Chen Bing, General Manager of Sephora Greater China, talks about cosmetic trends in China. Public information shows that Sephora which belongs to the global luxury giant LVMH, is a world-renowned high-end beauty retailer. According to LVMH's financial report, the select retail department, in which Sephora is located, rose 30% to 6.6 billion euros ($6.589 billion) in the first half of this year. CHAILEEDO invited Bing Chen, General Manager of Sephora Greater China, to talk about the future trends of cosmetics in China. In her opinion, brands that are personalized, highly functional, and sustainable are more likely to be appreciated by Chinese consumers. Meanwhile, Chinese consumers are shifting from a focus on branding to a more holistic approach to products, with high-end national brands, hair care, and fragrance categories showing an upward trend. It is worth noting that Sephora announced the "Want it made in China" Chinese brand luminescence program in June this year, which plans to support 5 local high-end Chinese beauty brands with sales of over 100 million yuan within 3 years. 11 Chinese brands have already joined the program, such as CHA LING, a Chinese and French luxury skincare brand born to protect Yunnan tea forests, and WEI, whose core concept is "herbal wisdom and balance is the beauty". CHAILEEDO has observed that Sephora has continued to introduce new brands in recent years, such as the clean beauty and skincare brand FARMACY and the American skincare brand for beauty salon line Dermalogica. According to Bing Chen, emerging brands represent new trends and fads, which are on the rise in the Chinese market, and have novel and high-quality products, but need a lot of omnichannel support in terms of sales strategy, market exposure, and product experience. Therefore, Sephora, for example, has developed a series of programs to help emerging brands go offline, such as the annual authoritative release of Sephora Prestige Beauty White Paper, which further helps emerging brands develop the best market strategy and channel arrangement, etc. For the future, Bing Chen shares her surviving rules for offline cosmetics stores. She said Sephora will incubate Chinese trendy brands and new brands, promote digital intelligence innovation, and expand omnichannel arrangements to achieve "we are where the consumers are". CHAILEEDO has learned that in order to optimize the brand's organizational strength and enhance cross-departmental cooperation, Sephora established a new digital intelligence and innovation team at the beginning of this year to accelerate the transformation of digital intelligence. It is reported that Sephora has entered 89 cities in the Greater China region and successfully built a seamless offline “beauty power community” through 322 offline stores and a full online e-commerce matrix of 9 platforms. In the future, how to expand and consolidate the channel arrangement and accurately enlarge the selection matrix is the primary challenge for offline beauty retail. On September 22, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou, China. CHAILEEDO will be live streaming the entire event, register now to book a live stream: https://www.chaileedo.com/events.

The future beauty and skincare market will continue to divide into different markets and areas, and transform into youthfulness. As one of the world's top 10 beauty giants, how does Beiersdorf view the Chinese market? CHAILEEDO invited Xue Wei, Managing Director of Beiersdorf Northeast Asia, to talk about the future trends of cosmetics in China. In her opinion, the future beauty and skincare market will continue to divide into different markets and areas and transform into youthfulness. Meanwhile, in the past two years, mass consumers' demand for maintaining skin health and solving skin problems has shifted from simply pursuing ingredients to focusing more on researching efficacy, and customized beauty products may become the new mainstream. To adapt to the changes in the Chinese consumer market, Beiersdorf has landed the world's second-largest innovation research center in Shanghai after its headquarters in Hamburg to customize new products for Chinese consumers and will continue to focus on building the brand matrix in the future. Furthermore, an increasing number of Chinese consumers, especially the younger generation, are very concerned about the impact of their consumption on the environment. In response, Beiersdorf is increasing its investment in green innovation for product formulations and packaging, and customizing more environmentally friendly products. It will also introduce more products related to "climate neutrality" and resource conservation to respond to China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. It is worth noting that "digitalization and innovation" are the two core elements of Beiersdorf's transformation, and Xue Wei kept mentioning in the interview that these two elements are still the key to the Group's transformation. For instant, within the company, the use of big data allows for faster decision-making. Digital infrastructure such as CRM, data management platform, and content management platform are built to improve the efficiency of the work and decision-making of corporate employees, thus enhancing the effectiveness in reaching consumers and communicating with them accurately. As for the next development highlights in the Chinese market, Xue Wei said Beiersdorf will continue to focus on the creation of a brand matrix. She believes that there is room for Beiersdorf to break through in both high-end skincare brands and functional skincare brands. CHAILEEDO understands that Beiersdorf has launched in-depth cooperation with Tmall Innovation Center (TMIC) to accelerate the C2B model conversion and co-create digital new product development. In addition, it will continue to maintain and enhance the construction of the digital ecosystem of WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Tiktok China, and other social media platforms to achieve ecological co-creation of content. Finally, Xue Wei said that China's skincare market has huge potential for development, and as the development of China's cosmetics industry is further standardized, it makes the industry competition tends to be healthier and more benign. Moreover, Chinese consumers are not only skincare experts, but also a group of global leaders and innovators, and Beiersdorf also hopes to grow together with consumers in the future. On September 22, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou, China. CHAILEEDO will be live streaming the entire event, register now to book a live stream: https://www.chaileedo.com/events.

