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11-OCT-26 · Market Intelligence

Arriving Is the Easy Part: Why Some Beauty Brands Stay in China

Foreign beauty brands are leaving and entering China at the same time, and the difference between them is less about the market than about how they operate inside it.

Two lists stand out in China's beauty market this autumn. One is of brands heading for the exit. The other is of brands just walking in. Both keep getting longer.

According to an analysis by 聚美丽, republished by CBNData on 30 September 2026, Melvita has closed all of its China stores this year, Etude has shut its Tmall flagship, and Lanolips and Filorga have cut back or left. In the same months, Medicube officially entered China in July, while Decléor, Sol de Janeiro, COLOR WOW and Serge Lutens have also arrived. On 24 September, Korean skincare brand BeginS by JUNGSAEMMOOL opened on Xiaohongshu and announced its China entry.

The article frames this as a reshuffle of capability. Brands whose localisation and operations fall short are pulling back. Brands with a clear identity and real operating strength are investing more. We think that is the right way to read it.

A Growing Market That Isn't Growing for Everyone

None of these exits are happening because demand dried up. China's National Bureau of Statistics reported on 16 September 2026 that cosmetics retail sales from January to August reached RMB 309.4 billion, up 6.1% year on year. Total retail sales of consumer goods grew just 1.1% over the same period, so beauty is clearly outpacing the wider economy.

Making money is a different matter. The same CBNData article cites Paidai's 2025 e-commerce survival survey. More than 30% of beauty merchants were loss-making in 2025, and more than 30% more had profit margins of only 0% to 5%. The article points to a reason: running Tmall, Douyin and Xiaohongshu at the same time makes operating costs high enough to become a real barrier.

So the market has room, but growth is no longer handed out evenly.

The Platforms Have Moved

Part of the challenge is that the ground keeps shifting. A 21jingji report from 5 October 2026 restated platform figures first published in July. In the first half of 2026, Douyin's beauty GMV reached RMB 150.336 billion, up 14.48%, while Tmall's reached RMB 73.682 billion, up 5.04%. That made Douyin the largest beauty e-commerce platform in China for the first time. Across Taobao, Tmall, JD and Douyin, beauty GMV totalled RMB 270.862 billion, up 5.5%.

Douyin is content-led: people discover products through short videos and livestreams before they ever search for them. Tmall still carries a brand's flagship presence. Xiaohongshu is where many first impressions form. A brand in China doesn't have one storefront. It has several, each with its own rhythm and audience, and it has to show up well on all of them at once.

Rules That Reward the Real Thing

The rules are getting stricter too, in ways that favour brands with genuine foundations. Cosmetics China Agency reported on 30 September 2026 that on 26 May Douyin introduced new requirements for cross-border brands, aimed at fake foreign brands. Platforms now want proof of both overseas production and overseas sales. That means documents such as customs declarations from the last 90 days and retail sales evidence from three overseas stores. Merchants who receive a notice have 30 days to complete their file.

For an authentic imported brand, this is good news, but only if someone on the ground keeps the paperwork current and responds within the deadline.

11.11 as a Stress Test

Then there is the calendar. Per the same Cosmetics China Agency report, Tmall's Double 11 deposits open on 15 October, and spot selling runs from 20 October at 20:00 to 13 November at 23:59, close to 25 days. Tencent News reported on 30 September that JD opens its 11.11 sales even earlier, on 12 October at 20:00.

Tmall's headline mechanic this year is the "official direct cut" (官方立减). The discount comes straight off a single item, with no basket thresholds, and enrolment applies at store level. That makes a brand's price far easier to compare across platforms. Reported conditions also include dispatch within 48 hours and tracking updated within 24 hours of pickup.

A festival like this doesn't reward a brand that has merely arrived. It rewards one that already has content working, prices aligned across channels and logistics that hold up under pressure.

What Staying Takes

This is where we think the real story sits. Getting into China, whether through a cross-border store, a retail partner or a first post on Xiaohongshu, is only the first step. Staying and growing takes something more continuous.

At ÉDELSKIN, we see it as the work of a team on the ground. It starts with finding the consumers who will genuinely care about a product. Then it means building demand on the platforms where those consumers discover and buy, and running daily operations across those channels. Finally, it means reading the data every day and adjusting, rather than waiting for a quarterly review to find out what went wrong.

Just as important, the brand stays fully in its owner's hands: its identity, its decisions and its long-term direction. Local execution should strengthen a brand, not dilute it.

The brands leaving China this year and the brands arriving share the same market. What will separate them over the next few years is who has the capability to keep showing up, every day, where their consumers are.

Sources