Fresh numbers from China‘s beauty market shows signs of recovery — with global players, such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder, taking the lead.
Based on skin care online sales data from Future Beauty, a local beauty research firm, L’Oréal Paris led first-quarter sales with 2.245 billion renminbi, or $312 million, followed by Lancôme and Estée Lauder in second and third place, with 2.179 billion renminbi, or $303 million, and 2.128 billion renminbi, or $296 million, respectively.
Despite slower momentum in March — combined sales of skin care, color cosmetics and perfumes rose 3 percent year-over-year, according to data from Meritco — L’Oréal and Estée Lauder still clocked double-digit growth.
Based on data from Jefferies, which tracks beauty sales across Tmall, JD.com and Douyin, L’Oréal online sales rose 15 percent year-over-year in March, with skin care growing 13 percent — led by SkinCeuticals, CeraVe, and Kiehl’s — while color cosmetics saw strong momentum at Lancôme and YSL.
Mixed performance was observed at other multinational corporations, with standout brands like SK-II growing at 62 percent in March, and Cetaphil growing at 40 percent.
Domestic players continue to lose share online, with Proya declining 19 percent year-over-year in March, and other local brands, such as Kans, Comfy and Marubi, also reporting share losses, based on Jefferies.
According to Future Beauty, channel penetration has peaked online, particularly for skin care.
“Skin care is one of the earliest and most mature categories in e-commerce, with channel penetration reaching 77.5 percent — nearing its ceiling,” said Future Beauty in a recent report.
“After years of heavy promotional efforts, such as during Singles’ Day, consumer fatigue has set in, and [consumers] are now less willing to stockpile on goods,” wrote the report.
Future Beauty noted that this structural shift in the local market led to the slowdown in domestic brands’ online growth. “Leading domestic players have strategically shifted their focus to offline channels in the first quarter. That means marketing budgets are moving offline, resulting in negative growth in the overall online space,” wrote Future Beauty.
“In a saturated market, growth momentum will come from ‘price expansion’, not ‘volume expansion,’ relying more on advanced efficacy, such as anti-aging and repair,” Future Beauty added.
Compared to skin care’s need to wait for efficacy validation, color cosmetics offer immediate gratification, lower decision-making costs, and even the promise of going viral online.
According to Jefferies, at Estée Lauder, Jo Malone has had a strong start to the year, with sales spiking 49 percent in March and Tom Ford steadily growing 26 percent in the same month. However, the Estée Lauder color brand declined 25 percent, reflecting a tough comparison base compared to the same time last year.
“Market involution continued in the first quarter; however, the fragrance category is still monopolized by international brands, in particular online, where consumers often ‘blind buy’ well-known classic products from major brands, such as Chanel No. 5 or Dior J’adore, to reduce the cost of trial and error. For domestic fragrance brands to truly break through, they need to adopt a differentiated positioning, such as oriental scent profiles or emotional healing properties, and capture young consumers’ need for entry-level fragrances. They also need to build their offline experiences to accumulate brand value,” said Future Beauty.
Based on data from Daxue Consulting, an optimistic view of the color’s category growth projects an 11.9 percent annual growth rate from 2025 to 2030, dwarfing skin care’s 4 percent growth.
“The focus will continue to be less on beautification, such as covering blemishes, and more on self-expression, including enhancing natural beauty and expressing identity, emotions and individuality,” said Sory Park, project manager at Daxue Consulting, who added that “makeup and skin care as one” is becoming more mainstream, as are products with fun factors, such as those that can be turned into keychains, charms, and other accessories.
“More specifically, Chinese consumers desire a healthy, radiant and premium look,” Park added.
“Foreign luxury brands are likely to remain at the top rankings, but local brands are also expected to steadily close the gap. Local high-end brands such as Mao Geping are emerging, showing that C-beauty brands can also attain some level of luxury positioning,” said Park.