Abstract: The 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou on September 22nd. At a time when competition in the cosmetics industry is intensifying, efficacy makes new and old brands break through. On the one hand, the evaluation of cosmetic efficacy is increasingly regulated under new regulations. On the other hand, Chinese consumers are more concerned about the efficacy of products while paying attention to product safety. More and more companies are convinced that efficacy is the most likely opportunity for Chinese beauty brands to rise to the top, and achieve super brands. In fact, in the section on efficacy cosmetics, there are already a large number of Chinese local brands that have crossed the 1 billion yuan threshold first, there are even more 4 billion yuan level brands. In the first half of this year, many cosmetic brands rose against the trend by efficacy. So, it is always emphasized that efficacy cosmetics usher in a brighter time, and some people think that efficacy cosmetics are already prevailing. This all illustrates the fact that no efficacy, no skin care, and winning in efficacy are also winning at the new starting line. This is exactly the significance of the theme Winning in Efficacy of the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends hosted by CHAILEEDO. The China Cosmetics Trends Conference held by CHAILEEDO over the years has been praised by the participants. The last conference had over 800 guests and over 850,000 online participants. This all shows how well the topics of the China Cosmetic Trends Conference fit with the industry and how well the guests recognized CHAILEEDO's professionalism. In November last year, the Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends firstly was held under the theme of "The Spring Efficacy", and invited representative companies from various fields of beauty, such as L'Oreal, P&G, Shiseido, BOTANEE, Proya, UNISKIN, Bawei, and Centre Testing International, as well as dermatologists Liu Wei, Lai Wei, and other senior experts. The guests stood in different perspectives, from the positioning and shaping of efficacy brands, exploring the leapfrog development of China's original brands, and deconstructing knowledge and opportunity from new regulations to find the way out of efficacy cosmetics. At the same time, they also gained insight into the future of China's efficacy market from the development of global efficacy cosmetics. On September 22, with the theme of "Winning in efficacy", the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends once again gathered top companies and new forces from home and abroad. The world's top 500 companies, China's leading OEM/ODM factories, offline brand chain store leaders, recombinant collagen leading companies, and new brands that have broken through 1 billion yuan in sales in 18 months... will focus on technological innovation of efficacious raw materials, high-end exploration of efficacious brands, integration of online and offline channels, how factories can help brand, and other topics, to discuss industry trends and welcome the future of efficacy. On January 1, 2021, the official implementation of the Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation(CSAR) brought about a complete overhaul and change of the entire cosmetic regulatory system. According to law, cosmetic registrants and filers are responsible for the quality and safety of cosmetics and efficacy claims. In addition, cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients are managed by category, and companies are responsible for the legality and compliance of their filing information. The rise of efficacious cosmetics brands and the market requires not only source innovation and brand breakthrough, but also advanced, systematic, and scientific testing and evaluation means to escort. For this reason, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends is dedicated to the China Cosmetic Efficacy Trends Exhibition, which brings together industry testing organizations, brands, and raw material companies to unlock popular efficacy and its evaluation methods, and to discuss the solutions together. China is still the world's largest blue ocean beauty market, and the trend of efficacy cosmetics is unstoppable. We invite you to join us at the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends to win in efficacy and welcome the future! On September 22, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou, China. CHAILEEDO will be live streaming the entire event, register now to book a live stream: https://www.chaileedo.com/events.

