From fragrance to longevity: 8 trends defining China’s H1 2026 beauty market

For much of the past three years, discussion of China’s beauty market has been dominated by caution. Slower consumer spending, relentless discounting, and mounting competition from domestic brands have forced both global and local players to rethink growth expectations. Yet focusing only on those headwinds misses a more important development from the first half of 2026: Chinese consumers have not stopped spending on beauty. They have become far more selective about where it fits into their lives. The categories driving momentum this year were not the industry’s traditional growth engines. Haircare continued its shift into a premium, science-led category. Fragrance drew consumers seeking emotional connection and self-expression. Men’s beauty pushed past grooming into wellness and lifestyle. Sun care moved beyond UV protection toward outdoor lifestyles. Artificial intelligence, meanwhile, began reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate, and personalize what they buy. “The most significant shift in H1 2026 is that beauty spending is being defended rather than expanded,” said Laurie Du, category director of beauty and personal care, China, at Mintel. “Consumers are not abandoning beauty, but they are applying stricter budget discipline and becoming more selective about what deserves a place in their routines.” Eight trends defined the first half of 2026 — and are set to keep reshaping what beauty consumers expect in the months ahead. Precision beauty replaces aspiration Over the past decade, beauty marketing in China was built around aspiration. International luxury brands sold heritage and prestige. Domestic challengers competed on efficacy claims and rapid product innovation. Success often depended on convincing consumers to buy into a vision of transformation. Euromonitor consultant Chloe Zhu said beauty consumers remain highly budget-conscious despite signs of stabilization in broader consumption. The market’s increasingly promotional nature has also weakened the pull of major shopping festivals. “We do see clear fatigue toward mega sales events, largely because deep discounts are now available year-round,” Zhu said. “Brands can no longer rely on a few big promotion days.” The challenge is sharpest for international brands. Rising trust in domestic players is colliding with tighter budget discipline, squeezing the pricing power global brands once enjoyed. “Local brands are no longer seen as inferior,” Zhu said. “Their R&D capabilities have improved significantly, and price-conscious consumers increasingly believe they can get comparable or even superior quality at a lower price." This shift is visible across skincare, makeup, and increasingly fragrance and sun care. Domestic brands that once competed mainly on affordability now win consumers through better formulation, faster development cycles, and a sharper read on local habits. International brands, as a result, can no longer lean on heritage alone to justify premium positioning. They need to show clear differentiation — patented ingredients, proven clinical efficacy, or sensorial experiences that local rivals cannot easily replicate. Mintel’s Du sees the consequences in how consumers now define value. Products must be verifiable, perceivable, and usable: efficacy backed by science, results they can see or feel, and a fit that works in everyday life. Anaïs Bournonville, founder of Chinese marketing agency AB Advisory, sees a similar evolution. "The biggest shift in beauty is the move from aspiration to precision," she said. "Consumers no longer want the best product for everyone; they want the right product for them. Consumers are no longer buying promises; they are buying expertise.” Brands are being forced to rethink how they justify premium positioning. As domestic brands continue improving formulation capabilities and narrowing quality gaps, heritage alone is becoming less persuasive. International brands increasingly need to demonstrate scientific differentiation, proprietary technology, or experiences that local competitors cannot easily replicate. Beauty moves closer to wellness One of the clearest themes running through H1 2026 was the growing overlap between beauty and wellness. Consumers are paying closer attention to sleep quality, stress management, preventative health, and long-term wellbeing. As a result, beauty products are increasingly competing against supplements, healthcare, fitness, and broader lifestyle spending. Du argues that this shift is fundamentally changing how consumers evaluate purchases. Beauty products are increasingly judged through the lens of overall wellbeing rather than purely cosmetic outcomes. The trend is helping fuel growth in ingestible beauty, collagen supplements, preventative skincare, and recovery-focused products. It is also contributing to the growing popularity of skin longevity, one of the most influential concepts to emerge in beauty this year. Juliette Duveau, co-founder of consulting agency The Chinese Pulse, describes the shift as a move away from traditional anti-aging narratives. "Instead of pursuing short-term age reversal effects, consumers are embracing the natural aging process and