Eco-friendly beauty for China: Shiseido’s new R&D centre to focus on development of green products

This follows Shiseido’s 2019 launch of its China Business Innovation & Investment Representative Office, which is dedicated to developing businesses in response to the market trends in China.

The new Oriental Beauty Valley branch will serve as an advanced research and prototype development centre.

First opened in 2015, The Oriental Beauty Valley is an industrial park located in the Fengxian District of Shanghai, China.

Known as China’s city of cosmetics, the park is home to various companies and institutes specialising in beauty and personal care as well as food, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

According to the company, Shiseido is the first top-ranked global beauty companies to set up shop in the economic district.

A Shiseido spokesperson told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that the hub will give the firm access to collaborative opportunities.

“The Oriental Beauty Valley comprises a wide range of companies and talents from health and beauty industries. We believe it is the most suitable place to incorporate outside ideas to realise innovative research and development.”​

A green mission

According to the spokesperson, the firm believes it is its ‘mission’ to develop environmentally friendly cosmetics.

It believes this is the right time to set up shop in the Oriental Beauty Valley as Chinese consumers are becoming more eco-conscious, due to both internal and external influences.

“China began waste sorting in Shanghai city last year, and this has triggered the Chinese consumer to think more about environmental protection. Also, the global beauty trends have inspired these new attitudes,”​ said the spokesperson.

She added that health conscious Chinese consumers, tend to associate green products with health and this would spur the trend on even more.

“China is a market where innovations occur in various fields speedily, from these aspects we foresee the demands in products with a sustainability concept will increase.”​

In order to develop such products, the company hopes to collaborate with other companies in the Oriental Beauty Valley across various areas such as material, formulation, production and packaging development.

“It will be effective to gather the professionals from various fields... There are already many companies from healthcare and beauty sectors with a presence in the Oriental Beauty Valley and there will be more companies to come; they are all potential partners that we can conduct research with.”​

In addition, the new R&D facility will focus on the development of utility evaluation methods that suit Chinese consumers’ skin types.

The rep highlighted that this was a crucial area of study as it will help the firm deliver high quality products to its consumers.

She stressed that this evaluation method would need to be objective and the firm would be able to achieve that by partnering with other companies to develop it.

“An objective evaluation method is crucial for us to deliver the good quality of our products to the consumers. In order to make an evaluation method trustworthy by the consumers, it is better to develop the method with other companies.”​