Mask-conscious makeup boosts eye makeup and skincare sales in China
COVID-19 has run rampant across the globe and peoples’ daily lives have been turned upside down. Meanwhile, China’s beauty industry is also seeing seismic shifts, and one of which is the growing popularity of “mask-conscious makeup”.
Throughout recent years, although China has been suffering severe air pollution and the amount of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air has been fairly high, it was still quite rare to see people wearing masks around town. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the wearing of masks became obligatory in public spaces including subway trains and office buildings, turning masks into an item of necessity. Due to this situation, makeup applied in anticipation of wearing a mask (i.e. makeup that suits mask-wearing) has grown in popularity in China.
Across social media, mask-conscious makeup has gone viral. A related video by actor Zhang Yuxi recently became popular, and posts with the hashtag “ZhangYuxiMaskMakeup” have gained over 400 million views.
Most videos that show how to apply mask-conscious makeup teach methods of using eye makeup or how to prevent makeup from getting ruined. One such live video that was streamed on February 19 on Alibaba Group’s Taobao platform was watched by 8.2 million people.
L’Oréal unmasks the future of makeup
The popularity of mask-conscious makeup is also bringing about change to the market. More emphasis has been put on eye makeup, and other related items have seen increased sales.
Suning Group said that between February 9 and March 5 their e-commerce site saw a 112.7% increase compared to the same period in the previous year for sales of eyebrow pencils and powder. Other products also saw substantial increases, with eyeliner up by 129.6%, mascara by 106.2%, and eyeshadow by 126.3%.
L’Oréal China has been suggesting various kinds of mask-conscious makeup on its official Weibo account. The company’s subsidiary brands, including Armani, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Shu Uemura, worked together to post before-and-after images of their own products that ranged from foundation to eyeshadow. A campaign was run in tandem that encouraged users to retweet the posts and shows off their own mask-conscious makeup technique, with one of the users being awarded an Armani lipstick.
In addition, Chinese brand Yuesai, under L’Oréal Group, ran a 13-day live stream on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, and mask-conscious makeup was one of the themes brought up.
M·A·C runs contests on social media
Meanwhile, M·A·C Cosmetics ran a mask-conscious makeup event on social media platform RED in February. Users were encouraged to follow the brand’s account and post with their own mask-conscious makeup photo while including the hashtags “kouzhaozhanyi” (fight the plague with masks) and “huamei-dianjing” (a play on the expression “hualong-dianjing”, which means to add the finishing touches), and three lucky users were selected to win M·A·C eye makeup goods.
A contest was also held among eight M·A·C store makeup artists to find who had the best mask-conscious makeup skills. Out of the users that gave likes to their favorite artists, one was selected to win a product gift.
Chinese brand Perfect Diary ran a mask-conscious makeup campaign in collaboration with Tmall. Here they showed off their eyeshadow palettes and mascaras and even posted about it on Weibo.
Similarly, emerging Chinese brand Judydoll streamed a live video about mask-conscious makeup on RED. They ran a campaign where eyeshadow products were awarded to their first 1,000 shoppers. Also, when they posted a mask-conscious makeup video on Weibo, it gained over 20,000 views.
HUDA BEAUTY’s eyeshadow palette sells out within a second
The expansion of the eye makeup market has even seen newcomer brands experience favorable conditions. American brand HUDA BEAUTY launched its flagship store on Alibaba Group’s cross border e-commerce platform Tmall Global on March 25th. On its first day, over 300,000 users accessed the store, and the brand’s popular Mercury Retrograde eyeshadow palette, despite selling for an expensive 649 yuan (US$90.50), completely sold out within a mere second.
Similarly, Charlotte Tilbury’s sales on Tmall Global from January to March saw a ten-fold increase from the same period in the previous year, and Anastasia Beverly Hills saw a stunning 30-fold increase.
Skincare brands also see good sales
As wearing a mask for long periods can cause rough skin, sales of skincare goods have also been growing.
Jingdong Meizhuang, a subsidiary of JD.com, ran an online event between April 19 and 24 where experts answered questions from consumers. Many of the questions were related to mask-conscious makeup, and as a remedy to long-term mask-wearing that harms the surface of the skin and further worsens sensitive skin, the advice was offered to restore skin by using a skincare product with soothing properties.
At the same time, Jingdong Meizhuang teamed up with both domestic and overseas skincare brands to hold the cosmetics sales event “The Grand Ceremony of Products for Sensitive Skin”. Sales during the event increased by 111% compared to the same period in the previous year. Sales particularly increased with Avène (226%) and WINON (329%).
China’s economic activity is on its way to recovery, with the country’s April exports exceeding those of the previous year for the first time in four months. However, recovery is not quite to the extent that people are doing away with their masks. Even in Shanghai, where there have been almost zero new infections, it’s still obligatory to wear a mask when riding the subway.
It’s being said that, come fall, infections may spread once again in China, and young people there, in particular, may continue to adopt masks as a daily necessity. The boom in mask-conscious makeup looks likely to continue for the time being.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Team Roboteer