adopting a long-term approach to maintain skin vitality and health," she said. Rather than focusing on reversing wrinkles or erasing signs of aging, brands increasingly talk about preserving skin function, strengthening skin barriers, and supporting long-term resilience. The growing popularity of post-procedure skincare reflects the same dynamic. As minimally invasive aesthetic treatments become more common across Asia, demand has risen for products designed to support recovery and maintain skin health over time. Haircare’s skincare moment Few categories showcase the industry’s growing focus on long-term health and maintenance over cosmetic enhancement better than haircare. China’s haircare market expanded from 43.4 billion RMB ($6 billion) in 2017 to 65.5 billion RMB ($9.2 billion) in 2023 and is projected to reach 82.8 billion RMB ($11.6 billion) by 2027. What was once a largely functional category centered on cleansing has evolved into one of beauty's most sophisticated battlegrounds. Consumers are increasingly concerned about scalp health, hair thinning, stress-related hair loss, and long-term hair quality. The category now includes scalp serums, exfoliating treatments, microbiome-focused formulations, and diagnostic tools that would have seemed niche only a few years ago. Just as consumers gradually adopted multi-step facial skincare routines over the past decade, many are now treating the scalp as an extension of the skin. Duveau sees this as one of the year's strongest-performing segments. "Major global beauty conglomerates are upgrading product lines to the high-end segment and ramping up independent R&D and technological innovation," she said. The category also benefits from a growing awareness of lifestyle-related concerns. Long working hours, stress, sleep disruption, and environmental pressures have made hair health a highly visible issue for many consumers. Unlike some beauty concerns, hair thinning and scalp problems often have an immediate impact on confidence, making consumers more willing to invest in targeted solutions. For brands such as Kérastase, Olaplex, and a growing number of Chinese players, that creates opportunities to position haircare as an investment in long-term wellbeing rather than simple maintenance. The rise of China's self-care male consumer Male beauty continued to evolve during the first half of the year, but the category's expansion increasingly extends beyond skincare. China's male consumer economy surpassed 6 trillion RMB ($830 billion) in 2025, while the men's skincare market is projected to exceed 20 billion RMB ($2.8 billion) by 2026. For instance, men's body care sales on Douyin surged 363 percent while men's makeup sales rose 176 percent. Male consumers are spending more on fitness, wellness, fragrance, appearance management, and outdoor activities. Rather than approaching beauty through traditional cosmetic categories, many younger men are entering through practical concerns such as scalp health, body care, sun protection, and fragrance. Duveau identified male consumers as one of the market's most promising yet underdeveloped opportunities. The shift reflects changing social norms but also a broader redefinition of self-care. For younger consumers, appearance, health, fitness, and wellbeing increasingly exist within the same ecosystem. Beauty brands capable of positioning products around performance, confidence, and lifestyle rather than traditional beauty narratives are finding new opportunities to connect with male shoppers. Fragrance's emotional appeal strengthens If one category consistently outperformed expectations during the first half, it was fragrance. China's fragrance market hit 20.7 billion RMB ($2.9 billion) in 2023, reported iiMedia Research, exhibiting a remarkable growth rate of 22.5%, with the market set to expand to 51.5 billion RMB ($7.2 billion) by 2029.. Moojing market data showed Tmall and Douyin generating near-parity fragrance sales, highlighting how quickly the category has moved from niche enthusiasm to mainstream consumption. Premium and niche brands have been among the strongest performers. Earlier reporting found brands such as Creed, Atelier Cologne, and Byredo recording triple-digit growth rates, demonstrating consumers' willingness to spend on products that offer emotional rather than purely functional benefits. For Bournonville, that distinction is precisely what makes fragrance unique. "The success of niche fragrance reflects a growing desire for discovery and individuality," she said. "In fragrance, emotion has become a stronger driver than function." Chinese brands have capitalized particularly effectively on this shift. Labels such as Documents, Melt Season and To Summer have built communities around storytelling, cultural identity, and emotional resonance rather than efficacy claims. Duveau believes the trend reflects a broader change in consumer priorities. "Chinese beauty consumers increasingly value resonance with brand founders, brand vision, and brand values," she said. As competition intensifies across beauty categories, fragrance remains one of the few areas where emotional connection can still support premium pricing. Sun care follows lifestyle shifts China’s sunscreen market is projected to grow from 