Fashion brands are quickly capturing China’s make-up market

Many renowned fashion brands that have succeeded in the apparel, handbag, and accessories markets have ventured into cosmetics. This strategy, which aims to cash in on luxury brands, has had mixed fortunes throughout the world. In China, it’s a hit.

In 2017, the popularity of fashion brands’ cosmetics lines skyrocketed as consumer spending on high-end beauty products rose. The demand for designer cosmetics brands can be sensed through “must-have” beauty items that circulated on Chinese social media. From Tom Ford’s Eye Color Quad and Chanel’s Le Blush Crème De Chanel to Yves Saint Laurent’s (YSL) Touche Éclat Face Highlighter Pen and Christian Dior’s Addict Lipstick, fashion brands’ beauty products are hoovering up Chinese customers’ cash.

The success of designer beauty brands poses a threat to established make-up labels such as Estée Lauder, Lancôme and Shiseido.

Why are Chinese shoppers so into fashion brands’ beauty lines? And how can brands leverage that interest?

Gateway item

“[Luxury brands’ beauty products are] a good entry point to the world of luxury,” says Louis Houdart, founder of the marketing and branding agency Creative Capital. “While a lot of office ladies [in China] can buy a luxury handbag, it is still out of the reach for the majority of Chinese people.”

Without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars, Chinese consumers can enjoy the designers’ touch, implying a level of wealth and sophistication they have not yet obtained.

Helen Yuan, a 21-year-old college student in Shanghai, says the first luxury item she ever bought was Dior’s Addict Lipstick. “Because I am just a student right now, and I don’t want to ask for too much money from my parents, cosmetics are the only luxury items that I can afford,” she says.

By buying cosmetics from luxury brands, she says she learned about their histories, stories and offerings in other categories.