One of the questions we heard most often while getting Konecta ready was whether sending cosmetics to South America is really as hard as people say. At first, I assumed it would mostly come down to having the right customs paperwork. But going through the Peruvian and Chilean markets one by one, I realized just how naive that assumption was.
The first thing we ran into was Peru's NSO. Short for Notificación Sanitaria Obligatoria, it's a mandatory sanitary declaration that any cosmetic product has to clear before it can be sold. The application isn't filed with a single agency — it goes through VUCE, Peru's single-window trade portal — and it requires submitting a sworn statement detailing the product's exact ingredients and formulation ratios, along with its sensory and microbiological specifications. Going through each document one by one, it became clear this isn't just administrative red tape — it's a tightly built system meant to protect consumers.
The NSO has one notable feature: once approved, it's valid for seven years, and can be renewed after that. That said, any change to a product's ingredients or formula — even a small one — has to be reported again before it can be sold, and regular inspections continue even after approval. Samples for market research can be shipped without an NSO, but they must be clearly labeled as not for sale, and actual sales aren't allowed under that exemption.
Chile takes a somewhat different approach. Its health authority, the ISP (Instituto de Salud Pública), manages sanitary declarations and registrations for cosmetics, and the first difference from Peru is that, depending on the type of product, you go through either a declaration or a full registration. Labels must be in Spanish and include all required information without exception, and getting the customs classification exactly right is another important step. Looking into the mistakes that come up most often, the usual suspects were: incorrect ingredient listing, a missing sanitary declaration, an incomplete Spanish label, and the wrong customs classification — small details that trip up a surprising number of shipments.
We learned all over again that exporting cosmetics isn't about shipping a product — it's about faithfully clearing each country's sanitary standards.
Peru's NSO and Chile's ISP have different names and different procedures, but the purpose both countries are ultimately protecting is the same: making sure a safe product reaches the consumer. Konecta is preparing its move into the South American market by working through each of these two sets of standards one at a time. We learned all over again that exporting cosmetics isn't about shipping a product — it's about faithfully clearing each country's sanitary standards.
It was a complicated, unfamiliar process, but it also gave us a real sense of just how carefully the South American market looks after consumer safety. We're sorting through this process piece by piece, and we plan to keep sharing what we learn along the way, honestly.