With the support of policy, the companies that really establish brands and products will be favorable in the future. The world-renowned beauty foundry Intercos has started to develop fastly since its listing in November last year. From its recently released financial report for the first half of 2022, the company’s revenue of 2.546 billion yuan ($367.3 million), up 17% year-on-year. Adjusted net income was 144 million yuan ($20.7 million), which increased 54.4% year-over-year. CHAILEEDO invited Shen Yan, Vice President of Sales of Intercos China&Southeast Asia, to talk about the future trends of cosmetics in China. In her opinion, regulations such as efficacy evaluation have raised the threshold for filing in the past two years, allowing brands and manufacturers to be more professional about the process and standards of product development. The overall direction is positive and active for consumers and companies that really establish brands and products. Meanwhile, there is a growing concern for sustainability among the Chinese and overseas. Raw materials, formulations, packaging materials, production processes, and environmental protection are all mentioning sustainability, and the efforts of top companies to reduce their carbon footprint and Clean beauty will all have an impact on the industry. Furthermore, with China's policy support for high-end local brands, there will be a later upgrade of Chinese local brands to match the consumer upgrade. Some big brand clients will establish their R&D teams, invest more research in raw materials and formula systems, and build stronger technical core barriers. It is worth noting that Shen Yan is very optimistic about high-efficacy skincare products, post-medical repair products, aromatherapy, fragrance personal care, and youth skincare categories. She believes that in skincare products, there will be more high-efficacy products, and the idea of best-selling products is still more favored by brands. With the popularity of medical beauty, products for post-medical repair and barrier repair, as well as products that synergistically prolong the effects of medical beauty will also become a trend. Moreover, influenced by the declining birth rate, the skincare and cleansing market for teenagers will also be a new development direction. In addition, the demand for aromatherapy and fragrance products on the consumer side will grow further as the strengthen for personalization and self-awareness of consumers in the first and second-tier cities. As a leading global beauty factory, Intercos is famous for its cosmetics. As far as the cosmetics category is concerned, Shen Yan said that foundation products that can have the same repurchase attributes as skincare products are currently receiving more attention from brands. Foundation products for various skin types, different textures, and makeup effects will continue to emerge, and there will be more breakthroughs. There will be a higher demand for foundations that are: less prone to oxidation, makeup holding, clean make-up, moisturizing and nourishing, and sunscreen function. The trend will be for foundations with sun protection, such as air cushion compacts and powders (which are easy to carry and can be replenished at any time to maintain the performance of sun protection). The tendency for loose powders will lie in the availability of more innovative packages that meet the need for easy portability. Affected by the pandemic, lip makeup has declined significantly, and the development of lip glaze, lip clay, and lip gloss has been relatively saturated. Lip products will also be innovative in terms of makeup effects. From matte to glossy which is subdivided into oil shine and water shine, it is very challenging for product development. Moreover, innovative packages that match the above categories are also important, and there are opportunities in other small categories of teenage makeup and delicate makeup effects. On September 22, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou, China. CHAILEEDO will be live streaming the entire event, register now to book a live stream: https://www.chaileedo.com/events.

Returning to the product itself and improving product capability is the key. To grasp the latest trends in the market is not only related to the development of the brand, but also a proposition that the top cosmetics factories think about all the time. NBC, one of the world's top four cosmetic ODM companies, recently released its financial report for the first half of the year. According to the report, the company’s revenue of 957 million yuan($138 million), down 23.74% year-on-year. CHAILEEDO invited Fan Zhanhua, CEO of NBC, to talk about the future trends of cosmetics in China. Fan Zhanhua believes that for a company's long-term development, returning to the product itself and improving product capability is the key. Efficacy skincare is a popular trend at present, and many brands are making efforts in this section. From the perspective of the foundry, NBC will focus on the development of efficacy-based categories. It is understood that NBC has more than 200 people on the R&D team, in addition, also has in-depth cooperation with international raw material suppliers as well as well-known universities, and research institutes in China. It is worth mentioning that Fan Zhanhua claims that in the section on efficacy cosmetics, efficacy testing also needs to be paid attention to. He said that stricter regulations have led to a longer time to develop products. Especially in the mask category, many people think it has a serious homogenization problem in the market. In fact, in terms of development, NBC makes many innovations. For an instant, the efficacy mask, to make the product as soon as possible to achieve transformation, these masks are held efficacy reports. The corresponding test data and information can be as short as possible to apply for the filing of products or special certificate time. Furthermore, it also has upgraded in raw materials and technology end. For example, NBC launched the petal film cloth in its research and development and has a patent report of the product. The product is also paired with VFD vacuum lyophilization technology and BFS pure water applied to the field of lyophilization mask. According to the data of EcdData, the patch mask occupies the first position in this year's Tmall 618 shopping festival skincare category sales list, indicating that the patch mask type is still the most popular form of skincare for consumers. Mintel data shows that 74% of consumers are more likely to choose an attractive appearance when buying beauty products. Therefore, NBC will pay more attention to the texture, skin feel, form, concept, and appearance of these five aspects in the development of patch masks. From the trend of the change in the attention of efficacy skincare products in the past 3 years, it is clear that efficacy skincare is the theme of consumers' long-term concern. Moreover, in terms of apply masks, NBC has also created several top-selling products with 10 million yuan sales for beauty brands. For different groups of people, to launch personalized products, consumers can use different efficacy, and different colors of the apply mask by zones according to their own needs, to achieve the corresponding skincare effect. On September 22, the 5th Conference on China’s Cosmetics Trends will be held in Hangzhou, China. CHAILEEDO will be live streaming the entire event, register now to book a live stream: https://www.chaileedo.com/events.

