A high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous determination of four α-hydroxyacids (AHAs, Glycolic acid, dl-Malic acid, Lactic acid and Citric acid) in cosmetics. Samples were analyzed using a reverse-phase C18 column (Capcell PAK C18 UG120 S-5 μm) with 2% phosphoric acid (pH 2.0) as mobile phase at 210 nm. Calibration curves of four α-hydroxyacids were constructed in the range of 50-500 μg/mL and their correlation coefficients were in the range of 0.9992-0.9995. The relative standard deviations of four α-hydroxyacids for intraday and interday analyses were 0.05~1.49% and 0.72~3.24%, respectively. The average recoveries of four α-hydroxyacids ranged from 96.3% to 99.2%.