Xu Lei, president of JD Group, as CEO of JD Group, will be responsible for daily operation and management, and report to Richard Liu, chairman of the board of directors of JD Group. Richard Liu will devote more energy to long-term strategic design, major strategic decision-making and deployment, young leading talent training and rural revitalization. Less than a year later, China’s independent e-commerce company JD Group has gone through a major personnel adjustment. On the morning of April 7th (Beijing time), JD Group issued an announcement that Xu Lei①, president of JD Group, will succeed Richard Liu② as the chief executive officer (CEO) of JD Group. At the same time, Xu Lei will join the board of directors of JD Group as an executive director. Richard Liu will continue to serve as the chairman of the board of directors and is committed to the company's long-term strategic design, the deployment of major strategic decisions, young leading talent training and rural revitalization. According to the Chinese industry, the deployment of major strategic decisions means that Richard Liu still has decision-making power over JD Group's major strategies. Not long ago, JD Group released its 2021 annual financial report with the net income of JD Group in 2021 reaching $149.3 billion as well as an increase of 27.6 per cent over the whole year of 2020. Its mainstream Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com increased its omnichannel Gross Merchandise Volume in 2021 by nearly 80% year-on-year. In addition, JD Beauty’s omnichannel business has also gained rapid growth, with a service network covering more than 7,000 stores, spreading to 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China and more than 320 cities. Among them, there are not only beauty collection stores such as Sephora, Watsons, The Colorist, WOW COLOUR and etc., but also beauty brand offline stores such as Innisfree and Perfect Diary. As more and more beauty brands join JD Beauty's omnichannel business, rapid improvement has been achieved in terms of the variety of products and brands, as well as the extensity of services. During the double eleven festivals, more than 5,000 beauty chain stores participated in the event, with turnover doubled year-on-year. The turnover of the “hourly purchase” business merchants such as Mannings and Gialen increased by more than 1.5 times year-on-year. Perfumes and makeup sets are very popular, and the turnover has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year. During the JD Beauty 38 (Women's Day) shopping festival, “Her Power” was highlighted in the consumer market. Many beauty brands and single products hit a new high, and the turnover of the first 4 hours in the festival increased by 5 times year-on-year. High-end beauty and Chinese beauty brands have done a good performance with the turnover of more than 1000 brands such as Estée Lauder and Proya increasing by more than a hundred percent year-on-year. High-end beauty brands come on top of the consumer's “hoarding list” all year round. L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme, SK-II, Estée Lauder and OlAY won the brand transaction list Top5. Popular products like Lancôme Tonique Confort, SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair also became the top three crazes during the festival. Proya, CHANDO and Pechoin are ranked in the top three of Chinese brands. One Leaf Rosa Fresh Hydration Facial Mask, KANS Seven Set, Pechoin Muscle Initial Vitality Gift Box became the top three crazes of Chinese beauty brand turnover. In addition, China’s new brands also made a great breakthrough in the festival of JD Beauty with the overall turnover rising by more than a hundred percent, of which the turnover of Brands such as MAKE ESSENSE, PMPM and ZHUBEN increased by 10 times year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that from April 8th to April 17th (Beijing time) China’s local instant retail platform JD Daojia and JD will launch the “415 Shopping Promotion Festival” for the first time, which will also be the largest ever in the history of JD Daojia's anniversary celebration for the “415 festival”. There will be more than 150,000 physical stores across the country where more than 1,700 counties, regions and cities in China are included including Sephora and Zhongbai Warehousing joining in this event, which covers beauty, fashion and other categories. ① Xu Lei: Xu Lei has been with JD Group for more than 10 years, especially since he became CEO of JD Retail in July 2018, and he has led the retail business to achieve high-quality growth for three consecutive years. Recently, during his tenure as the President of JD Group, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations and synergistic development of the various business segments. Previously, he served as CEO of JD Retail, Chief Marketing Officer of JD Group, Head of Wireless Business Department, and Head of Marketing Department of JD Mall. He also led the design of the "JD 618 marketing campaign", which has now become one of the iconic events of China’s annual economy. ② Richard Liu: Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of JD Group. In 2004, Mr. Liu founded "Jingdong"(JD.com). Under his leadership, JD Group was listed on the NASDAQ in May 2014. JD Group is positioned as a "supply chain-based technology and service enterprise" and currently covers multiple business sectors such as retail, technology, logistics, health, insurance, production and development, and overseas businesses. Since the comprehensive transformation to technology in 2017, JD has invested nearly 12.576 billion US dollars in technology research and development.

