The rise of scenario beauty: How short video is creating new consumer needs

Short-form video is changing not only how beauty products are advertised, but also how consumers discover needs they might never have considered. Rather than focusing on an ingredient, a product's efficacy or the appearance of its packaging, brands now use Douyin and Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) videos to place products in recognizable situations: someone rushing through a morning routine before work, touching up makeup in a taxi, preparing for a ski trip, or trying to conceal the signs of a late night before an early meeting. By showing the problem and the product solution in the same sequence, these videos make specific product benefits easier to understand and demonstrate why they may be needed. A consumer may never have thought of herself as needing a commute-specific sunscreen, a festival rescue kit or a portable makeup compact until she repeatedly sees the inconvenience being played out in front of her. Short video gives previously vague needs a recognizable context, making specialized products easier to imagine, search for and eventually purchase. The product innovations emerging in Asia also reflect this more situational approach to beauty. For instance Situea, the new brand from 3CE founder Kim So-hee, has made "scenario beauty" central to its positioning, with one of its first products combining a mirror with lip and cheek color in a single compact for touch-ups on the move. Judydoll (橘朵) has developed products around sports and heavy perspiration, while Lancaster and Winona (薇诺娜) have brought skiing into their winter sun-protection strategies. Elsewhere, portable makeup, wearable skincare and products designed around travel, late nights and seasonal sensitivity are turning familiar categories into more specific propositions. According to Jiuqian's analysis of 70,751 long-form reviews of leading skincare products across major Chinese e-commerce platforms, the proportion of reviews explicitly mentioning the circumstances in which a product was used increased from 46.7% in 2023 to 52.4% in 2025. For beauty brands, understanding the moment of use is becoming an additional consideration alongside ingredients, efficacy and product format. When the occasion becomes the product brief Jiuqian identified six major scenarios in its research: late nights and overtime, periods of heightened skin sensitivity, extreme outdoor activities, fast-paced daily routines, slow self-care and important life events. Together, they accounted for 45.3% of scenario-related narratives in 2025, with overnight work representing the largest individual category at 12%, followed by special sensitivity at 10.6%, outdoor activities at 8.1% and fast-paced daily routines at 7.1%. Outdoor activities and fast-paced routines were also the fastest-growing scenarios, increasing by 3.9 and three percentage points, respectively. At the same time, broader product narratives around skincare sets, serums and moisturizers declined, suggesting that consumers are increasingly describing what they want a product to do in a particular situation rather than relying solely on conventional category descriptions. Sun protection provides a particularly clear example of how the same category can serve very different needs depending on the occasion. Someone applying SPF before a morning commute does not judge a product by exactly the same standards as someone spending six hours by the sea or skiing at altitude. The commuter may prioritise how quickly it absorbs, whether it feels greasy and whether foundation pills over it, while the outdoor consumer is more concerned with water resistance, perspiration and whether protection holds up after hours outside. Among fast-paced daily routines, commuting featured in 47.1% of discussions, while quick makeup accounted for 65.2% of commute-related needs. Although sun protection represented 35.8% of demand, texture and skin feel were cited by 47% of consumers when choosing a product, ahead of efficacy reputation at 43.6%. Another 54% said they would judge a product through their immediate experience of using it. Those priorities change considerably in outdoor environments, where extreme outdoor scenarios nearly doubled from 4.2% to 8.1% of consumer narratives in two years. Protection accounted for 64.6% of demand within this category, water- and sweat-resistance reached 11.3%, and efficacy reputation became the leading purchase consideration at 56.2%. Outdoor consumers also need larger quantities for repeated application, portable packaging and products that can withstand more demanding conditions: A sunscreen designed around the morning commute may therefore be poorly suited to a day at the beach, even if both products are technically positioned as daily sun protection. Beauty has to feel right in the moment Scenario beauty is not only changing what a product needs to do; it can also change what consumers expect it to feel like when they use it. Tanapatr Barameesangpet, beauty and wellbeing R&D lead at Unilever in Thailand, said at his session at in-cosmetics Asia, that sensory cues are becoming part of how shoppers judge the product itself. "Consumers are increasingly evaluating beauty products holistically, using sensory cues to assess efficacy, quality and enjoyment," he said. This becomes especially relevant when products are developed around specific routines. A refreshing texture can add to the appeal of something used after exercise, while scent can become part of an evening wind-down ritual; during a rushed morning, a fast-absorbing finish may matter as much as the functional claim on the pack. Unilever's SASSY framework, a new marketing model for expressing a brand’s desirability, brings together science, aesthetics and sensory experiences, but Barameesangpet said the goal