China Focus: Our top stories featuring China’s cosmetics industry

1 – Animal testing ban still ‘unlikely’ even as China greenlights alternative processes for cosmetic ingredients

China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved two animal-free cosmetic testing methods but it is still a long way from banning​ animal tests completely.

The NMPA drafted the acceptance of nine test methods including two animal-free tests: Direct Peptide Reaction Assay (DPRA) for Skin Sensitization and Short Time Exposure Assay (STE) for eye irritation.

From January 1, 2020, these tests will be the preferred toxicological tests for the registration and pre-market approval of cosmetic ingredients, but not final formulations.

2 – China’s consumption upgrade pushing e-commerce giant Tmall to bring in more beauty

China’s growing appetite for cosmetic products is pushing e-commerce platform Tmall​ to bring in more beauty products to satisfy its consumers' demands.

Chen Xi, the general manager of Tmall Cosmetics, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that Tmall’s beauty sales did exceedingly well last year.

“Tmall’s sales of beauty products jumped over 60% last year, surpassing the industry’s average growth rate of 37%. Online sales of cosmetics and personal care products rose 37% and 36% respectively in China. This is also ahead of the whole fast-moving consumer goods sector average of 32%.”                                             ​

The company announced at its annual beauty summit in March that it expected international and domestic cosmetics brands to open 1,000 shops this year on its platform.

It revealed brands such as Tom Ford, Glamglow, Oriental Therapy, d-program, Primera and Barnangen have signed agreements to open flagship stores on Tmall this year.    

3 – Five mega-trends that will affect China’s beauty industry – Insights from Dow

Dow believes there are five mega-trends have the potential​ to create new opportunities and propel the growth of China’s personal care industry.

Jennifer Liang, Greater China commercial manager for home and personal care said: “We see big areas of growth which will take shape in the next several years.”

The first mega-trend the company has observed is the rise of the middle-class.

“The growing middle class globally translates into more disposable income creating more market potential and this will create a new need for products that offer new benefits at more affordable costs,”​ explained Liang.

This would then lead to the second trend, which is increasing urbanisation. This will contribute to urban pollution and drive consumers to seek products with anti-pollution properties.

4 – A.S. Watson plans to open over 1,300 stores this year with one-third planned for China

Health and beauty retailer A.S. Watson Group says it plans to open over 1,300 stores this year and one-third of the launches will be in China.​

The company just celebrated the opening it of its 15,000th store, a Watsons located in Central i-City, Malaysia.

According to the company, it has been opening new stores at an average speed of one store every seven hours across its 25 markets in Asia and Europe for the fourth year in the row.

“Continuing this momentum, we will be expanding at the speed of one store every seven hours. In 2019 we target to open over 1,300 stores, around one-third will be in China,”​ said Dominic Lai, group managing director of A.S. Watson Group.

5 – Colour is China's biggest design trend: Centdegrés highlights multi-sensory experience at Luxepack Shanghai

Creative agency Centdegrés collaborated with tradeshow Luxepack Shanghai to stage INKside Colours, a sensorial experience that explored the role of colour in China’s history, and tapped into what it believes is China's number one design trend.​

At last week's show, the agency unveiled six colours that hold special significance and symbolism to the Chinese culture.

“We collaborated with Coloro, which is backed by China Textile Information Center to create the palette. One of the goals of this division is to work with experts to dig into Chinese history and catalogue Chinese traditional colours,”​ said Matthieu Rochette-Schneider, general manager of Centdegrés China and South Asia.