Whether the 27th Shanghai China Beauty Expo(CBE), which plan to be opened on May 12, will be held as scheduled has triggered heated debate in China's cosmetics industry. Its founder, Sang Jingmin, responded that the details will be officially announced next week. On April 6, Beijing time (all times below are Beijing time), the news of "Shanghai China Beauty Expo(CBE) postponed due to the epidemic" spread on Chinese social media platforms. According to the previous plan, the 27th CBE will be held in Shanghai New International Expo Centre (Pudong) from May 12 to 14. It is reported that the area of 27th CBE enjoyed 260,000 square meters, covering skin care, cosmetics and beauty tools, hair products, care products, perfumes and fragrances, OEM / ODM, raw materials, packaging and other categories. The 26th CBE, with an exhibition area of 230,000 square meters, attracted 3,200 exhibitors and 10,000+ brands. It gathered professional buyers and visitors from more than 80 countries and regions and attracted 1.21 million online visitors and generated 4,170 online trade demands. Official information shows that CBE is held in Shanghai every year in May, and has been successfully held for 26 consecutive sessions so far and it is a global beauty industry chain-wide business service platform. As a beauty exhibition that has landed on the list of the top 100 world business exhibitions for five consecutive years from 2017 to 2021, CBE includes cosmetic exhibition, professional beauty exhibition and CBE SUPPLY expo, and opens a series of year-round touring exhibitions in many places in China. As the time to hold is getting closer, many Chinese industry players are anxious that "Can Shanghai CBE be held as scheduled this year?" At the same time, the news about "affected by the epidemic, Shanghai CBE can not be held on time" spread on the Internet. In this regard, the show organizer revealed that "the probability may be postponed, but the new schedule after the postponement will definitely need to be reformulated according to the situation of the epidemic, and the results will not be available so soon." The founder of Shanghai CBE, Sang Jingmin, responded that the details will be officially announced next week. In fact, every year since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, exhibitions related to the Chinese cosmetics industry have been postponed or even suspended due to the epidemic. On March 11 this year, the 59th Guangzhou China International Beauty Expo closed early due to the epidemic prevention and control. At the same time, the Office of the Joint Conference on the Reform and Development of the Guangzhou Convention and Exhibition Industry of the Guangzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau issued an "Emergency Notice on the Suspension of Recent Exhibition Activities" stating that all exhibition activities in Guangzhou were suspended with immediate effect. Likewise, Cosmoprof Asia, which has been suspended offline for two years, officially announced that it will be held in Singapore in November this year in the form of a special exhibition for no other reason. The Asia Pacific Beauty Show, which has been held for 24 sessions in Hong Kong, had chosen to carry out the show in online form in 2020 and 2021 due to the epidemic. In addition, on March 18, Hainan Provincial Bureau of International Economic Development informed that "due to the epidemic situation, the second China International Consumer Products Expo, originally scheduled for April 12-16 in Hainan, was confirmed to be postponed until mid to late May this year, the specific time to be determined." On the evening of April 7, the organizing committee of the China International Beauty Expo in the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai also issued an announcement that the 60th China International Beauty Expo which was originally planned to be held from May 16 to 18, 2022, has been postponed to November 24 to 26, 2022, after a prudent decision. According to the latest available information: Shanghai New International Expo Center has been converted into a mobile cabin hospital, medical teams from all over China are moving in to take over the hospital and have started the admission of confirmed patients with COVID-19.

Market Supervision Departments of Chenghai District, Shantou City implemented an unannounced inspection of small workshops of children's cosmetics. 7 enterprises suspected of producing without relevant certificate is banned and blocked their electricity and water. The other three fully licensed enterprises were conducted for spot checks and were disposed of according to the results of law enforcement. Recently, the Market Supervision and Management Department of Chenghai District, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, China, conducted an unannounced inspection of small workshops of children's cosmetics. After inspection, it was found that some toy manufacturers did not obtain cosmetic production licenses and produced children's cosmetics products illegally. Some have obtained a cosmetic production license for the production of children's cosmetics without cosmetic recordation. Some enterprises even produced children's makeup with the implementation of toy safety standards. The Market Supervision and Management Department of Chenghai District, Shantou City investigated and block a total of seven enterprises suspected of unlicensed production. The violations found by inspection are punished and the relevant enterprises to implement rectification are ordered. The companies operated without a license are sealed, disconnected water and electricity. The other three fully licensed enterprises were conducted for spot checks and were disposed of according to the results of law enforcement. In response to the chaos of children's cosmetics, the children’s cosmetic market was regulated and rectified in multiple regions such as Beijing, Henan, Sichuan, Shanxi, Liaoning, and others. On the one hand, the production of products and companies registered for the recordation will be inspected from the source of raw materials, product labeling and other aspects. On the other hand, the operation of supermarkets, mother and baby stores, baby bathing centers, cosmetics centralized trading markets and other business units will be monitored and inspected. At present, Chinese children's parents are mostly born after 1980(including 1980). They enjoy more advanced and open-minded consumption and follow the idea of "love of beauty as nature", which means they are more willing to pay for their children to become beautiful. And with the prevalence of short videos and live streaming in China, various influencers and bloggers are constantly instilling the idea that "beauty should start at a young age" and frantically selling related products, which has a brainwashing effect. As a result, businesses have caught on to the huge benefits of children's makeup, and products are popping up all over the place. When you open Chinese e-commerce platforms, some "children's dressing table" toys, including eye shadow, blush, lipstick, and nail polish are selling very well in the market. On December 9, 2021, China's National Medical Products Administration issued a message to the public that "children's dressing table" toys consisting of eye shadow, blush, lipstick, nail polish, and others, are actually toy products produced by toy manufacturers for dolls to decorative use only, which are not managed as cosmetics. Children will suffer certain safety risks if they misuse such toys as cosmetics. Moreover, Chinese children's cosmetics should be labeled with the full composition of the product and other information, and Chinese domestic cosmetics should be labeled with the cosmetic production license number. In addition, from May 1, 2022, when the application for registration or recordation of children's cosmetics, the label must be marked "Xiao Jin Dun" (Little Gold Shield, a children's cosmetics logo); If children's cosmetics are previously applied for registration or recordation, the label with “Xiao Jin Dun” should be completed before May 1, 2023. "The children's makeup market should be strengthened in system and regulations and standardized guidance and regulation also should be conducted. Parents should also raise their own awareness to hold the correct view and use of children's cosmetics. At the same time, the relevant departments should increase supervision. Children's makeup in the name of toys, the lack of safety components and the failed quality should be resolutely outlawed," a professional advised.

