C-beauty
23 January 2025
Chinese beauty brands look set to be big in 2025 and beyond. This year alone in 2024, homegrown cosmetics brand, Floraisis, became the first C-beauty brand to open a counter at the prestigious Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf, Proya established the BTN French Research Center with the Skin Research Center in Paris and local beauty brands like KANS still dominate the domestic beauty market. Chinese beauty companies are becoming a force to be reckoned with for their product innovation, cultural resonance, and affordable pricing.
If you’re ready to dive into the world of C-beauty, here’s a guide to the most popular Chinese beauty brands and their star products to know for 2025 and ahead.
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Florasis (花西子), is a Chinese beauty brand is poised to be one of China’s biggest C-beauty export. Founded in 2017, Florasis is based in Hangzhou, China and is known for its fusion of traditional Chinese aesthetics with modern makeup products. You’ll notice this aspect in its ornate packaging from the stamps of the eyeshadows to the intricate designs of the lipsticks. The brand’s most iconic products are its engraved lipsticks and makeup palettes.
Riding on its domestic popularity, Florasis has expanded regionally and internationally. In September 2025, Florasis became the first C-beauty brand to launch at Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf, a luxury shopping mall in Paris.
Perfect Diary (完美日记) was founded in 2017, and quickly became a trailblazer in the domestic beauty scene. The brand was quick to ride on the Guochao (国潮) trend happening in China with its creative marketing strategies and trendy releases. For example, Perfect Diary was one of the first C-beauty brands to leverage upon private chats to create a close knit beauty community. On Wechat, Perfect Diary created a Xiao Wan Zi, a virtual influencer, that engages one-on-one with consumers on Wechat to offer makeup tips and deliberately crafted promotions from the brand, gaining the favor of consumers. Perfect Diary was also quick to collaborate with key opinion consumers (not the same as key opinion leaders/influencers!) on Xiaohongshu and Wechat, turning them into advocates for the brand.
The brand is known for providing high quality makeup products at affordable price points. I had the chance to try out Perfect Diary’s makeup palettes in Cosme Loft in Tokyo recently, and I agree with this opinion. The colours were richly pigmented, had good payoff and the texture is very fine. Perfect Diary has also created memorable collaborations with Sanrio, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2020, Australian actor-singer Troye Sivan was tapped to be the face of the brand. Chinese actress Zhou Xun is also an ambassador for Perfect Diary.
In June 2024, Perfect Diary’s parent company, Yatsen Group, officially opened its Global Innovation R&D Center in Shanghai. The group, which also owns Eve Lom, Dr Wu and Pink Bear cosmetics, aims to strengthen its research and development capabilities with this new center.
Another key player of the 国潮movement in China is Flower Knows (花知晓). Founded in 2016 by Yang Zifeng and Zhou Tiancheng, who are better known in the Cosplay circles by their stage names, Baozi and Hana.
The makeup collections from Flower Knows are known for their exquisite packaging with an aesthetic that is a mix fairytales, mythology, and anime. Flower Knows is also commonly featured on Douyin to create the coquettish makeup look popular on Chinese social media. I also sampled Flower Knows makeup products, and I have to say that the packaging is very impressive. The makeup is light and sheer; layering is required to get more colours.
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Building a name for itself in the cosmeceutical scene is Winona (薇诺娜) , a Chinese beauty brand that focuses on skincare for sensitive skin using ingredients harvested from the Yunnan region. These ingredients like Portulaca Oleracea (common purslane) and Camellia Sinensis (green tea) commonly feature in their product formulations for their soothing and anti-inflammatory properties. The most popular products from Winona are their Anti-Sensitive Moisturizing Cream and Winona Anti-Sensitive Soothing Moisturizing Repair Mask.
I had the chance to learn about Winona skincare at the 25th World Congress of Dermatology 2023 in Singapore, at the brand’s exhibition. Winona’s products are jointly developed with local dermatologists and the brand partners with medical institutions for their product development. Most recently in November 2023, Winona’ parent company, Botanee Group, established the BTN French Research Center with the Skin Research Center in Hospital Saint-Louis in Paris, France to collaborate on clinical research.
Judydoll (橘朵) is a Chinese beauty brand popular among younger Chinese consumers, especially Gen Z for its colorful, trendy, and affordable makeup products. Founded in 2016, Judydoll has built a strong presence on Chinese social media including Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Douyin.
One of Judydoll’s strongest selling points is its low price point and reasonable level of quality. Judydoll’s best sellers are its Iced Watery Lip Gloss, eyeshadow palettes and blush. Since September 2024, Judydoll products are available in Singapore at Watson outlets.
Proya (珀莱雅) is another major homegrown brand that is said to be L’oreal’s main rival in the chinese Chinese beauty industry. In 2023, Proya posted record revenue earnings of 8.9billion yuan, sealing its status as China’s biggest homegrown brand.
Founded in 2003 by Hou Juncheng in Hangzhou, China; Proya’s name is a portmantea of the words “pro” for professional and “ya” for elegance in mandarin. Over the years, Proya has evolved its brand image from offering mid price products to a premium skincare brand backed by research and input from dermatologists. Proya has also been quick to focus on domestic beauty trends such as clean beauty and the demand for using sustainable and “natural” ingredients.
To Summer (观夏) is one of China’s most popular homegrown fragrance brands. Founded in 2018 by scent enthusiast, Chen Jing (陈靖), To Summer’s scents and designs are inspired by traditional Chinese culture, particularly poetry and paintings with a mix of modern aesthetics. The scents use native plants and local botanical extracts from Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi, and Guizhou to create blends to pay homage to the rich history of Chinese art.
The strong heritage factor behind To Summer has made this C-beauty brand popular among the young consumers who are fans of the Guochao trend in China. Some of its most popular scents are its Sacred Lotus Perfume with notes of lotus and white tea, Green Tea and Jasmine Candle and Red Plum Perfume. In February 2024, beauty conglomerate L’oreal acquired a minority stake in To Summer.
Another household C-beauty name that’s dominated the Chinese beauty market is KANS (韩束) . Although KANS was dethroned by Proya only recently as the biggest Chinese beauty brand, KANS remains very popular in China and is still the most popular cosmetics brand on Douyin.
KANS was founded in 2002 by Shanghai Chicmax cosmetics in 2002 and has established itself to be an anti-aging skincare brand utilising traditional Chinese ingredients backed by research and modern skincare innovation. KANS is particularly popular among the young females; and KANS has been strategic in targeting this audience through moving short films and on social media. In particular, KANS’s 2021 collaboration with the Chinese swimming squad for a short film that featured the brand’s face masks went viral, contributing to the masks’ first release to be sold out in 1 second. The current ambassador for KANS is Chinese actress, Tong Liya.