The dimensions of beauty brands are expanding.
On January 19, 2024, the first partner conference of Chinese beauty brand Huaxizi and the first phase of the "Into Huaxizi" brand visit activity were held in Hangzhou. This is the first brand open day for the public since the establishment of Huaxizi.
Through "Entering Huaxizi", "FBeauty Future Traces" found that Huaxizi has built a complex and complete R&D system with both "soft" and "hard" power.
Hard power: "Five beams and ten pillars" Oriental beauty R&D system
Due to the late start of China's makeup market, from products to brands to consumers, China's makeup market has long been a follower of makeup looks from Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States. However, with the improvement of China's local makeup market in recent years, Chinese makeup will also become a leader.
The results of the study "Oriental Color: A Study on the Accompanying Characteristics of Chinese Women's Skin Tone Based on Skin Nature" show that Chinese women are very different from European women in skin thickness, skin color, pores, sweat glands and other skin dimensions. For example, Easterners have darker skin, higher melanin content, more developed sweat glands, and more sweat secretion than Europeans.
This means that due to the huge difference in skin between Eastern and Western women, consumers actually need a makeup solution that is more suitable for Eastern women.
The "Oriental Beauty R&D System" pioneered by Huaxizi provides an idea for the R&D and innovation of Chinese beauty.
Since the birth of the brand, Huaxizi has put forward the concept of the Oriental beauty system, including the Oriental Beauty R&D system and the Oriental Beauty Culture and Aesthetics system, and built a full-link beauty R&D system of "soft and hard research" from the inside out, from technology to culture.
Let's take a look at its "hard R&D" first.
In 2022, Huaxizi ushered in Li Huiliang, the "first person in China's cosmetics", as the chief scientist of the brand, further improving the R&D system of Oriental Beauty.
Different from the dot exploration that only combines oriental characteristics in formula or raw materials, Huaxizi's "Oriental Beauty R&D System" includes the research of oriental skin texture and complexion, the research of traditional Chinese medicine theory system, oriental raw materials, oriental formula research, oriental technology system research, oriental color system research, oriental materials, oriental craftsmanship and modern application.
"The R&D system of Oriental Beauty advocated by Huaxizi is a R&D system with perfect categories, advanced technology and Chinese characteristics. Li Huiliang, chief scientist of Yige Group, said: "The system can be described as 'five beams and ten pillars'. ”
Li Huiliang, Chief Scientist of Yige Group
"Five beams" refers to the five major research centers built by Huaxizi - Consumer Research Center, Cosmetics Science and Technology Innovation Center, Human Skin and Bioelectronics Research Center, Industrial Design and CMF R&D Center, and Oriental Aesthetics and Space Innovation Center.
The "Ten Pillars" refer to the key research areas of Huaxizi - skin, theory, materials, formulas, effects, instruments, standards, colors, materials, and work, including Oriental skin texture and skin tone research, traditional Chinese medicine theoretical system research, Oriental raw material research, Oriental formula research, human efficacy evaluation system research, artificial intelligence and beauty instrument research, Huaxizi standard formulation, Oriental color system research, Oriental material system research, and Oriental characteristic technology research.
With the support of this R&D system, Huaxizi has achieved a lot of research results.
In terms of oriental women's skin research, recently, Hua Xizi compiled China's first research report on makeup and sensitive skin - "Chinese Women's Sensitive Skin In-depth Analysis and Allergenic Makeup Research Report", which conducted an in-depth analysis of the occurrence and triggers of sensitive skin in Chinese women, the insight into the makeup needs of sensitive skin people, and the development trend of cosmetics suitable for sensitive skin, with nearly 20,000 research samples.
In 2023, Huaxizi will launch a new "Jade Series" for sensitive skin, which will become an excellent case of "scientific research and innovation" in Xinhuanet's 2023. It is worth mentioning that Huaxizi is the only Chinese makeup brand to win the award.
Huaxizi jade series
In terms of ingredients and formula research results, according to Li Huiliang, Huaxizi is integrating ancient wisdom and modern technology to carry out basic research and applied basic research on plants and mineral raw materials with Chinese characteristics.
Up to now, Huaxizi has completed the extraction and preparation of 50 kinds of flower raw materials, the screening test of 30 kinds of skin care effects, built a database of more than 100 flower formulas, and has a number of patents related to plant extracts and characteristic mineral raw materials such as "nephrite powder" and "peony extract".
There is "technical" soft power research
"Cosmetics are a combination of science, art and beauty. "In the Chinese cosmetics market, which is a "fever of science", R&D has been placed at an unprecedented height, but the attributes of art and beauty are often overlooked.
"While investing in hard power, Huaxizi also attaches great importance to the research and exploration of soft power. Fei Zhuan, co-founder of Yige Group, said, "Soft research and hard research and development are the two wings of the evolution of China's brand value. ”
The co-founder of the Eagle Group flies slowly
In the "Oriental Beauty R&D System" built by Huaxizi, the two major sections of Industrial Design and CMF R&D Center and Oriental Aesthetics and Space Innovation Center expand the R&D scope of traditional makeup brands to aesthetics, color, fashion and other artistic levels.