Deciem owned by Estee Lauder stated to close its niche brands HIF, Hylamide, Abnomaly, and The Chemistry Brand to focus on its another brands The Ordinary and high-end brand NIOD. Deciem, which is owned by Estee Lauder, recently announced that it was dropping its niche brands HIF, Hylamide, Abnomaly, and The Chemistry Brand lines to focus on its remaining brands: NIOD and The Ordinary. Estée Lauder's Deciem business is dropping its HIF, Hylamide, Abnomaly, and The Chemistry Brand lines, with customers able to buy their products until their inventories run out, according to a company Instagram post. The company said in its Instagram post that customers are able to buy their products until their inventories run out. Deciem was founded in 2013 and describes itself as "a beauty company with a genuine commitment to ingredients. After Estée Lauder Group completed its first acquisition of Deciem, it said Deciem's innovative multi-brand strategy is driven by a vertically integrated structure (with its own lab, product line, e-commerce platform, retail stores and marketing base) that allows the company to quickly identify opportunities to create and incubate new brands and deliver high-quality, highly sought-after products. The company said that the focus on brands will give it the space to innovate through new brands in the future. As of today (April 7, 2022, BST), the products on sale on the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall Global Deciem's overseas flagship store are dominated by The Ordinary and Niod. Its brand Hylamide products still have 5 SKUs on sale and its best selling is HYLAMIDE C25 Stablized Vitamin C Booster with monthly sales volume of 59 units with the price of $51.7. The Chemistry Brand still has 2 SKUs on sale with total sales volume of 2000 units and monthly sales of 45 units with price range from $14.6 to $37.3. The remaining, two brands, HIF and Abnomaly, are not sold in their overseas flagship stores. Currently, the majority stake in the company belongs to Estee Lauder Company. In 2017, Estee Lauder acquired 29% of the shares of Deciem, the parent company of The Ordinary, and later acquired a majority stake in Deciem in 2021 for about $1 billion, so that Estee Lauder's shareholding rose to 76%. The company said that it would acquire the remaining shares within 3 years thereafter and the initial price of the deal was $1 billion. Tracey Travis, executive vice president and CFO of Estee Lauder Company, has previously said that the company will always consider rationalizing its brand portfolio and divesting some businesses, and that such rationalization will cover stores, special stores and specific brands. Deciem's net sales for the 12 months ended Jan. 31, 2021, almost doubled to about $460 million since being owned by Estee Lauder Group, with The Ordinary playing a starring role. The Ordinary can be said to be a brand that has made a name for itself as an ingredient beauty brand. Known as the "affordable ingredient bucket", its biggest attraction is the "cheap and strong efficacy". With "transparency, sincerity, professionalism as the core concept of the brand, it insists on making sincere ingredient beauty. Cutting into the skincare sector by ingredients, The Ordinary has gathered popular potent ingredients such as amygdalin, retinol, A-alcohol, caffeine, and vitamin C under its umbrella. To date, in the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall Global, comparing with the data on February 24, 2021, Deciem's overseas flagship store has increased followers from 598,000 to 997,000. Its highest selling products has changed from The Ordinary Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA with monthly sales volume of 6,600+ units to The Ordinary AHA 30% +BHA 2% Peeling Solution with monthly sales volume of 10,000 units. It can be seen that 73 SKUs are available in its flagship store. On the promotional page of its best-selling product, it claims that the product has sold 1 million+ bottles worldwide in 2021 at a price of $15.6. In terms of data, both sales and followers are on an upward trend. In 2018, Brandon Truaxe, the founder of The Ordinary’s parent company Deciem, suddenly posted on Deciem's official Instagram account that Deciem would close all stores and would soon go out of business and accused the company's employees and more than 40 brands such as Estee Lauder Group of being involved in illegal activities. Beauty giant Estee Lauder Group, a shareholder and significant stakeholder in Deciem, took the brand's founder and CEO Brandon to court after the incident, seeking his removal from his position as CEO after he made inappropriate comments and actions. The judgment was handed down less than a week later.

According to a Chinese data analysis platform Feigua.cn, during the period of March 2022, Chinese makeup brand PRAMY has reached sales of $5.99 million on TikTok and Kwai, the two of China’s most mainstream live streaming platforms. According to Feigua.cn, in March, PRAMY's sales revenue was about $5.49 million on TikTok, with sales volume reaching 728,000, views 8.243 million, and live streams of 22,000. The monthly sales volume of a single link of a single product of PRAMY reached a maximum of 155,000. In March, PRAMY’s whole figures were about $600,000 on Kwai, with sales reaching 83,000, live streams 71.35 million, and 598 live streamers selling PRAMY goods. The monthly sales of a single link of PRAMY reached a maximum of 8,788, and the monthly sales reached $94,700. According to the customer service of Taobao's flagship store, established in South Korea in 2014, PRAMY was acquired by a Chinese company in 2016 and has now become a Chinese brand. PRAMY has its own beauty research laboratory backed by the world's top makeup supply chain where a variety of products are jointly developed with Dr. Seungyong Ko, Ph.D. in Molecular Sciences of Seoul National University, and PRAMY has also reached strategic cooperation with Merck KGaA, the world's top technology company. PRAMY’s future direction is dedicated to the professional makeup field, thus bringing more beauty solutions to consumers. According to PRAMY's official website, PRAMY is a professional makeup brand. It focuses on and explores long-term makeup holding technology, creatively integrates makeup craftsmanship with science and technology, and deeply cultivates the field of professional makeup setting. PRAMY's products include makeup setting spray, makeup setting powder, eyeshadow primer, waterproof liquid eyebrow gel, powder, eyeliner, foundation cream, loose face powder, blush, makeup remover cleansing oil, eyebrow pencil, highlighter, lip balm stick, eye shadow, lipstick and etc, among which the makeup setting series are its star products. The most popular product in the PRAMY makeup setting series is the moisturizing makeup setting spray which is divided into two versions: dewy finish and matte finish, and the targeted audience is people with oily skin and a combination of oily skin, dry skin, and dry combination skin. Declared as the “treasure of the company”, the setting spray added hyaluronic acid and rose water, a floral liquid gold, and adopted a moisturizing film forming technology so that some effects like the 12-hour long-lasting makeup, hydration and moisturizing as well as water and a perfect oil and water balance can be achieved. It is understood that when PRAMY first set foot in the field of makeup which is still in the state of “no one caring” in