Chinese local brands accounted for 89% of the total, with sales soaring 667% year-on-year. The Tiktok China E-Commerce National Brands Development Annual Report 2021 shows that the share of Chinese local brands on Tiktok China reached 89% in 2021, with sales soaring 667% year-on-year. Relying on its over 600 million daily traffic, as well as its advantages in trend insight leadership and content marketing conversion, Tiktok China e-commerce has leaped to become a new market for beauty brands. According to Tiktok China's August ranking, Chinese local brands remain strong. In the beauty section, OSM, AMIRO, L'Oreal, Florasis, and Proya are the TOP5 brands in terms of cumulative sales in the industry. AMIRO, Florasis, OSM, L'Oreal, and Proya are the TOP5 stores in terms of cumulative sales. Compared with the list in July, brands such as OSM, L'Oreal, Proya, and HBN are still at the forefront. In addition, the beauty apparatus brand AMIRO made the list and was ranked in the top 3 in all 3 beauty industry lists, while there was no beauty apparatus brand in last month's list. In fact, AMIRO beauty apparatus’ counter-trend explosion from this year's 618 shopping festival can be seen. AMIRO’s omnichannel sales growth of more than 400% year-on-year, only in the Tmall platform sales have broken 100 million yuan, and it even has a single product sales miracle of 145 million in one live-streaming in July. On September 1, AMIRO officially announced that the celebrity Gao Yuanyuan became its brand spokesperson for the first time, which means that AMIRO is about to cross into a new stage of development. At present, it has 161,000 followers in the Tiktok China official flagship store. In the cross-border industry, Mistine was on the TOP1 of the brand list and TOP4 of the store list respectively, and the rest of the listed brands are mostly beauty and health nutrition brands, in addition to its Base Ultra Protection was also listed in the TOP1 of the product list. As a national brand in Thailand, Mistine has been at the top of the Thai beauty list for years. In 2016, it entered the Chinese market with the selling point of "waterproof and sweatproof, long-lasting makeup" and "cheap price". According to CC data, Mistine sunscreen in February this year began to arrange live-streaming in Tiktok China and short videos, and increased investment in March, with short videos up to 659. The live-streaming times increased to 3,000+ in April, and the amount of content is growing rapidly. Mistine has a total of 4 active self-streaming accounts on Tiktok China, of which the official flagship account has 929,000 fans. At present, Tiktok China has opened the first "Tiktok China 921 Goodies Festival", which started on September 9 and lasted until September 21. Currently, the official topic of #Tiktok China 921 Goodies Festival has been played 10.74 billion times.

The spokesperson's external image and internal characteristics are key to the brand's fitting. Recently, with a notification from the police, the illegal behavior of a well-known actor, Li Yifeng, was confirmed. After the news was released, sevaral brands such as PRADA and Sensodyne, for which Li Yifeng was the spokesperson, quickly announced the termination of all partnerships with him. Although spokesperson flops usually bring unpredictable losses to brands, it is undeniable that choosing a good spokesperson is still a good choice for them to activate their market momentum. According to CHAILEEDO's incomplete statistics, as of press time, 48 cosmetic brands have officially announced 52 new spokespeople in total since 2022. It is worth noting that, from the characteristics of the spokespersons chosen by cosmetic brands this year, focusing on the inner beauty of the spokesperson has become mainstream, and staying away from tainted entertainers like "Li Yifeng" has become the key for brands to avoid the risk of becoming unexpected collateral damage. Low-risk and focused marketing Choosing multiple stars for endorsement is also a major trend in brand endorsement. According to CHAILEEDO's incomplete statistics, among the 48 beauty brands that officially announced new spokespersons, 9 brands such as 3CE_STYLENANDA, Nivea, Mentholatum, and MeiFuBao have all officially announced two new spokespersons, and different spokespersons have different titles, including "brand friend", "brand ambassador", “the body skincare spokesperson”, “cleanser spokesperson”, and so on. There are two main reasons for that. On the one hand, a multi-star endorsement strategy reduces the risk of star flopping and influencing the brand. In the past two years, celebrity "flopping" events have been common. Some industry insiders pointed out that the brand quickly announced the termination of the contract after the spokesperson flopped can reduce the misunderstanding of the brand to a certain extent, while the use of multiple stars endorsements is to prepare in advance for the possible negative effects of the brand brought about by the spokesperson "flopping". On the other hand, the use of multiple endorsers and a more professional subdivision of endorser titles are more like brands using celebrity traffic to mark their products. For example, in August this year, CHANDO announced Wang Yibo as the global spokesperson for the brand's facial mask. At the same time, it also recommended to the market focus on the efficacy of the mask category. A Chinese beauty brand director analyzed and said, "this official announcement by CHANDO aims to emphasize to the market that its brand facial mask has shifted to the efficacy type." CHAILEEDO noticed that in the Wang Yibo endorsement video, the Ampoule Mask, Himalaya Green