The inheritance and exploration of "Oriental Aesthetics" runs through the past and future of the development of Huaxizi brand.
Judging from the most obvious brand name, logo, main visual, brand color and other brand identity elements, Huaxizi is rooted in the gene of oriental aesthetics. Visually, the traditional Chinese color is used as the brand color, the cinnabar color is used as the lipstick number, and the traditional carving process is used on the lipstick paste to create a new carved lipstick category, and the new Miao impression, Dai impression, Mongolian impression and other "Impression Oriental" series products have been launched on the basis of national culture.
Hua Xizi "Mongolian Impressions" series
Under the brand positioning of "Oriental Makeup" and the brand vision of "Centennial National Makeup", Huaxizi has broken the original product development model and explored and established a unique set of "Huaxizi Standards".
The industrial design and CMF R&D center also allows Huaxizi to be both "technical" in the exploration of soft power.
CMF stands for Color, Material, and Finishing, and is a subdivision and comprehensive discipline in the field of product development. This discipline integrates fashion trend and color research, material research and innovative application, surface treatment process research, and has an inseparable relationship with consumer behavior, psychology, aesthetics, etc.
Huaxizi CMF Lab is the first CMF lab for a Chinese beauty brand. It includes a color research laboratory, a packaging R&D laboratory, a CNC numerical control laboratory, and a 3D printing laboratory.
At present, in terms of color, Huaxizi CMF Laboratory has established an oriental color system, and in terms of oriental materials and processes, Huaxizi CMF Laboratory has innovatively applied traditional materials and intangible cultural heritage such as ceramics, Miao silver, filigree craft, and Suzhou embroidery in makeup, and has developed ceramic lipstick, Suzhou embroidery silk powder and other products.
The 2023 International CMF Design Award Gold Award was awarded to the "Embroidery Series Products" limited to Huaxizi Hidden Garden, and Huaxizi is the only makeup brand to win the Gold Award.
"Domestic CMF is more of a no-man's land in the field of beauty and fashion. Liu Zifeng, a ceramics expert, once commented, "Huaxizi is very forward-thinking to be able to set up CMF-related research centers and laboratories, and I believe that it can also promote further innovation in the field of beauty and fashion consumption." ”
Integrating culture into cosmetics and giving tradition to fashion is not only an artistic work, but also a technical work. Through the research and application of CMF, Huaxizi not only provides users with a better product experience, but also spreads the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Beyond beauty
Hua Xizi's "Five Attributes"
In the Huaxizi Brand Cultural Center, there is a "7/10000000 standard wall" on display.
According to the relevant person in charge of Huaxizi, there was once a batch of products worth 5 million that have met the national standards and meet the listing requirements, but there is still a gap of 7/10 million between them and the newly upgraded "Huaxizi standard". In the end, the Huaxizi team reluctantly destroyed this batch of products.
As early as 2019, Huaxizi referred to the testing indicators and quality standards of China, the United States, Japan, the European Union and other countries and regions to establish a more stringent "Huaxizi Standard". This kind of strictness in products also reflects the brand's determination to always be user-oriented.
When developing products, HUAXIZI does not set an upper limit on cost and cycle. Huaxizi, which has been established for nearly 7 years, has not many SKUs, excluding duplicate links and tool products, there are only more than 30 products, and the average development cycle of new products is 1 year and 9 months.
"We don't pursue fast, slow research and development is one of the core concepts of Huaxizi. Fei said slowly.
Even if the number of products is not large, there are many "boutiques" with both word-of-mouth and sales. "FBeauty Future Traces" found that Huaxizi Air Powder has an annual sales volume of 1 million+ on Tmall, and more than 20,000 people have praised it, ranking first in the annual list of fans.
In addition to the recognition from the domestic market, today, with solid product quality and oriental external expression, Huaxizi's products have been sold to more than 100 countries and regions, and have more than 2.8 million fans on overseas social media.
"The international market is completely different from the domestic market, and you have to learn every step of the way. "In terms of R&D and quality, how to meet the requirements of the world, in terms of cultural and aesthetic expression, how to tell Chinese stories well, and how to meet the perception of local users? These are the two key thresholds." ”
Fortunately, Hua Xizi has crossed these two thresholds.
The "Huaxizi Standard" established in 2019 has allowed it to withstand the rigorous scrutiny of many systems around the world in the process of going overseas. At the same time, Huaxizi initiated the co-creation of overseas users, and on the basis of adhering to Chinese characteristics, we created products according to the needs of overseas users.
The CMF R&D laboratory can be said to provide a more visual, refined and dynamic product carrier for Huaxizi to tell the Chinese story to the world. In November 2023, there was a report in the print edition of ELLE magazine, in which Hua Xizi was described as: "the most beautiful makeup in the world".
At the first partner conference of Huaxizi, Fei Slow said that Huaxizi is not only a beauty brand, but also a technology brand, an aesthetic brand, a cultural brand, and a world brand.
From technology to aesthetics, from cutting-edge brands to century-old national cosmetics, from China to the world...... Hua Xizi's "ambition map" is becoming clearer and clearer. To be sure, Chinese beauty needs pathfinders like Hua Xizi.
Author/Xiang Tingting
Editor/Wu Sixin