China. Almost no brands desire to explore in-depth small categories of makeup settings. It is in this market environment that PRAMY launched the first makeup setting spray in 2018 - the backstage moisturizing setting spray with its strong product strength and market acumen. As soon as the spray went public, it became a craze. Ranking first in the makeup setting spray category for three consecutive years, it also won the “2021 Meiyi Awards TOP Makeup Setting Award” and “OK! The Annual Favourite Makeup Spray”, the COSMOBOX good thing award “Cow YEAR Must Entering the High-tech Makeup Setting Spray”. It was also shortlisted for the Tmall Golden Makeup Award “Fashion Makeup Award” and other industry blockbuster awards, which shows the continued recognition by consumers and the industry for PRAMY. PRAMY's makeup setting products going viral is related to two factors, one is the high-quality PRAMY's products and the other is the outburst of the pandemic which further boosts the public's needs for makeup setting. The outburst of COVID-19 in 2019 has made the facial mask a necessity for people going out. While wearing the mask for a long period will easily contribute to sweating, oily face, mottled makeup, drying, and streaks, which enlarges the makeup demand of makeup groups unprecedentedly. According to the “2019 Top Ten Makeup Setting Spray Brand Value Analysis Report”, PRAMY's Makeup Setting Spray sold 72,000 in April, accounting for 52.6% of the total sales of the store. At present, PRAMY’s flagship store scores high in terms of the product description, seller service, and logistics service, reaching 4.8 points (out of 5 points). As of April 6, the backstage moisturizing setting spray has sold 100,000 plus more per month. Customer service said that the monthly sales of the backstage moisturizing makeup spray are 1.18 million plus more, with a total sales volume of 9.98 million bottles, which can circle the earth 3 times and can sell one bottle on average every 10 seconds. The pandemic is gradually coming to normalization in China and the heat of the makeup industry is not flagged, which will surely usher in more new brands. With more fierce competition to be faced, various brands in the whole industry need to ponder how to continuously lead the market. PRAMY believes that ensuring worry-free quality and reflecting the value of products with technological innovation is the way of PRAMY ’s products. Short and fast-traffic products will eventually be eliminated by the market. Only by continuously improving quality, promoting the brand value with consumer reputation, and concentrating on long-term branding, can PRAMY be precipitated into gold in the tide of the times.

It is reported by L'Oreal that the global beauty industry grew at 8% in 2021 and the market size is expected to exceed $250.2 billion. The U.S. and mainland China markets are the main growth drivers of the cosmetics market in the future, while e-commerce channels will also grow gradually. Recently, L'Oreal released its 2021 annual report showing that the global beauty industry grew at 8% in 2021 and the market size is expected to exceed $250.2 billion. According to L'Oréal data, the global cosmetics market growth rate bucked the trend from -8.1% in 2020 to 8.2% in 2021. The market showed a strong recovery in 2021. The growth trend of the market is also reflected in the performance of the beauty giants. According to statistics, after divesting the non-cosmetic business, the top 10 cosmetic companies in terms of global revenue were L'Oreal, Unilever, Estee Lauder, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Shiseido, Natura & CO, LVMH, Beiersdorf, and Kao in fiscal year 2021. The overall volume of top 10 cosmetic companies reached $139.089 billion in revenue. Estee Lauder, Coty, L'Oreal, LVMH and Shiseido all achieved double-digit growth. Among them, L'Oréal still leads the trend of beauty groups. LVMH has the highest growth rate with its cosmetics division including Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy, Benefit, and Fresh increasing revenue by up to 27% year-on-year. Hainan Duty Free Store in China made a significant contribution to that. Unilever has achieved the fastest underlying sales growth in nine years. In fiscal 2021, revenues of L'Oréal, Estee Lauder and Beiersdorf exceeded their revenue of pre-pandemic level in 2019. They have a commonality: luxury brands are driving growth. In 2021, L'Oreal's Luxe cosmetics division with sales of $14.183 billion overtook the mass cosmetics division for the first time and became the group's largest division, up more than 20% year-on-year. Strong performance has been shown from its brands such as Lancome, HR, Shu Uemura and others. Last fiscal year, net sales of Estee Lauder's Advanced Skincare Division increased 28% year-over-year to $9.534 billion and its operating profit reached $3.067 billion, of which LA MER achieved double-digit growth in global sales. Last year, La Prairie, Eucerin and Aquaphor were key to Beiersdorf's growth, with La Prairie sales up more than 20 percent year-over-year. By region, the data show that northern Asia was the largest market for cosmetics accounting for 35.1 percent. Followed by North America, it accounted for 25.7 percent and Europe accounted for 22.1 percent. From the perspective of the top three companies in terms of revenue last year, L'Oreal China has achieved strong growth of more than 20% in the past two years. Unilever grew 14.3% in the Chinese market last year far exceeding the 3.7% growth in the U.S. market. Estee Lauder's earnings report mentioned that sales in the Asia-Pacific region were $1.9 billion from October to December last year with net sales of skincare, fragrance and hair care products increasing by double-digit growth. It is shown that the Asian market especially the Chinese market has also become a battleground for cosmetic giants. In fact, in addition to foreign beauty groups, local Chinese cosmetics companies are also breaking through. For example, PROYA recently released its first quarter earnings forecast expecting net profit attributable to its parent company of 35% to 45% growth and its revenue is expected to grow 30% to 40% year-on-year. BTN achieved its net profit of $136 million in 2021 with an increase of 58.77% and Shanghai Jahwa is the highest increase in 6 years. By category, L'Oreal data show that skin care products accounted for 41.8% of the cosmetics market, followed by shampoo and hair care (21.90%), cosmetics category accounted for only 15.70%, perfume and hygiene products accounted for 10.70%, 9.90%, respectively. Among them, the largest share of the skincare market growth of 7.4% in 2021. 2020 suffered the biggest impact of the epidemic, but skincare market growth is also higher than the overall market growth. By channel, L'Oreal data said that global online sales of beauty products grew by 16%, with e-commerce accounting for about 24.5% of the beauty market, compared with a 22.8% share in 2019. Among them, L'Oreal mentioned social e-commerce mass, online content creators, games social interactive space, etc. are important for the future development of e-commerce. In summary, the global cosmetics market is currently showing recovery, skin care products, shampoo and hair care products are the main growth categories of the cosmetics market. The U.S. and mainland China markets are the main growth drivers of the cosmetics market in the future, while e-commerce channels will also grow gradually.