Tea Clay Purifying Mask, and Aha Multi-layer Renewal Mask highlight the "brighten", "clean", and "new" 3 characteristics respectively representing the product's efficacy of "brightening", "cleansing" and "revitalizing". As of press time, the forward’s number of the official announcement of CHANDO and spokesperson Wang Yibo has exceeded one million times on Weibo. Focus on the inner beauty of the spokesperson While downplaying external gender differences, many brands are also digging deeper into the inner qualities of their spokesperson and establishing a value resonance with their own brand image or product efficacy. On August 29, Hu Yue was officially announced as the "Beauty Ambassador of INOHERB" by INOHERB's WeChat public account. It is reported that Hu Yue was praised by the People's Daily, CCTV News, and other official media as a "sparkling girl" at the Beijing Winter Paralympics Games for her optimism, love, and self-confidence. The director in charge of a new brand under a listed company told CHAILEEDO that the primary purpose of the brand spokesperson chosen by INOHERB is not to gain traffic, but more to link Hu Yue's inner qualities of "Where the heart leads, it will shine" with INOHERB's product efficacy of "not being oxidized, I want to shine" to highlight the value proposition of the brand. Judging from the response to the official announcement video on the Tiktok China platform, many users said: “the advertising is very inspiring”, "I was touched by the ad," "This ad is very powerful," and so on, which can be seen that this official announcement has powerfully conveyed the positive energy of the brand to users. Before this, MAC’s official announcement "no pretend, no excessive makeup" with Wang Jiaer, Dr. Yu official announcement of "Be yourself with strength" with Wang Meng, and other marketing content, and also consciously establish a value association between good quality of the star and the efficacy of the product and their brand images. Duan Chunlin, director of the Department of Brand Communication of the South China University of Technology, mentioned in a related book that the 3.0 era of values-driven marketing starts with value resonance, in which brands provide a positive value and eventually resonate with consumers through communication and interaction. And Duan Chunlin believes that once this resonance is created, some of the effects of consumers' purchasing behavior, word-of-mouth communication, and becoming the purveyors and advocates of brand values are unattainable by marketing 1.0 and marketing 2.0. It is clear that as the times continue to evolve, the focus of brand marketing is also being upgraded. Cosmetics brands no longer simply need celebrity endorsement, the form of correlation and unity between external image and inner qualities of the spokesperson and product efficacy, image, and value of the brand want to promote will be the primary direction of the future cosmetics brands to consider when selecting a celebrity spokesperson.

Chinese brands' attention to ingredients has once again set off a new craze. Previously, the success stories of ingredients making a successful brand such as Pro-Xylane to L'Oreal, Niacinamide to OLAY, which were widely known. Now, can ingredient stories still create a successful brand? Around 2018, Chinese or international ingredient-centric skincare brands such as HFP and The Ordinary went viral across China. The concept of ingredient-centric skincare also emerged among Chinese consumers. After that wave of ingredient party brands, Chinese brands are once again discussing ingredients at events such as "Amazing Chinese Ingredients" this year. It seems that there is a wave of ingredients that will bring a brand to become famous again. Chinese beauty brands eye on stories of ingredients In May this year, Tmall launched the "beauty industry vitality recovery plan" and released the "Chinese ingredients" year-round support plan to help the digital transformation of Chinese beauty brands and achieve a new breakthrough in the scale of the Chinese beauty market. Almost at the same time, Ocean Engine, Marubi, SHELOG, PROF.LING, CHANDO, PROYA and HBN jointly created the "Amazing Chinese Ingredients" project to help the development of Chinese ingredients for beauty brands. It is reported that the topic of "Amazing Chinese Ingredients" on TikTok platform has been played more than 4.69 billion times so far. Only three months later, Tmall again joined hands with seven Chinese brands in August this year, including Forest Cabin, One Leaf, All about Aloe, HBN, Marubi, CHANDO and Dr. Alva, to launch the "Amazing Chinese Ingredients" campaign with over 300 million reads on Weibo in just four days. Chinese beauty is starting a new boom in the "ingredient story" "Chinese ingredients" means it particularly originated in China. For example, HiMurchaSin from CHANDO is claimed to originate from the Himalayan polar regions. Chinese camellia skincare pioneer Forest Cabin has launched the "Qingxuanzui" ingredient. SHELOG is the main focus of complex plant ingredients X Compocalm from pine mushroom, white truffle bacteria, birch brown hole bacteria and others. From CHAILEEDO incomplete statistics, up to now, the application of exclusive raw materials or patented ingredients of dozens of companies/brands among Chinese brands. Shanghai Jahwa, Pechoin and several innovative brands have established their own competitive barriers by virtue of exclusive ingredients. It is worth mentioning that the data from TikTok e-commerce and the Suanshu Institute E-commerce under Ocean Engine shows that in the second half of 2021 alone, compared with the first half, the search volume of