Chinese foundation makeup has entered the golden age!

According to the forecast of China Business Industry Research Institute, the market size of foundation makeup (liquid foundation, loose powder, etc.) in my country will be close to 40 billion yuan in 2022. According to data from the Beauty Industry Research Institute, as of October 2021, facial makeup accounts for about 36.7% of the market share of the color cosmetics category.

However, for a long time, on the makeup track where consumers are most willing to spend money, foreign brands such as Armani, Estee Lauder and YSL have a clear advantage in terms of brand history and consumer awareness. However, this barrier is not unbreakable. Today, domestic beauty brands are catching up on the base makeup track, returning to the essence of products, and constantly strengthening the technical and R&D strength of base makeup products, with the intention of promoting domestic base makeup in terms of efficacy and quality. to a higher level of development.

This year, the competition in the domestic base makeup track has intensified, and brands such as Perfect Diary, UNNY CLUB, and Mistine have also invested a lot of resources in the creation of base makeup categories.

01

Products: more R&D investment, more focused selling points

Since last year, Yixian e-commerce, which has successfully created animal eyeshadow palettes and lipsticks, has increased investment in base makeup research and development. Huang Jinfeng, chairman and CEO of Yixian E-commerce, once said, “The formulas of color products are the same. If you only change the seasonal colors, you still need to maintain a high new frequency, but the iteration speed of base makeup products will slow down.”

“The repurchase rate of base makeup products is better than that of color products, and skin care products are better than base makeup products.” This is Huang Jinfeng’s judgment, and it is also the industry’s general understanding of the attributes of base makeup. It is based on this perception that under the market environment where traffic is becoming more expensive and online marketing efficiency is declining, the base makeup category has received the attention of many cosmetic companies and has become an important direction for brand transformation. UNNY CLUB, the base makeup product, also chooses to oversize the base makeup track.

Long-lasting makeup, oil control and moisturizing, anti-oxidation, anti-dullness… Different from color makeup in the general sense, base makeup products can tell more stories in the research and development process. In the research and development of base makeup products, the trend of cosmetics companies focusing on demand pain points, converting research and development results into product selling points, and connecting the research and development system with brand value is particularly prominent.

For example, in the development of UNNY long-lasting makeup foundation, UNNY’s independent research and development team focused on the pain points of consumers who lacked makeup foundation for oily skin. After more than 100 formulation optimization and adjustment and a development period of up to 376 days, they successfully created this product.

Last year, aiming at the pain points of using makeup products for oily or mixed skin, Yixian E-Commerce and the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed and launched the SmartLOCK™ technology. It is said that this technology can directionally absorb the excess oil secreted by the skin, but it will not take away the necessary oil in the base makeup, so as to achieve the effect of directional oil control. At present, the SmartLOCK™ technology has been used in the perfect diary pearl lock Makeup powder, small silver mirror air cushion and other products.

02

Brand: positioning Asian base makeup, pursuing the ultimate simplicity

In order to improve the problem of “the original foundation with high color saturation is quite different from the skin tone of Chinese consumers”, MISTINE, which is vigorously developing the Chinese market, proposed the “Asian Research Color System”. According to reports, the system is an exclusive technology of COSMAX. In order to cover a wider range of color fields, the system does not use the three shades of W, N and C that were previously used in the global market, but subdivides the shades into 7 shades. In the field, in addition to the positioning of “Asian research”, from packaging to ingredients, the pursuit of simplicity and naturalness from the inside out is another characteristic of local makeup brands. 

For example, UNNY positions the brand as minimalist naturalism beauty, and the brand vision and base makeup product packaging style are dominated by minimalist black and white tones; Dewy Lab proposes the concept of “three friendly” – user-friendly, life-friendly, environment-friendly, It has formulated the DCBS standard for pure color cosmetics, and also plans to replace the packaging materials with recyclable packaging, use natural and renewable inks, and continue to reduce carbon emissions.

03

Sales channel: online platform, mainly based on samples

In terms of category characteristics, compared with skin care products, the effect of base makeup varies from person to person, and the effect can be reflected in a short period of time; compared with color makeup, base makeup has a weaker visual impact and needs to be tried in person to see. Therefore, the creation of trial makeup is particularly critical for base makeup products.

In terms of price, cutting-edge base makeup brands are moving closer to, or even surpassing, international brands. Overall, the gap between local brands and international brands is rapidly narrowing in terms of brands, products, and R&D.

In the future, international vision and closeness will be the biggest advantages of local makeup brands. The domestic makeup products developed based on the skin quality, color preferences and consumption habits of Chinese people have huge room for imagination.