Brand story: APAC updates from Sephora, Shiseido, J&J and more

Amorepacific and istyle extend partnership to launch Innisfree with @cosme​

K-beauty major Amorepacific is extending its partnership with Japanese retail and media company istyle by launching Innisfree at the @cosme TOKYO flagship.

Innisfree is now available at @cosme TOKYO, the retailer’s experiential flagship store in the Harajuku district.

The company said the motivation for expanding the brand with one of the most popular beauty retailers in Japan was to make Innisfree even more accessible for local consumers.

HUL reports make-up performance almost back up to pre-pandemic levels​

Indian consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is seeing the colour cosmetics category steadily recovering to 2019 pre-pandemic levels as India loosens COVID-19 restrictions.

As expected for discretionary categories, cosmetic sales took a “beating” ​during the pandemic as a result of COVID-19 disruptions, said Ritesh Tiwari, CFO and executive director, finance and IT.

However, Tiwari said that the company was “almost back”​ to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 for a majority of discretionary categories, including cosmetics.

LG H&H to mass produce cosmetic containers made from waste plastic oil from 2023​

LG Household & Health Care is partnering with Hyundai Chemical and Lotte Chemical to mass produce cosmetic containers made from 100% waste plastic oil starting from January 2023.

Waste plastic oil is derived by the pyrolysis of plastic debris, usually plastic waste that is difficult to recycle – like waste vinyl and composite materials.

The company said this was ‘a leap in eco-packaging’ and claims it is the first company in South Korea’s cosmetics industry to use 100% waste plastic oil for cosmetic packaging.

L’Oréal luxury division weighed down by China’s COVID-affected skin care market​

L’Oreal’s luxury division, Luxe, continues to be weighed down by the repeated lockdowns in China, its CEO claims.

Despite this, and while the French beauty giant did not share a breakdown of its skin care sales, CEO Nicolas Hieronimus revealed that all of its brands were growing at double digits.

Speaking during the firm’s latest third quarter (Q3) sales conference, he highlighted the strength of its luxury division, which posted growth of 4.6% like-for-like.

L’Occitane H1: Hong Kong, Australia, and Malaysia lead APAC growth as China continues to slump​

L’Occitane International has reported that Asia Pacific grew by 1.9% at constant rates in the first half (H1), despite the second consecutive quarter of double-digit declines for China.

The French cosmetics company said overall the second quarter (Q2) of its 2023 financial year performed slightly better in the APAC region, with most markets posting double-digit growth.

The region was led by Hong Kong, Australia, and Malaysia. Hong Kong in particular posted double-digit growth in Q2 thanks to its travel retail and cross-border online businesses.