beauty industry content on TikTok grew 135%, of which the content of beauty ingredients grew 184%, exceeding the industry's general market. It indicates that the content about "ingredients" has received more active attention from users. With such a trend, it is not surprising that the "ingredient story" has become a key point for beauty brands to compete. Essence of creating ingredients is to promote a brand Just like Pro-Xylane to L'Oreal, niacinamide to OLAY, ergothioneine to Estee Lauder, the ingredients went viral thanks to the brands and brands are also benefit from the reputation of the ingredients. More brands tend to follow the step by creating ingredients to promote brands. The early practice is “Borrowlism”. It means that companies or person who wants to create a brand will borrow the popular ingredients or successful form from other brands at that time. In 2018, the Canadian brand The Ordinary was known as "ingredient bucket". Its product is named after its ingredients. It left a deep impression on Chinese consumers with its low price, single-ingredient, use of ingredients, and other distinctive features. This practice soon became popular in China, when brands represented by HomeFacial Pro (HFP) also printed its ingredients such as oligopeptides, hyaluronic acid and astaxanthin directly on their product packaging. Such products were gaining attention among circles of ingredient-centric group. The brand is known to have ranked on the Tmall Beauty Top 10 list in the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival in 2018 in seventh place. However, it fell out of the top 10 list in 2019. Another case is that during the Chinese Double 11 Shopping Festival in 2017, OLAY's sales ranked first in the international mass beauty category. Olay White Radiance also ranked first in the sales of the essence category. It became the most well-known representative of niacinamide products. "It can be said that niacinamide became popular by OLAY. At the same time, niacinamide also made OLAY a success," said an industry source. Since then, niacinamide has become the "holy grail of whitening" in the hearts of consumers. On Xiaohongshu, there are as many as 100,000+ notes about niacinamide and the majority of these notes have mentioned OLAY White Radiance. After that, niacinamide bonds with whitening. More and more brands entered the game, niacinamide is also from skincare to body care, toothpaste, oral beauty. However, the reality is that the practice of following in the same footsteps like using popular ingredients from the big brands ignoring the overall development of the brand put the cart before the horse. After L'Oreal and OLAY, there are very few brands that can be in the craze with Pro-Xylane and niacinamide. Therefore, today's brands pay more attention to the exclusive ingredients and the technical logic behind them. They tend to build the brand's unique ingredient IP so that the ingredients serve the brand, which is the real meaning of creating ingredients. Can ingredients still achieve the success of a brand? Many industry insiders said that it is easier to understand the role and efficacy of ingredients for consumers. Consumers can even be informed of the efficacy of ingredients through Baidu queries so it is the most convenient way to communicate with consumers about ingredients. This is also mentioned in the Beauty Industry Transparency Perception Assessment Report, "72% of consumers hope brands to actively explain the efficacy of product ingredients to consumers and more than 60% want brands to explain the source of product ingredients". This reveals the objective reasons why brands want to communicate with consumers through ingredients. On the one hand, it is easier for brands to get closer to consumers through ingredient stories. On the other hand, after the market has educated consumers, the latter is more accustomed to understanding the characteristics of a brand starting from the ingredients. As consumers are still so concerned about ingredients, does it mean that ingredients are still a shortcut to branding? An anonymous industry veteran says that there are many factors that contribute to the success of a brand or a product and ingredients are just one of them. "Although, many traditional Chinese cosmetics are telling the story of ingredients, but its core is actually competing with the brand's R & D strength. Its purpose is different from the new brand telling the story with ingredients." Although the first step for innovative brands to tell a good beauty story is still the good ingredients, it is not limited to ingredients that are different from before. Brands still need to strengthen the efficacy of the product. For example, UNISKIN and HBN both focus on the anti-aging sector and each of them has made technological innovations on A-alcohol. In July this year, OGP, a brand of Yige Group, also announced that it had broken through the technical bottleneck of the blue copper peptide ingredient. With the aim of establishing the image of a brand with efficacy, it applied the anti-aging ingredient of the blue copper peptide as the starting point. Undoubtedly, the ingredients play a crucial role in the initial development of a brand as it is the first barrier to communication between the brand and the consumers. However, it is the efficacy of the brand that ultimately captures the hearts and minds of consumers. More importantly, the success of the brand should make much effort in the formulation technology, publicity, marketing, channels and others in addition to gimmicks of ingredients. As a senior industry professional said: "There is no shortcut to running a brand, only down-to-earth."

