China Beauty & Personal Care — 2026 H2 Outlook

Executive view

The Chinese beauty market has entered a maturity phase. The era of winning purely through livestream discounts and influencer "种草" (seeding) is closing; consumers increasingly ask for proof — ingredient transparency, clinical efficacy, and regulatory compliance. For overseas brands, this is both a barrier and an opening: the barrier is filing and claim substantiation, the opening is that credibility now beats spend.

What the data shows

• Cosmetics retail has outgrown total consumer goods retail in most recent quarters, but the growth rate has normalized into single digits — the land-grab is over.
• Domestic brands ("C-beauty") have taken durable share in color cosmetics and mass skincare, competing on speed and local insight.
• Imported product retains the premium skincare and fragrance tiers, where brand heritage and formulation still command a price premium.

The regulatory pivot

The decisive change is on the compliance side. Under the updated cosmetic supervision framework, efficacy claims must be substantiated and filed, and "new" functional ingredients face a regist