By Casey Hall and Dominique Patton
SHANGHAI/PARIS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - China's beauty brands are stepping out into the global market, armed with intricately carved lipsticks, freeze-dried face masks activated with purified water as well as creams infused with ingredients from traditional Chinese medicine.
Proya Cosmetics, the largest C-beauty brand by revenue, is among the most aggressive. Its Advanced Firming and Original Repair skincare lines will be sold in 400 Ulta stores as well as on Ulta.com
across the United States from November, and it opened a Paris research and development centre this month.
Other brands had their start in online sales and are now expanding to physical stores abroad. They include Florasis, whose lipsticks and other ornate cosmetics draw on traditional Chinese aesthetics. It opened its first overseas flagship shop in Tokyo's posh Ginza district last year.
Joocyee, which produces skincare-infused makeup, and Judydoll, known for inventive products such as its metal-wand mascara, opened shops in Singapore last year. Both brands, owned by China's Joy Group, are also now stocked at Skin Cupid, a British retailer specialising in Asian beauty products.
C-beauty brands have grown rapidly within China over the past decade and industry executives today speak of a growing confidence that Chinese products will find favour with consumers worldwide. Gone are the days when China was associated with cheap and low-quality goods, as Chinese innovations — across many industries but particularly in electric vehicles — have produced a halo effect, they say.
"The shift can be seen in everything from cars and smartphones to AI models," said David Huang, CEO of New York-listed Yatsen Group, which owns the Perfect Diary makeup brand.
The efforts by the C-beauty firms are part of a broader push abroad by Chinese brands — from fashion and electronics to bubble tea — keen to seek new revenue amid a years-long slump in domestic consumer spending.
BRAND AWARENESS CHALLENGES AHEAD
Some Chinese brands are very ambitious. Proya, for example, wants to become a top 10 brand globally and is among C-beauty companies exploring acquisitions of smaller foreign brands to expand their portfolios.
Its 51%-owned colour cosmetics brand Flower Knows, known for fairytale-inspired packaging, also launched with British pharmacy and beauty retailer Boots in March and began a limited run in Ulta stores in September.
While awareness of Chinese beauty brands is growing in many international markets, Proya says it has a long way to go.
"I would say that Proya's brand awareness in both Europe and the US is currently zero," founder and CEO Hou Juncheng said at the opening of the company's R&D centre in Paris.
"We hope that through collaboration with our partners, we can earn consumer trust and encourage them to purchase our products."
Rivals believe Proya, founded only 20 years ago, has a bright future, with Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of French industry association Cosmetic Valley, describing Hou as an "incredible competitor".
"He moved from the mass market to the mid-market, and then from the mid-market to the premium segment. You can be sure he’ll move into the luxury sector — whether in six weeks, six months, or six years. That’s a near certainty," said Jamet.
CONQUERING AT HOME AND INSPIRED BY K-BEAUTY
C-beauty brands overtook international names in 2022 and accounted for 57.4% of China's $159 billion cosmetics market last year, according to the China Association of Fragrance, Flavor and Cosmetic Industries.
They can also draw inspiration from the success of their Korean counterparts, which have become a significant force in the global cosmetics industry.
Exports for the K-beauty sector, known for 10-step routines to produce luminous "glass skin", surged 50% over five years to hit $11.4 billion in 2025. South Korea also overtook France in 2024 to become the top source of cosmetics imports in the tough-to-crack American market, US International Trade Commission data showed.
K-beauty has helped pave the way by bringing "this Asian cultural awareness to the market," said Jing An, an attorney at Altman & An, a New York law firm that helps foreign firms with US intellectual property and e-commerce operations.
An says her Chinese clients are usually apparel firms, luggage brands and online platforms but in the past year she has taken on two Chinese beauty clients looking to enter the US market.
One advantage that Chinese brands might have is their mid-market price points. Global consumers have become "really fed up of paying premium prices for topical skincare," said Elisa Harca, co-founder of marketing firm Red Ant Asia, which has advised global retailers on which C-beauty products to stock.
In the US, Chinese brands must also navigate persistent trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. Gabby Chen, president of global markets at Florasis, said that last year, China-US tensions led the brand to shift its international expansion away from the US.
Chen is more optimistic today, saying her focus is on building a sustainable, long-term global business regardless of the geopolitical backdrop. People who choose to buy Florasis are likely to be more international and open-minded, she added.
"It doesn't have to be political. It's like Feng Shui, you can choose to believe it or not, but we are here to share with you the essence of our culture and the essence of our brand."
(Reporting by Casey Hall in Shanghai and Dominique Patton in Paris; Additional reporting by Danielle Kaye in New York; Editing by Lisa Jucca and Edwina Gibbs)