L’Oreal’s first investment company in China Meicifang funded a Chinese local fragrance brand DOCUMENTS. On September 9, Shanghai Meicifang Investment Limited Company(hereinafter referred to as Meicifang) announced a minority investment in DOCUMENTS, a Chinese local high-end perfume and fragrance brand in China, at the 2022 Global New Arrival Season of the Shanghai Wuwu Shopping Festival. Established by L'Oréal in May 2022, Meicifang is the first L'Oréal Group investment company established in a single market other than its headquarters. This investment is the first venture capital investment in China for Meicifang and is backed by BOLD (Business Opportunities for L'Oréal Development), the L'Oréal Group's world-renowned strategic innovation venture capital fund. This groundbreaking move further confirms the importance of the Chinese market in L'Oréal's global footprint and highlights the important strategic deployment of Chinese beauty brands in the future investments of Beauty Square. Fabrice Megarbane, President North Asia Zone & CEO L'Oréal China, states that the establishment of Meicifang is another milestone initiative for L'Oréal, reflecting the Group's confidence in the increasingly optimized business environment in China as well as its long-term confidence in the development prospects of the entire Chinese market and Chinese beauty brands. DOCUMENTS is not only an emerging pioneering force in China's high-end personalized beauty market, but also the new Chinese fragrance and oriental aesthetic philosophy behind it is widely loved by young people. L’Oreal is very excited to start this partnership. At the same time, Fabrice also said that in addition to investing in promising Chinese beauty brands in the future, Meicifang will also be involved in innovative projects in areas such as new digital consumer experience, advanced supply chain technology and future science. Born in 2021, DOCUMENTS is dedicated to developing products that use ingredients produced in or from China. Currently, DOCUMENTS' main customer group is the high-consumption-minded Generation Z, who focus on self-selection and artistic expression. At present, DOCUMENTS has launched the first season of HUMAN series, the second season of FREE series and the third season of LOST series. LOST" series of 15 scents. In addition to the investment in DOCUMENTS, Consumer Co-Creation Fund, established by L'Oréal and Cathay Capital, also invested in the brand.

Recently, the global beauty collection store brand "HAYDON" announced the temporary closure of some stores in Hangzhou, Shanghai, and other places, and said that it would reopen after the subsided epidemic. Founded in 2020, HAYDON is positioned as a "global high-end beauty retail brand". Recently, the world's high-end beauty collection store HAYDON announced that four stores (Hangzhou Hubin 88 store, Harbin central street store, Shanghai Bund store and Xinmei store) temporarily closed due to the impact of the epidemic. At present, the store on Chengdu Chunxi Road has resumed business. In addition to the above four stores, HAYDON Shenzhen Wenheyou joint concept store has also closed and the original set of Zhengjia selected stores has no news at present. The opening time of the Xi'an Weiyang store and Wuxi Yueshang outlet store is also far away. It is reported that the store on Hangzhou Hubin 88 has only been open for half a year, while the other three stores have opened for a shorter time, not more than 4 months. Except for the closure of two stores in Shanghai, which is the hardest-hit area by the epidemic, the closure of the other two stores is somewhat unusual. According to media reports, the store on Hangzhou Hubin 88 is not temporarily closed but permanently closed. Judging from the exposed photos of the scene, the shelves in the store have all been emptied, and there are many cardboard boxes for packaging on the ground, which look like they are about to be completely removed. The relevant staff of Hubin 88 revealed that they signed a lease with HAYDON until May 2029, but they did not expect that it had suddenly closed after only half a year of entering, which had just opened in September 2021. At that time, HAYDON was publicized to the outside world, saying that the store was "the first brand 2.0 image concept store". The current development of HAYDON is not by its founder Judy's expansion plan in early 2021. Judy, the founder and CEO of HAYDON, publicly stated that she planned to enter more than 16 key cities in China by the end of 2021, including Chengdu, Shanghai, Nanjing, Yinchuan and Urumqi and open more than 20 stores, exceeding 100 by the middle of 2023. According to the store information published by its WeChat official account, except for the above-mentioned closed stores, the current number of HAYDON stores in China totals 13. Affected by the epidemic, the speed of opening stores has been greatly reduced. It has not completed the set goal of 2021 and is also far from the "breakthrough of 100 stores" in 2023. Founded in November 2020, HAYDON is a global high-end beauty retail brand. The first store was opened in Chuhehan Street, Wuhan, where the products are selected by professional buyers and big data and the settled brands include over 350 brands such as European and American big-name brands, European and American professional makeup, Chinese boutique brands, niche lifestyles. There are more than 5,000 SKUs in a single store. In addition to selling cosmetics, independent small sample goods have also become the focus of sales. As an important "attraction tool" in HAYDON's stores, the small sample goods mainly come from the counter and traders. Some small sample sources are not transparent, and it is almost hopeless to get the authorization of big-name brands. The occupancy rate of niche brands with high gross profit is not high, so the profit margin of the store is also difficult to grow. In this regard, some Chinese insiders believe that China's new beauty collection stores are affected by the sector, risk and capital. HAYDON has experienced a short period of highlights, but the turning point comes too fast. If a brand itself often fails to accumulate much physical retail operation experience, then it will not create the core competitiveness for the brand. With the repeated impact of the epidemic, HAYDON is outshined anymore.