The Chinese skincare brand Little Dream Garden struck hard at counterfeiting. The joint law enforcement department successfully dismantled a large counterfeit processing dent in Shantou, Guangzhou, and many people were arrested on the spot. And after trial by the court, they were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one to two years and fined. On April 2nd (Beijing time), Chinese skincare brand Little Dream Garden’s official WeChat account posted an article “The brand has invested a lot of research and development costs and manpower and material resources, desiring to deliver better goods for consumers and upgrade the influence of the brand. However, there’re always unscrupulous merchants who use brand promotion to attract traffic through various ways and also to get popularity in the name of a certain model, a new product, a certain exclusive authorization and other ways. As a result, the potential consumer groups in brand market are misled to unscrupulous merchants.” It is understood that in February 2021, Little Dream Garden invested many of China’s online stores and confirmed that many stores physically label “Little Dream Garden” on their own products, some of them even selling counterfeit “Little Dream Garden” products. In March 2021, after more than a month of follow-up, a large processing plant in Shantou, Guangzhou, was finally discovered. After entering the target factory, it was found that there were several processing and filling machines in the production area of the factory, and by it, a box of cleansing milk empty pipes was printed with the words “Little Dream Garden”. A large number of empty bottles, cartons and anti-counterfeiting labels of “Little Dream Garden” products were also found. Production raw materials were found throughout the production area, with most of the raw material barrels not sealing and the on-site environment extremely poor. In September 2021, the perpetrators of the case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to two years and fined after a Chinese court trial. In fact, in recent years, Chinese brands that have been busy cracking down on counterfeiting have more than Little Dream Garden. As early as March 2020, Chinese makeup brand Florasis released 300,000 yuan (about $47,100) to the outside world to recruit anti-counterfeiting officials, and since then, Florasis has also added 300,000 anti-counterfeiting funds, calling on everyone to participate in the anti-counterfeiting. According to the official data released by Florasis, it has set up a special anti-counterfeiting rights protection team, accumulatively deleted 54,574 infringing links on the entire Chinese network platform, winning 65 verdicts of infringement, jointly cracking down on 13 administrative crackdowns by relevant Chinese law enforcement departments, and assisting Chinese public security organs in arresting 54 suspects involved in the case. In May 2020, geoskincare also assisted the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau in seizing a total of 910 counterfeit “geoskincare” primers, masks and other products. In December of the same year, it assisted the Shanghai Huangpu Public Security Bureau to seize 193 counterfeit “geoskincare” primers, 80 sunscreen creams, 7,000 facial creams and other products. “Once counterfeit and shoddy cosmetics are circulated in the market, in addition to the brand itself being affected, consumers and even the entire cosmetics industry in China will suffer to varying degrees.” Some insiders in the Chinese cosmetics industry pointed out. For consumers, the effectiveness and safety of counterfeit cosmetics are not guaranteed. Once using fakes, the light outcome is ineffective skincare, while the heavy one might be skin allergies, bad face and other situations, which will also cause damage to personal physical and mental health. For counterfeit brands, inferior products will ruin brand reputation, leading to a loss for brand image, even triggering unsuspecting consumers to question and resulting in a lack of user trust. For the cosmetics industry, when the products that the brand painstakingly develops are counterfeited, the enthusiasm for brand research and development is hit, and the enthusiasm for research and development is reduced, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the entire industry. At the same time, the spread of fake goods at low prices will also disrupt the market price system. Counterfeit cosmetics have reached various online and offline channels; interests drive some channels to participate in the sale of true and false; it is difficult to protect rights and enforce the law after the brand has been infringed; consumers are indifferent to the awareness of true and false goods; false publicity, online promotion, channel monopoly, uneven development and other factors have brought unhealthy inducements to China's cosmetics industry. In the future, China’s relevant departments need to further cooperate with brand enterprises, platform channels, social media and other institutions, as well as the power of consumers, through active reporting and purifying of the Chinese cosmetics market so as to promote the healthy and benign development of China’s cosmetics industry and provide more powerful guarantees for consumers’ makeup safety.

