"The 'pure' answer from China"
The next world-class makeup brand may appear in China. According to Euromonitor data, China's makeup industry will recover significantly in 2023, with a market size of more than 60 billion yuan, and a compound growth rate of 7.7% from 2022 to 2025.
At the same time, compared with the mature overseas cosmetics market, the proportion of mainland cosmetics retail sales in the cosmetics market and the per capita cosmetics consumption have greater room for improvement in the future, and the global popularity of short video culture has made the trend of aesthetic convergence obvious, which has brought unprecedented opportunities for the globalization of Chinese cosmetics brands.
Returning to the domestic cosmetics market, in recent years, following the development experience of developed countries from the rise of foreign capital to local enterprises, a number of domestic cosmetics groups have now entered the head camp, the local head brand effect has emerged, and the proportion of domestic cosmetics will be further increased.
So based on the present, where is the breakthrough point of the new makeup brand?
RED CHAMBER, A CHINESE PURE MAKEUP BRAND, WAS THE FIRST TO ENTER THE CHINESE COSMETICS MARKET BY GAINING INSIGHT INTO THE "NEW QUADRANT OF CHOICE" FOR DOMESTIC CONSUMERS TO REJECT TIME, MATERIAL WASTE AND SKIN DAMAGE.
In recent years, as more consumers have changed from agreeing to accept the concept of "sustainability" in beauty, forming a consumption awareness of active judgment and choice, and then to the stereotype of consumption awareness and habits, RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan has gradually moved from a trendsetter to a category definer, and then to a domestic sustainable representative brand and standard-setter.
Recently, the "Born to Clean, the First Pure Makeup Group Standard and Pure Makeup White Paper Conference" hosted by RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan was held in Shanghai, which means that the domestic pure makeup group standard has achieved a major breakthrough from scratch, and the release of the first industry white paper on pure makeup has also laid a solid foundation for improving industry standards and building consensus.
Through this press conference, Qingyan saw that pure makeup is giving the Chinese makeup market infinite possibilities, and that for the first time, a domestic makeup brand has a valuable opportunity to "go to the table" and define product standards on a global scale.
From "Questioning" to "Rising Vigorously"
Three years of nirvana of pure makeup
Contrary to the usual grand success narrative, China's pure makeup brands encountered similar problems to many cutting-edge brands when they were born, but they were different.
The similarity lies in the fact that domestic pure makeup brands need to face the common problem encountered by new brands - "how to give a better answer than the current market answer under limited resources". The difference is that as a completely blank track, and even the European and American markets, which are the birthplace of pure makeup, have not yet been uniformly defined and standardized.
At the same time, there are no ceases of doubts about pure makeup itself. For example, whether the powders, pigments, adhesives and other raw materials used in traditional makeup can be truly replaced in green, and whether the replacement is at the cost of damaging the skin feel and efficacy of the product. In addition, there is enough scientific evidence behind the thousands of banned ingredients.
In other words, for Chinese pure makeup brands, it is necessary not only to provide Chinese consumers with pure makeup products that are not inferior to traditional beauty and are competitive enough, but also to face the problem of the lack of uniformity in the definition and standard of pure makeup around the world, and give "answers" from China.
Since 2020, Chinese pure makeup brands represented by RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan have started a far-reaching local makeup practice.
In order to achieve a pure makeup experience of "pure formula and excellent efficacy", RED CHAMBER has established the first independent R&D room for pure beauty in China, Re:Conatural Lab (RCL), covering skin care laboratory, powder/cream laboratory and safety testing room, with R&D team members who have been deeply engaged in the field of beauty R&D for an average of more than 15 years, and are committed to exploring local solutions for pure beauty with China's scientific research strength.
In the face of the lack of unified standards for pure makeup, RED CHAMBER has formulated the "Purity Standards" and "Natural Ingredient Standards" internally, and gathered multiple authoritative institutions in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to form the RED CHAMBER Pure Formula Advisory Group, providing consumers with beauty products with pure formulas, excellent makeup effects, and pure production standards throughout the production process.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of its establishment, RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan conducted in-depth thinking about the competition pattern of China's cosmetics market, and found that most of the traditional cosmetics brands established in the early years competed with international brands at low prices, and there were fewer high-end positioning brands, resulting in serious price involution. ACCORDING TO RED CHAMBER ZHU ZHAN REVEALED TO QINGYAN THAT THE UNIT PRICE OF ITS REGULAR CUSTOMERS ON THE TMALL PLATFORM IS CURRENTLY NEARLY 300 YUAN.
Now, in less than four years, RED CHAMBER has continued to explore more possibilities of local pure makeup, carefully built the internal skeleton of China's pure makeup brand, and finally completed the practice from conception to implementation, and broke the difficulty of balancing pure formula and makeup.
