28/03/2022
China is such an important market for any beauty brand – with the loosening of animal testing requirements, soon, everyone will have a crack at the whip but home-grown Chinese brands aren’t about to let the influx of European and American beauty brands take all the glory. A trend I’ve noticed recently is for highly (and I mean highly) decorative products, from lipstick bullets to entire palettes carved to reference the arts and Chinese culture. Using earth tone shades and symbolic carving, they are a very long way off our perceptions of cheap and cheerful C Beauty.
Zeesea x British Museum
Something that’s never considered (from this end) is how the Chinese consumers feel about an influx of brands from around the world. I’ve seen stats saying that 50% of millennial Chinese beauty consumers would prefer to buy from local or home grown brands. International brands have had a reputation for superior and prestige formulas while Chinese brands were felt to be inferior – these new brands are challenging those perceptions and appealing successfully to national pride in purchasing products designed and made in China. C-Beauty is trending in China too, not least because they’re well placed to foster emotional connections with consumers by incorporating cultural elements that resonate.
Zeesea Picasso Lipstick
Zeesea (HERE) was conceived in 2012 by Hangzhou Laifei Cosmetics. They’ve recently collaborated with The British Museum to create a collection of palettes called the Enchanting Egypt Collection inspired by Egyptian art. As it’s a licensing deal, it’s not actually available at The British Museum which seems somewhat short-sighted. The same applies to the Alice In Wonderland x The British Museum beauty products and the Cherub highlighter you can see in the top picture.