On March 29, Bawang International (Group) Holdings Limited released its 2021 results announcement. The Group's total revenue was approximately $43.2 million, down 0.9% year-on-year from 2020. Loss for the year attributable to the Group's shareholders amounted to $1.43 million, expanding 124.96% year-on-year. The Group's operating loss was approximately $1.18 million, mainly due to the increase in the cost of sales and administrative expenses. During the reporting period, the Group's core brand, Bawang, generated revenue of $40.99 million, accounting for 95.2% of the Group's total revenue, relatively unchanged from FY2020. Bawang is the core brand of Bawang International (Group) Holdings Limited, which is mainly engaged in the shampoo business based on the concept of Chinese herbal hair care, and the anti-loss shampoo is the representative product of the brand. Needless to say, the consecutive years of performance losses have shown that Bawang, which is endorsed by international superstar Jackie Chan gains much reputation, and has fallen from the altar. The glory days of Bawang can be traced back from 2006 to 2009. At that time, Bawang ranked the top of the domestic herbal shampoo market for four consecutive years, with a rapid increase in market share of 3.5%, 5.7%, 7.8%, and 8% respectively. What's more, at that time, Bawang had a market share of over 46% in the herbal shampoo and hair care market. But the prosperity did not last long. On July 14, 2010, Hong Kong's The First Weekly claimed that Bawang's shampoo contained carcinogenic dioxane. The incident then quickly spread and soon evolved into a storm of public opinion that swept the mainland market. Although the National Medical Products Administration announced the results of the sample tests and "corrected" the name of the Bawang Group, its brand image fell into disarray. In 2017, the Bawang Group was embroiled in a "liquidation" scandal. Chen Qiyuan and his wife Wan Yuhua broke up their relationship, and Wan Yuhua asked the court to liquidate Fortune Station Limited, the holding company of Bawang International, to protect her rights. The divorce, which involved the shareholding and even the control of the Bawang Group, also had a certain impact on the group and its brand. In addition, Bawang also suffered the "baldness of its founder": consumers questioned the efficacy of Bawang's representative product, anti-loss shampoo, after seeing the high hairline of Bawang Group founder Chen Qiyuan. In addition to the above-mentioned series of scandalous crises, the development strategy of Bawang Group, the parent company of the Bawang, is also intriguing. Since its listing in Hong Kong in 2009, in order to pursue maximum sales, Bawang Group has expanded greatly around the concept of the "Chinese herbal family" and launched the Chinese herbal anti-dandruff shampoo brand "Chasing Wind", the Chinese herbal anti-dandruff shampoo brand "Ben Cao Tang", and the Chinese herbal shampoo brand "Bawang". The Group has launched the Chinese herbal anti-dandruff shampoo brand Royalwind, the Chinese herbal anti-dandruff shampoo brand Ben Cao Tang, and Bawang toothpaste products, and restarted the old brand Li Tao. In addition, it also had the idea to enter the home cleaning, biogenetic, financial, and other fields. This may reveal a signal: Bawang has lost its direction. A small and medium-sized enterprise with a turnover of only a billion or so in its glory days, launching multiple brands and entering multiple categories at the same time, dispersing corporate resources and distracting management attention, also makes itself more competitors in the business battle. From the 2021 financial report data, the revenue of Bawang reached more than 95% of the group's total revenue, which is enough to show that the expansion of other brands of Bawang Group in recent years has created little revenue for it. Some industry analysts say that Bawang is still in the view of consumers to prevent hair loss, and in the category of anti-hair loss products in the leading e-commerce channels. Because the Bawang Group has been playing the slogan of "the family of Chinese medicine", all the brands under Bawang are invariably branded with the concept of Chinese herbal medicine, even the concept of anti-hair loss. This is one of the important reasons why the other brands of the Bawang Group have not played out their positioning. But Bawang Group itself does not seem to see anything wrong with the expansion strategy. In its 2021 financial report, it said that in 2022 it would expand toothpaste and body wash products for its brand Bawang to increase sales revenue. It aims to stabilize the market share of the original anti-hair loss and hair care products, and plans to expand hair care oil products and develop a new ginger series. Perhaps the reason for this decision is that some of its new products have also had a good performance. As of March 31, on China's mainstream e-commerce platform Taobao, the official flagship store of Bawang reached more than 100,000 regular customers, and the top-selling product in the store is not the iconic product Bawang anti-loss shampoo, but the Bawang Camellia hair care oil launched in recent years with monthly sales of 30,000 + units. And after a big expansion of the brand and category, its founder Chen Qiyuan also understands very well the importance of Bawang to the group. He once said in a media interview in 2018: "At this stage, we first need to achieve an improvement in performance. Keeping the brand Bawang, we will be able to survive."

Hipapa, an innovative Chinese children's personal care brand, has completed a PreA round of funding of nearly 100 million yuan. Currently, its product, Double Amino Acid Cleansing Foam, was the No. 1 product in its first year of launch in 2021 on Chinese social media platform TikTok and Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall, with single product sales of over 2.5 million units in 3 quarters. Recently, Hipapa, an innovative Chinese children's personal care brand, completed a PreA round of funding of nearly 100 million yuan. The funding round was led by Zhongyuan Capital, followed by Edge Venture, with Rongshi Capital as a long-term exclusive financial advisor. According to Statista and the National Bureau of Statistics, China's mother and child healthcare market rose against the trend in 2020 despite the impact of the pandemic, surpassing 3.25 trillion yuan in size, an increase of 89.25 billion yuan from 2019, up 9% year-on-year. It will continue to grow in the future. Trends of upgraded consumption of parenting, refinement, and diversification promote the continued release of the potential of the sector of baby washing and care. According to public information, Hipapa is a children's personal care brand focused on 3-12 years old. With its unique brand concept of "mothers feel safe to choose, children rush to use", it specialized in creating safe and fun washing, moisturizing, and protection products for kids. At present, its Double Amino Acid Cleansing Foam in 2021 in the first year of listing recorded the No. 1 in the Tmall category. It sold more than 2.5 million units in 3 quarter. Its sunscreen milk for children also was launched in 2021 online withholding the No.1 for the whole year. It sold a total of nearly two million units in only 2 quarters with annual sales for a single product of hundreds of millions. The information shows that the brand received an angel round of funding on August 11, 2021. The specific amount of funding was not disclosed and the investors are also Edge Venture and Zhongyuan Capital.