The choice of consumers is undoubtedly the litmus test for validating the market. Qingyan noticed that in the past two years, pure makeup products have quietly gone to the public and become a "frequent visitor" on the makeup list of various domestic platforms. For example, RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan's star product multi-purpose balm has been ranked in the top 1 of the list of makeup-related brands for a long time, and the essence-level multi-purpose stick has been ranked top 1 on the Douyin moisturizing lipstick list since its launch.
▍RED CHAMBER朱栈明星产品
Returning to the entire Chinese pure beauty market, the demand for pure makeup is also constantly being verified. At the press conference, according to Yu Mu, a senior analyst of beauty practice, "the global clean beauty market will be about 47.6 billion yuan in 2024, with a compound growth rate of 8%, while the domestic shopping platform Tmall pure beauty market will be more than 4 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 18%, much higher than the global average", and according to the "Tmall Clean Beauty Trend Report", the size of China's pure makeup market is 20% of the pure beauty market.
Guo Jialing, Director of Brand and Innovation R&D at Kantar Consulting, found through a survey of 600 consumers that pure makeup shows three major trends of "leaner, more perfect, and more useful", and shows that although the elite group has a preference for pure makeup, pure makeup also adapts to the concept of public life, with as many as 85% of pure makeup consumers living in second-tier and lower-tier cities, 75% Consumers have a bachelor's degree or less, which also breaks people's impression of pure makeup, reflecting that pure makeup also meets the deep-seated needs of mainstream consumers.
▍Kantar Consulting's Director of Brand and Innovation R&D, Guo Jialing
Break the blank of "group standard".
A big step forward for China's pure makeup
In recent years, various brands and industry organizations have jointly released a series of white papers and research reports on clean beauty, promoting the unification of industry norms and clean standards, but pure makeup, as an important part of clean beauty, has never been put on the agenda, limiting its further development in the Chinese market.
As Chen Yihua, Secretary-General of Shanghai Daily Chemicals Industry Association, said at the meeting, "Pure cosmetics have not yet formed a unified definition and implementation standards, resulting in consumers having a vague scientific definition and standard of pure makeup, and some brands may lack rigor in publicity, resulting in unscientific cognition." ”
▍Chen Yihua, Secretary General of Shanghai Daily Chemicals Industry Association
To this end, under the guidance of Shanghai Daily Chemicals Industry Association, RED CHAMBER Zhuzhan cooperated with many well-known makeup manufacturers and brands in the industry, such as Shanghai Jinting Cosmetics Co., Ltd., Intercos Cosmetics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhenchen Cosmetics Co., Ltd., Komar Cosmetics (Wuxi) Co., Ltd., etc., to jointly launch the formulation of the industry's first pure makeup group standard, adding impetus to the healthy development of the industry.
▍The launching ceremony of China's first general requirements for pure makeup
It is worth mentioning that RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan also released the first "Pure Makeup Industry White Paper" jointly drafted by Kantar Consulting and Tmall TMIC at this meeting, which lasted more than a year and a half, and provided a professional and detailed "encyclopedia" for the pure makeup market that lacks consensus through its own practice and understanding of pure makeup for more than three years.
In fact, the launch of the pure makeup group standard and the release of the industry white paper are not only a big step forward for China's pure makeup market, but also a far-reaching practice from a global perspective, and also indicate that China's pure makeup has gradually walked out of its own path and is likely to win its own voice in the global pure makeup market.
On the other hand, although it is the world's second largest cosmetics market, compared with the huge overseas market, China's beauty market is still limited, and with the intensification of competition in the domestic market, it is undoubtedly the only way for domestic cosmetics to conquer overseas markets, and pure cosmetics are more likely to become an important direction for the future development of Chinese cosmetics due to its animal-friendly, natural and pure concept, and the same frequency as the European and American markets. Therefore, the launch of the pure makeup group standard is also of great significance for China's cosmetics to further integrate with the international market.
In addition, the continuous development of pure makeup brands such as RED CHAMBER Zhu Zhan in the Chinese market will inevitably require continuous collision and cooperation with Chinese supply chain enterprises, and the sustainable demand of the brand side has also forced the domestic supply chain to invest in R&D and innovation to seek a greener and purer supply of raw materials and packaging materials, which is of far-reaching significance for promoting the upgrading of China's cosmetics supply chain and gradually integrating with international standards. The launch of the pure makeup group standard has been actively participated by many leading enterprises in the makeup supply chain at home and abroad, which is undoubtedly the best example.
