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

1— Domestic domination: Research reveals local beauty brands now make up 56% of market in China

Local beauty brands are now occupying more than half of China’s cosmetics market, suggesting that these homegrown players are ready​ to tackle international labels.

The 2019 National Beauty Report by Tencent Holdings and Kantar Group, found that 42% of beauty consumers are more willing to choose local over foreign brands, while almost 90% of respondents said they were likely to repurchase products from a local brand.      

The beginning of the C-beauty era?​

The perception of C-beauty companies in the local beauty market has made a phenomenal transformation. Interestingly, the report noted that price was not the only advantage domestic brands had over the foreign ones.

In fact, consumers that reported price as the key reason for choosing a local brand dropped from 48% in 2007 to 26% in 2018.

However, some budget-conscious consumers choose to support local brands as a ‘value-for-money’ alternative to international brands.

2 – MaskiD in Asia: Neutrogena to debut personalised 3D-printed mask in China

Johnson & Johnson is planning to launch Neutrogena’s 3D-printed personalised mask​ in Asia in the first quarter of 2020, beginning with China.

The personal care giant unveiled MaskiD to China in June at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia in Shanghai, where it captured plenty of interest from visitors.

“We’re thrilled to bring MaskiD to CES Asia and share the new era of skin care personalisation with China. We believe MaskiD will bring Chinese consumers revolutionary skin care solutions tailored to their individual needs,” ​said Ellesha Kirby, vice-president of skin health, Johnson & Johnson Asia-Pacific.

Eye on China​

Neutrogena first unveiled MaskiD at CES held in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year.

The product is a micro 3D-printed face mask that is customised with personalised data from the Neutrogena Skin360 system.

3 – Chanel expands online presence in China with launch on Tmall’s luxury platform

Chanel launches official store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion​ to provide luxury beauty consumers “unique and convenient” ​access to its cosmetics and fragrances.

This is the first time the French luxury house is working with a third-party e-commerce operator in China. Previously, its products were only available offline and on its own online store.

The flagship will launched in September, but pre-sale began on July 5 to give Chinese consumers access to its full range of cosmetics and fragrance.

Luxury features​

Chanel’s Tmall flagship offers real-time consultation by online beauty advisors and free shipping for all purchases.

Consumers can also sign up for the brand’s membership program, allowing them to receive privileges such as being the first to sample new products and attend exclusive offline events.

4 — Novena Global Lifecare gains access to AI tech with $350m Xingkeduo merger

Singapore Healthcare and aesthetic firm Novena Global Lifecare has completed a $350m merger​ which will give it access to Xingkeduo’s proprietary AI technology, e-commerce platform and its physical network of stores across China.

Xingkeduo is an express hair salon chain powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).  According to the company, it has served more than three million customers and over six million sales transactions made online.

The merger with Xingkeduo will make China the largest market for Novena Global Lifecare.

A new hybrid concept​

Terrence Loh, co-founder of DORR Group, which owns Novena Global Lifecare, believes China and South East Asia are the most promising markets for beauty and medical care.

“We believe we are well positioned to seize opportunities, especially in its highly fragmented aesthetic healthcare market. There’s definitely room for a well-run, well-funded integrated practice that provides affordable and accessible healthcare and medical aesthetics services to the mass market.”​

5 – Virtual beauty: L’Oréal teams up with Tencent to debut ModiFace in China

L'Oréal Group has launched of its Augmented Reality (AR) make-up try-on application ModiFace in China via WeChat’s​ mini program for Giorgio Armani Beauty.

“The debut of ModiFace's 3D makeup try-on application on China’s social media, is L’Oréal China’s new milestone under the Group’s vision to be a champion of beauty-tech,” ​said Fabrice Megarbane, CEO of L’Oréal China.

The AR application on the updated Giorgio Armani Beauty mini program will allow consumers screenshot, save and share images as well as view before and after images to elevate the consumer shopping experience on the app.

The company believes its technology “breaks through the limitations of existing applications in terms of detail, accuracy, loading time and colour deviation”, ​allowing it to compete with smart mirrors with similar tech seen in offline retail stores.