Former executive director of Morgan Stanley, Fan Xinpeng, was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Florasis. With nearly 20 years of experience in leading investment banks and accounting firms, Fan has successfully assisted companies in leading more than 40 M&A and investment and financing transactions. On April 1, Beijing time, it was learned that Chinese makeup brand Florasis has appointed April Fan(Fan Xinpeng), formerly an executive director at Morgan Stanley, as a chief financial officer (CFO). According to public information, Fan has held key positions at Deloitte, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific Investment Bank, and Morgan Stanley. He also enjoyed nearly 20 years of experience in top global investment banks and accounting firms. He has led more than 40 M&A and investment financing transactions, including nearly 20 cross-border M&A projects totaling more than $50 billion and 20 equity and bond transactions totaling more than $30 billion. The employment of a CFO is often seen as a sign that the company intends to go public. Some speculation shows that Florasis may have plans for an IPO. However, some investors believe that the introduction of a CFO at this point does not necessarily mean that Florasis will go public anytime soon, given that it takes a long time to plan an IPO, and many companies do a pre-IPO round before going public. Looking back at the Chinese cosmetics market over the past two years, the listing of Chinese cosmetic companies, represented by the parent company of the cosmetics brand Perfect Diary, YATSEN E-commerce, and the parent company of the skincare brand Winona, BTN, has instantly ignited a consumer fire with countless brands agglomerate to raise funds or seeking to go public, while Florasis is like an "outlier". Because it has never officially raised capital. In 2022, more than 20 public funding events in China's beauty industry, many of which are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In terms of funding distribution, it covers almost the entire cosmetic industry chain, from raw material manufacturers, ODMs, and brands to channel players. Among them, the largest financing amount came from Chinese beauty's new retail brand HARMAY. In January 2022, HARMAY announced the completion of Series C and Series D funding, two rounds of funding transactions with a combined amount of nearly $200 million. Public information shows that so far in 2019, HARMAY has received four rounds of funding. After the latest round of funding, some industry sources pointed out that "its overall valuation may reach $1.415 billion." In addition, Bawei Corporation, WOW COLOUR, WINKEY, SIYO, and Mediabook have all received large funding at hundreds of million RMB (about $16 million). These Chinese companies cover ODMs, beauty collection stores, raw material traders, and e-commerce service providers. In contrast, there are fewer cases of direct capital investment in beauty brands this year, both in terms of frequency and amount. "Capital cares about the whole industry chain, not just a channel or brand." A source familiar with the matter said. Last year, some of China's new beauty brands didn’t reach their expectation, especially in the second half of the capital investment in beauty slowed down. This means that putting much investment into traffic is no longer sought after by marketing. The market gradually returned to rationality. In fact, capital no longer favors beauty brands but will focus on more valuable companies or brands. And the reason why the Florasis is valued by investors, is precisely because of its value of existence and difference. "The concept of oriental beauty and Chinese style created by Florasis and its insistence on R&D are still rare in the Chinese beauty industry." An investor said, "In Chinese cosmetics brands, Florasis is considered to be doing a relatively solid development and can be compared to the Chinese skincare brand in Winona." In his opinion, Florasis is more like a traditional Chinese beauty brand than a company that only cares about traffic. "If Florasis declares to go public, it has a high possibility to succeed and the offering will be good."

Lancome will increase the price of its products in China with a range from about $2 to $31, of which skin care products increased the most. Since 2022, Estee Lauder, MISSHA and Innisfree have increased its price in China On March 31, Beijing time, Lancome manifested in its official WeChat live streaming that its live streaming will see a big adjustment from April. Clerks working in Lancome special store in China also revealed that the price of Lancome products increasing range is from about $2 to $31, of which skin care products increased the most. In fact, the increase of Lancome's price is also coming up with a "solution" in the context of global price increases. Previously, P&G, L'Oreal, PROYA, Estee Lauder and other cosmetics groups have also announced that some of their brands or categories will be adjusted retail prices. In January 2022, P&G officially announced at the second quarter earnings meeting of the fiscal year 2022 that in response to rising transportation, raw material, labor and other costs, all of its ten product categories will raise prices in 2022. The prices of its fabric care products increased from February 28 and prices of other personal care products increased from April. In January 2022, Estee Lauder Group announced that some of its Estee Lauder, AERIN Beauty, Clinique, LA MER, Bobbi Brown, M·A·C Cosmetics, Origins, Jo Malone, Tom Ford and other brands raised their suggested retail prices, including skincare, cosmetics, fragrance and other categories. In March 2022, Korea's well-known affordable cosmetic brands also began to increase prices one after another. For example, the prices of 26 cosmetics from MISSHA increased by an average of 11%. Innisfree has more than 50 products recently also in the price increase, up to 36%. Apparently, "price increase" has become a keyword in the Chinese cosmetics industry in 2022, which has been accompanied by escalating international geopolitical tensions, sharp fluctuations in international crude oil prices, factory closures, and logistical disruptions. In addition to price increases by cosmetic groups, the upstream raw material side has also increased in price. Beginning in February 2022, the international chemical leader BASF issued three notices of the price increase: from February 16, it raised the price of the Ultramid® series of high-performance materials in the Asia-Pacific region, up to $ 800 / ton. From February 15 or the contract allows, it enhanced the North American region PBT, PET, PA and other polymers or compounds product prices and part of the impact of modified and flame retardant grade products or raise prices higher by up to $661/ton. It raised prices for all polyurethane system products in North America on or after Feb. 1. "In the Chinese cosmetics market, some large part of emulsifiers, oils and fats, actives and other raw materials imported from the United States, Western Europe and other overseas regions. However, the international pandemic is still spreading, some factories are shut down. Chemical companies are facing long lead time and poor transportation, and other difficulties, coupled with the international trade is blocked, the raw material market has formed an oversupply situation, which also led chemical companies to raise the price of raw materials." Chinese cosmetics industry sources said. In the industry source's view, both geopolitical conflicts, or the impact caused by the pandemic, all represent uncertainty in the chemical market, "Next, the trend of price increases by chemical companies may continue to appear." The price of cosmetics in recent years has been affected by many factors such as the pandemic, international crude oil prices, raw material costs, R&D investment, labor and marketing costs, exchange rate fluctuations, taxes, inflation and market conditions, etc., It is a dynamic process of change as these factors interact, which means that the price of products will accompany the changes in these factors and the possibility of two-way changes.