With the "medical dressing" products going viral, Voolga completed the examination before the listing transaction. September 8, according to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM official website news, the first issue of Voolga passed, which means that the first "medical dressing" stock of A shares will be born. Currently, the company is mainly engaged in the R&D, production, and sales of professional skincare products, and the products on sale cover medical device dressing products and functional skincare products, mainly dressing and patch, film products, and launched water and essence, and lotion, spray, lyophilized powder, and other multiform products. According to Frost & Sullivan's analysis report, in 2020, Voolga's patch products sales ranked No. 1 in the patch professional skincare products market, accounting for 21.3%. In addition, in the year 2021, the comprehensive gross profit margin of Voolga reached 81.95%, the highest among comparable companies in the same industry. In terms of sales model, the online channel of Voolga is currently divided into direct sales, distribution, and agency sales, and is stationed in Tmall, Xiaohongshu, Tiktok China, Kwai, and Pinduoduo. Offline is mainly in distribution mode, mainly for beauty institutions, chain retail pharmacies, and other terminal channels. Among them, the offline channel is still the main source of revenue for Voolga, but the proportion is decreasing year by year. As for product categories, by the end of 2021, it had 49 types of products, including 4 types of medical devices and 45 types of cosmetics. According to the prospectus of Voolga, its medical device products are still the main source of revenue for the company. As a company established only 5 years, the overall performance of Voolga in recent years is quite great in terms of revenue scale and gross margin level. However, since the disclosure of its first prospectus in September 2021, its low investment in R&D was once considered a weakness of the company and was criticized by the public many times. Its R&D staff increased from 2 on March 31, 2021, to 6 by the end of 2021, with an average salary of 142,800 yuan ($20,600). According to the prospectus of Voolga, it intends to raise about 1.9 billion yuan, which will be used to invest in production base construction projects, R&D, quality testing center construction, brand marketing, and promotion, etc. Among them, the highest investment is expected to be the brand marketing promotion project, with 886 million yuan ($128 million). From the R&D side, it is clear that although Voolga has been successful in its IPO, it still has many challenges to overcome. The GEM Listing Committee has also asked it to further explain the innovation of its core technology. This will depend on Voolga's solid R&D capability to answer.

On September 8, BASF announced on its official website the launch of Phytocine™, a new generation of actives inspired by traditional Chinese herbs. The Phytocine™ series is described as the result of its combination of modern skin bioscience and herbal plants grown in the pan-Himalayan region of Yunnan Province, China. These naturally inspired actives are preservative-free and have skincare benefits such as improving skin hydration and barrier function (Phytocine™ AQUA), fighting aging /oxidation signs(Phytocine™ NOVO), and soothing sensitive skin (Phytocine™ CALM). Viju Jose, Vice President of Personal Care Solutions, BASF Care Chemicals Asia Pacific, said that the Phytocine™ series is BASF's way of combining modern biotechnology to apply these herbal-inspired actives to the cosmetics industry, ensuring that they meet the latest standards and are suitable for BASF's customers. Currently, the Chinese cosmetic market has shown three major trends: natural, green, and skincare with efficacy, all of which have a strong demand for cosmetic botanical ingredients. According to market research data released by Euromonitor, the demand for plant-sourced ingredients in the cosmetics market will grow at a CAGR of 3% from 2015 to 2020. CHAILEEDO learned that international brands also attach importance to plant-based ingredients in China as a development opportunity. L'Oréal Group, for example, has set up a dedicated team to research on the efficacy of high-purity plant extracts in China. And about 71% of L'Oréal's products add or use ingredients from natural plant extract sources, while other brands such as Estée Lauder, Shiseido, and JALA have high rates of natural plant extract usage. In Asia, demand for personal care products that combine modern herbal medicine with skin biology is growing significantly, according to Eunice Jeong, regional head of market development, said by Eunice Jeong, Head of Regional Market Development, Personal Care Solutions, Care Chemicals, BASF Asia Pacific. In addition, the strong growth trend of using herbal ingredients is not limited to Asia but encompasses the global skin beauty market. Notably, just earlier this month, BASF announced on its website that it had formed an innovation partnership and signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese startup Ingredi Bio, which includes a strategic equity investment by BASF in Ingredi Bio. BASF claimed that through this partnership, it will use its expertise to apply these actives in personal care product formulations, finding and commercializing new solutions to the global personal care market. Founded in 2017, Ingredi Bio was said to focus on the R&D of innovative, highly active, and sustainable botanical ingredients and provides innovative natural active ingredients and total market solutions for the personal care industry. It is worth mentioning that these ingredients are sourced from species native to the Pan-Himalayan region.