Natural Skin Care Products Are Big Business in China

Today, natural brands like France’s L’Occitane en Provence, Origins (an Estee Lauder company) and Australia’s Jurilique are extremely popular with young women ages 18 to 30, who are the greatest consumers of cosmetics in China and who want specific products that can deliver specific results. These young women are smart, savvy, open to trying new things out and they’re also keen, said Liu, to experiment with creams, lotions and make-up made by companies they’ve never heard of before.

“As tastes continue to change in China, there’s scope for more new brands, new trends and new opportunities in skincare and make-up,” Liu said. But only so long as these brands and products are able to deliver, because when it comes to cosmetics, efficacy is top on the Chinese consumer’s list, particularly when it comes to skincare, which represents about 70% of the market. Women are most keen on creams and lotions that can lighten and brighten their skin and preserve its youth, Liu said, and although there’s an increased awareness about the adverse effect of chemicals in certain cosmetics and a bent that didn’t exist before toward more natural and organic skincare products, these should also be able to deliver the same results.

Companies such as Restorsea, a New York-based line of skincare products, may fare well in China today. Restorsea’s main ingredient is an enzyme released by salmon hatchlings that’s chock-a-block with anti-aging properties that founder Patti Pao discovered quite by accident when visiting a salmon hatchery in Norway.

“The women had their hands in the water all day, herding the baby salmon, and I noticed that their hands looked at least 20 years younger than their faces,” she said. The enzyme has the same benefits as glycolic acid, an ingredient used in many skincare products for its ability to reduce wrinkles, hyperpigmentation and acne marks, among others, but it sloughs off dead skin without producing any of the side effects that some people can experience with glycolic acid.

“Women globally like natural products but they won’t take that over efficacy,” Pao, who has launched more than 400 products for lauded brands like Avon, Elizabeth Arden, Guerlain and Peter Thomas Roth, said. “Restorsea is a natural product that also has great efficacy, and in China, which is still in the discovery phase when it comes to cosmetics, this combination is becoming as important as brand validity.” Pao intends to establish a solid base for her line in the US first, but, she says, China will probably be the first overseas market she targets when she starts expanding internationally.