As Mavis, the founder of RED CHAMBER, said at the press conference, as early as March 2020, he noticed that domestic brands were rarely involved in the concept of pure makeup that is prevalent abroad, so he went to the Chinese cosmetics supply chain to find answers through "door-to-door" visits with the curiosity and question of "don't domestic consumers have more expectations for higher-end makeup brands and products?".
▍RED CHAMBER朱栈品牌创始人Mavis
Now, after more than three years of running-in and practice, RED CHAMBER has found the "answer" in China's cosmetics supply chain, and through the establishment of a unique pure makeup formula system, it has filled the current lack of mid-to-high-end pure makeup in the Chinese market, and at the same time promoted the Chinese cosmetics market from the imported traditional cosmetics that focus on marketing and makeup effect, as well as the innovative makeup era with traffic and low price, to the pure makeup 3.0 era that conforms to the concept of sustainability and is characterized by pure ingredients and excellent finish.
A subtle but far-reaching change
The mission behind pure makeup
Xu Jintao, senior manager of L'Oréal China's R&D and Innovation Center, once said, "[L'Oréal] is looking for one-to-one replacement raw materials", "for example, whether there are environmentally friendly, sustainable, green and biodegradable solutions for the pastel pigments used in makeup products and hair coloring products", and seeking more natural and pure raw material replacement is undoubtedly the core essence of pure makeup.
In fact, whether it is the popularity of pure makeup products in the Chinese market, or the active actions of beauty giants such as L'Oréal in the replacement of raw materials, it reflects that pure makeup represents the future direction of beauty to a certain extent, and at the same time, it is also related to the green upgrade of the entire Chinese cosmetics supply chain.
In addition, Qingyan observed that in the past few years, there have been few public discussions on pure makeup in China, which also makes both consumers and many industry insiders have a certain information gap in their understanding of pure makeup.
▍Pure makeup roundtable forum
For example, Zhu Tianxue, the founder of Zeno Technology, which focuses on the development of natural toners, analyzed from the perspective of a new generation of microbial technology to empower makeup, saying, "One of the key points in the pursuit of pure makeup may be natural, because most of the traditional makeup toners are chemically synthesized, which often involves high temperature and high pressure, strong acids and alkalis, heavy metals and other links, and the production end also means higher carbon emissions." ”
Wei Peng, the chief R&D cooperation representative of Shanghai Jinting Cosmetics Co., Ltd. and RED CHAMBER Zhuzhan, elaborated on the advantages of pure makeup from the perspective of cosmetics R&D personnel, "From the perspective of R&D, pure makeup is a new breakthrough, different from traditional makeup products, pure makeup has achieved simplified ingredients, while the makeup effect is not compromised, and the safety has also been improved."
In addition, in terms of packaging, Dong Jianjun, chairman of Shanghai Xianggang Packaging Technology Co., Ltd., said in the "White Paper on Pure Cosmetics Industry" that "Pure Cosmetics pays more attention to environmental protection and sustainable development in the development of packaging materials and packaging. In terms of packaging materials, renewable materials and environmentally friendly packaging are used to replace traditional packaging materials, which can effectively save energy and reduce emissions. ”
As a representative brand of pure makeup in China, RED CHAMBER Zhuzhan has promoted the pure advancement of products through continuous iteration. For example, RED CHAMBER's main product "Small Medicine Bottle" foundation, as the first neutral skin foundation on the market, has been iterated to the third generation, which prohibits 2800+ ingredients, and specializes in formulas for Chinese consumers with different skin types to meet different makeup needs.
In addition, the product also uses dual-mode technology SH-Protective Firm and patented anti-aging technology "AGE generation inhibitor" to create a personalized makeup look while maintaining a youthful skin. At present, according to incomplete statistics from the sales channels of the whole platform, the cumulative sales volume of this product has exceeded 100W bottles.
According to Lv Jianzhong, vice president of the Sustainable Development Management Committee of the Chinese Society of Management Science, "from a value point of view, the definition of sustainable development requires not only to meet the needs of natural resources in the process of human self-development today, but also to ensure the survival and development of our future generations." The value of pure makeup for consumers is that it gives consumers a safer, healthier and better experience. ”
"In addition, pure makeup plays an important role in leading the sustainable development of domestic beauty, because it makes the beauty industry have a new choice, which is of great significance for the transformation and upgrading of the industry. Lu Jianzhong said.
Facing the future, RED CHAMBER's vision is to become "the best pure makeup brand on the planet", as Mavis said at the meeting, "Whether our Chinese supply chain can establish a higher standard of pure makeup through co-creation, and whether it can reflect the standard definition of China's voice is what we look forward to next." ”
Perhaps the biggest variable in China's makeup market comes from pure makeup.