is not simply to make products more novel. "The challenge for brands is to strike the right balance, delivering sensory experiences that feel intuitively relevant while introducing moments of surprise that create delight and memorability," he said. As routines fragment across the day, that balance can look different from one moment to another. A morning skincare routine, an afternoon touch-up and a late-night self-care ritual may require different textures, scents, visual cues and modes of application, even when the products sit within familiar categories. “The strongest beauty experiences rarely rely on a single sensory trigger. Instead, they bring together multiple sensory elements that reinforce both product benefits and emotions,” Barameesangpet said. For brands trying to establish a recognizable ritual around a particular moment, some sensory cues may have more staying power than others. “Touch and scent remain particularly powerful because of their close links to emotion, memory and perceived performance,” he said. “Consumers often remember how a product feels on their skin or hair, and how it smells, long after the experience itself.” From ski slopes to wearable beauty China's expanding ice-and-snow economy provides another test of how far scenario-based positioning can go. Harbin and Changbai Mountain have become increasingly visible settings for winter skincare and sun-protection campaigns. The environment gives functional categories a natural performance story, but the growing number of brands entering the space also raises the bar for credibility. Ashley Dudarenok, founder of Chozan, points to CeraVe's partnership with Harbin Ice and Snow World during the 2025-26 season, where the brand also incorporated local bathhouse culture into its activation. "It's no longer enough to just be there; you have to prove why you're there," Dudarenok said. Extreme cold creates clear needs around the skin barrier, while skiing provides an obvious reason for sun protection to be present. Brands that move into the same setting without a comparable relationship between environment and product risk making the scenario feel like an advertising backdrop rather than a meaningful test of performance. For Dudarenok, the next stage will depend less on who reaches the location first and more on what brands can demonstrate once they are there. "The differentiation is no longer the stage, but the substance of the story you tell on it," she said. Other scenarios are generating completely different formats. Senior strategy consultant Ming Yii Lai points to wearable beauty moving beyond elaborate sun-protection masks into emergency skincare and fragrance, including acne patches positioned as festival or date-night rescue products and aromatherapy patches designed like jewelry, clothing pins or phone accessories. The appeal is partly functional and partly social, as products become something consumers can wear, display and potentially share through content. Lai sees opportunities for collaborations with outdoor and beverage brands, particularly during summer, but warns that over-design can make the result feel “disposable or gimmicky” in a market where scrutiny around ingredients and product claims is increasing. A new way to search for beauty As consumers become more specific about their needs, scenario-based beauty is also changing how products are discovered and purchased, with shoppers now searching for the situation rather than starting with a conventional product category. Jiuqian found that self-directed search and comparison increased from 37.9% to 43.9% (2023 vs 2025), while the influence of livestreamers and bloggers declined from 5.8% to 3.5%. The difference was particularly pronounced in outdoor scenarios, where independent searches reached 52.1%, compared with 1.8% for livestream sources. Someone preparing for a winter sports holiday might search for ski-specific sunscreen, while another consumer looks for waterproof protection before a beach trip or a non-pilling formula for the morning commute. These more specific search terms can influence product development, search optimization, merchandising and the way beauty is organized on e-commerce platforms. Not every occasion, however, warrants another product launch or new formulation. Important life events accounted for only 1.6% of scenario narratives in Jiuqian's research and generated the highest dissatisfaction rate, though the biggest problems were customer service and logistics rather than product efficacy. Customer service accounted for 58% of complaints and logistics another 13.2%, suggesting that for a consumer buying a gift for a particular occasion, reliable delivery and appropriate packaging may matter more than another skincare innovation. The real dividing line is whether a scenario occurs often enough and creates a sufficiently specific problem to change what consumers expect from the product. When it does, the consequences can reach formulation, packaging, format, service and even the language people use to find the product in the first place. Short video adds another dimension because brands no longer have to wait for consumers to articulate those needs themselves. By showing the rushed morning, the ski slope, the overnight flight or the late-night office, they can help viewers recognize problems and imagine products as solutions. Scenario beauty is therefore not only a response to how consumers live; increasingly, the media environment can help determine which moments become beauty needs in the first place.

Scenario beauty rises: How short video is creating new consumer needs

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance

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Scenario beauty rises: How short video is creating new consumer needs

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance