarWorn on skin: a perfume.
- BakhoorBurned to scent a room, with perfume added: an air freshener, burning type (our reading).
- Room & body mistSold for both: it must meet both laws.
Three things brands learn late
A reed diffuser cannot be sold on a cosmetics registration.
The importer who already brings in your perfume is registered under the Cosmetics Act. Your diffuser, candle and car clip follow a different act, a different ministry and a different system, and each product type is confirmed by a designated laboratory before it is made or imported.
Chemical Products Act art. 10(1); Notice 2026-215 annex 1
Thirty days, then the result lapses.
Once the laboratory sends its result, the report to the ministry is due within 30 days. KEITI’s own manual warns that an unreported result is void. Selling without the report can mean up to three years in prison or a KRW 30 million fine.
Decree art. 5(3); Act art. 58; KEITI manual (2022)
Twelve scents can share one test.
A product with the same use and the same form as one already confirmed, and no change in the substances the safety standard limits, is reported as a derivative without a new test. Change the form, from diffuser to spray, and it is a new representative product. Change to a fragrance that brings in a limited substance, and it fails.
Notice 2026-215 art. 5(6); KEITI Q&A (2022)
Where this stops
Scent Border places a product on the line and lists the steps. It does not test a formula against the banned and limited substances, check ingredients for the Cosmetics Act, write your label, or cover biocide claims such as antibacterial or insect-repelling, which take a separate approval. A laboratory and the regulator do those.