Estee Lauder's beauty brand M·A·C Cosmetics have entered the meta-universe to launch its NFT collection. The entire purchase price of this collection will be donated M·A·C Viva Glam Fund to support young people impacted by HIV and Aids. The beauty brand M·A·C Cosmetics from Estee Lauder has partnered with the Foundation of world-renowned artist Keith Haring to launch their debut NFT collection. Importantly this is the first cosmetics brand to enter the space in a completely charitable fashion. The collection will be available from 10 April to 1 June on NFT marketplace Opensea, with prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. M·A·C will donate the entire purchase price from primary sales of the Viva Glam x Keith Haring NFT collection to the M·A·C Viva Glam Fund to support young people impacted by HIV and Aids. “This is exciting in so many ways. First, it is M·A·C’s first ever dab into the metaverse and the world of NFTs and we are thrilled to anchor it to giving back to a cause so close to the heart and soul of the brand,” said Aïda Moudachirou-Rebois, Global Chief Marketing Officer, M·A·C Cosmetics. “Additionally, we are honored that the Keith Haring Foundation agreed to join forces with us to carry forward Haring’s mission of using art to drive positive change for those most in need of support and are proud that his legacy lives on through VIVA GLAM.” M·A·C (Make-up Art Cosmetics), a leading brand of professional cosmetics, is part of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Since its creation in Toronto, Canada, over 30 years ago, the brand’s popularity has grown through a tradition of word-of-mouth endorsement from makeup artists, models, photographers and journalists around the world. During Double 11(Chinese Shopping Carnival) on the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall, M·A·C Beauty ranked No. 8 in the makeup category in terms of sales. In its flagship store on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, its best-selling products is M·A·C Powder Kiss Lipstick with monthly sales of over 30,000 units. It is worth noting that M·A·C’s parent company Estee Lauder Group also launched its NFT products on March 34, 2022, Beijing Time. Estee Lauder’s NFT was inspired by its iconic product Advanced Night Repair. Users will then be able to enter a brown bottle of Advanced Night Repair to receive a wearable NFT that provides a "glowing, radiant look" to their avatars. The NFT is free and was designed by virtual creator Alex Box. Estee Lauder said the Advanced Night Repair NFT is aimed at attracting potential customers in the virtual world. In addition to major international brands, Chinese local beauty brands have also launched NFT. CHAILEEDO has found on the Chinese trademark website entering the words "cosmetic meta-universe" and "beauty meta-universe", it shows that 13 trademarks are applied for, and the application time is after November 2021. The applicants include Guangzhou Xi Yang Yang Biotechnology Co., Ltd, the parent company of the skincare brand HANFY, and Shanghai Liangdia Data Technology Co. Some beauty companies applied for trademarks related to beauty brands, such as YATSEN E-commerce applied for "Perfect Diary Meta-Universe" and other related trademarks. The service provider of Shiseido/Marumi, Yuanlong Yato, recently said in the investor interactive platform that the company is applying for registration of several trademarks related to Meta-Universe. Chinese NFT from cosmetics brands generally sells physical objects mainly through the e-commerce platform and virtual idol connection marketing. Their NFT digital collection is only gifts with a limited number. This move is to give customers the illusion that with original price can be "buy one get two free". During last year's Double Eleven(Chinese Shopping Carnival), CHANDO collaborated with virtual human AYAYI to launch a skincare NFT digital collection becoming the first Chinese beauty brand to co-create an online virtual digital product with an e-commerce platform. It is limited to 100 units without paying a price beyond the physical product. "Such NFT cosmetics can be said to kill two birds with one stone. It increased the value of the purchase for consumers and increased marketing gimmick for the merchants" Industry insiders noted. However, senior industry insiders also warned that beauty and the meta-universe will meet a little later than other industries. If there is no sustained action, beauty companies to enter the meta-universe is considered as "gimmick" for wide range. If entering the meta-universe brings negative impact, it is "more loss than gain" for beauty brands. Beauty companies still need to be cautious. It is worth mentioning that, as a current buzzword, "meta-universe" has been written into this year's government work report or industrial planning by more and more provinces and cities including Shanghai, Wuhan, Hefei and so on. With the promotion of government departments, the meta-universe may usher in faster development and its connection with the beauty industry may be achieved more quickly.