14.8 billion RMB ($2 billion) in 2023 to 22.4 billion RMB ($3.1 billion) by 2028. Yet growth is increasingly being driven by innovation beyond traditional UV protection. One of the most notable developments has been the rise of cooling sunscreen products. According to data from Magic Mirror, the cooling beauty segment surged 130 percent year-on-year between July 2024 and June 2025, dramatically outpacing the broader personal care market, which grew just 5.2 percent over the same period. Running clubs, hiking communities, cycling groups, and outdoor fitness activities have become increasingly mainstream among urban consumers. As a result, sunscreen is evolving from a skincare essential into a lifestyle product designed for movement, performance, and comfort. Consumers now expect products to offer sweat resistance, portability, pollution protection, and enhanced sensory experiences alongside traditional sun protection. The trend reflects changing lifestyles rather than simply growing awareness of sun damage. Consumers are purchasing products not only for what they do but also for when and where they fit into daily life. AI reshapes beauty's value chain Artificial intelligence generated headlines across nearly every industry during H1 2026, but beauty may prove to be one of its most consequential applications. At the discovery stage, AI-powered platforms are beginning to emerge as alternatives to traditional search. Du argues that tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity are gradually influencing how consumers find and evaluate products. While Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) and Douyin remain dominant purchasing drivers, the possibility of AI-generated recommendations introduces a new visibility challenge for brands. Brands are no longer focused solely on visibility across social platforms. As AI-powered search and recommendation tools gain traction, they also need to think about how products surface, are described, and are recommended within these emerging ecosystems. AI is also accelerating beauty's long-promised personalization era. AI-powered skin diagnostics, virtual consultations, ingredient analysis tools, and personalized recommendations are reducing the distance between diagnosis and purchase. "The real value of AI is not that it knows consumers better; it's that it helps consumers know themselves better," said Bournonville. She said that at beauty exhibitions and retail activations across China, consumers have shown growing enthusiasm for experiences that provide individualized assessments rather than generalized advice. At the same time, AI is transforming how beauty content is created. Brands are increasingly using generative AI for campaign production, product education, customer service, and marketing personalization. Consumers may not always realize where AI is involved, but they are already interacting with AI-generated beauty experiences across multiple touchpoints. Unlike previous digital innovations, AI's influence spans discovery, recommendation, content creation, and personalization simultaneously. Owning moments, not products China’s beauty market is becoming less category-driven and more consumer-centric. Consumer sophistication is also changing how products are used. Rather than following prescribed routines, shoppers are increasingly looking for products that can perform multiple functions across different occasions and needs. “Prevalence of versatility is the most significant development in beauty consumer behaviors,” Hwee Chung, China Beauty Insight Director at Worldpanel, said. “As consumer sophistication further grows, they look beyond the prescribed use and think how different products can help them meet different needs and occasions.” The trend has supported the growth of categories such as beauty oils, which have expanded beyond fragrance-led purchases to become longer-lasting moisturizers that consumers mix with lotions and creams for both face and body care. Chung also points to the rise of all-purpose skincare products popularized by brands such as Cetaphil and CeraVe, as well as spray moisturizers designed for multiple usage scenarios. Rather than adding more products to routines, consumers are increasingly looking for products that can do more. In China, consumers are no longer assembling routines product by product. They are building systems designed around specific needs, occasions, and lifestyles. The brands gaining traction are those that understand where they fit within those systems and can clearly articulate the value they provide. As Du argues, beauty in China is evolving into a more holistic and outcome-driven ecosystem where consumers focus less on individual products and more on how different steps, formats, and routines work together to deliver visible results. For an industry that spent years chasing broader reach and bigger campaigns, that may be the most important lesson from the first half of 2026.

From fragrance to longevity: 8 trends defining China’s H1 2026 beauty market

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag

Upgrade to Pro

Sectors

Insights

Company

From fragrance to longevity: 8 trends defining China’s H1 2026 beauty market

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag