Blush Breakout & Makeup Remover Upgrade: China Q1 2024

Newer data: Cushion Foundations Surge +37.3% as China's Makeup Evolves

Executive Summary#

Makeup remover and blush, two quite different categories, gave the clearest sub-category signals in China's beauty market in Q1 2024. Makeup remover reached CN¥ 1.64 billion in revenue, up 9.7% year-on-year (YoY), as cleansing oils grew 24.1% and cleansing balms 23.0% and gained share, while cleansing water fell 14.7%. Blush grew 43.3% YoY, the fastest rate in the face makeup segment, and cream formats accounted for 46.3% of blush revenue, up 15.3 percentage points in a single year. Male consumers accounted for 32.0% of blush social media discussion and 29.1% of makeup remover discussion. Among brands, Shu Uemura (植村秀) grew its cleansing oil business by repositioning a professional product for a mainstream skincare audience, and Chaitang (彩棠) built demand for its Zhengqing Liuyu blush palette on New Chinese Style aesthetics.

Makeup Remover: Consumers Move Away from Cleansing Water#

Makeup remover generated CN¥ 1.64 billion in Q1 2024, up 9.7% YoY, while volume grew faster at 19.1%, which suggests that more consumers are entering the category while average prices hold firm. We believe the more important change is the shift between formats.

Cleansing water, the format that defined the segment for nearly a decade, fell 14.7% YoY, while cleansing oil grew 24.1% and cleansing balm 23.0%. In market share terms, cleansing oil gained 5.4 percentage points and cleansing balm 2.7 percentage points.

Exhibit 1: Makeup Remover Sub-Category Revenue YoY Growth (Q1 2024)

Source: Moojing Market Intelligence

E-commerce consumer reviews name cleansing efficacy as the main purchase driver, alongside fragrance, convenience and a non-oily after-feel. Social media content keeps making the case that cleansing water and cotton pads do not cleanse thoroughly enough, and that poor cleansing weakens every product applied afterwards. This belief has spread from specialist skincare commentary into common consumer knowledge, and the sales data reflects it. Social media discussion of makeup removal grew 131.7% YoY in Q1 2024, which we believe shows that consumers are still learning about the category.

The makeup remover consumer is younger than the beauty average, as the 21-35 age group accounts for 69.0% of social media discussion. Male consumers accounted for 29.1% of discussion volume, which points to growing male adoption of double-cleansing routines and, separately, of care after makeup removal among the rising number of men who wear makeup.

Shu Uemura: Repositioning a Professional Cleansing Oil#

Shu Uemura's approach in Q1 2024 shows how a brand can benefit from a change in the way consumers cleanse.

Part of the brand's activity in the quarter was a campaign. In late February, Shu Uemura released campaign materials featuring its global brand ambassador Wang Yibo (王一博) on Weibo, together with a limited-edition collaboration with the Japanese artist Hiro Ando.

The brand's product strategy also broadened the audience for its cleansing oil. The Amber Cleansing Oil was repositioned from a makeup artist's professional tool to a mainstream skincare product, built around an "8-dimensional skin nourishment" claim and a "cleanse and nourish in one step" claim. The repositioning widened its target consumer from makeup enthusiasts to the general skincare audience and removed the extra step of a second cleanse. We believe brands entering the cleansing oil segment in 2024 can learn from this approach, which joins professional heritage to a mainstream repositioning and a campaign built around a brand ambassador.

Blush: The Face Makeup Segment's Fastest-Growing Category#

Face makeup reached CN¥ 11.31 billion in Q1 2024, with revenue up 20.6% and units up 37.1%. Foundation liquid, BB cream and primer together account for 58.0% of segment revenue. Blush is comparatively small, but it grew 43.3% YoY and holds third place in face makeup social media voice share, so we believe it is a strong signal of where consumer interest is moving relative to its current revenue.

The main change within blush is the shift in format. Cream blush accounted for 46.3% of blush revenue in Q1 2024, up 15.3 percentage points in a single year, which is an exceptionally fast change of format. Consumers find that cream formulas give more natural-looking, buildable results and blend more smoothly with layered skincare and foundation than powder does. Voice share grew 14.2% YoY, so the category remains one that consumers discover and share widely.

In January 2024, Lana Del Rey ("Thunder Sister" / 打雷姐) posted content featuring the domestic brand Flower Knows (花知晓) on Instagram. The brand's maximalist aesthetic fitted naturally with Lana Del Rey's retro-romantic image, and the post drew wide attention to the brand. We believe the case shows how an unpaid mention from a globally recognised figure, picked up and shared on China's social platforms, can bring a visually distinctive domestic brand a large response when the person's aesthetic and the brand's are consistent.

Male Consumers Normalize Blush#

Male consumers accounted for 32.0% of blush social media discussion in Q1 2024, the highest male share of any face makeup sub-category in the report. Men mostly use foundation and blush together to achieve a "natural bare-skin" effect that has become socially accepted among young men in China's major cities. E-commerce review analysis for blush shows that color and shade are the main drivers of the purchase decision, with exterior design, makeup effect and texture as secondary attributes. The most common review combinations, "color x design", "color x makeup effect" and "color x texture", show that purchasing decisions are visual before they are functional, which gives brands a clear reason to invest in their shade range.

Chaitang: Cultural Design as a Growth Strategy#

Chaitang (彩棠) built demand for its Zhengqing Liuyu Three-Color Blush Palette in Q1 2024 on cultural design more than on general efficacy claims.

The palette's three shades are built for "bone contouring makeup" (骨相妆感), a popular application style that uses subtle contouring and highlighting to emphasise natural facial structure, and its name refers to traditional Chinese jade aesthetics. The brand's founder, Tang Yi, personally styled the ambassador Chen Duling (陈都灵) in a New Chinese Style campaign look. The result, described in consumer discussion as "not great makeup, but a great person" (妆不出众，人出众), set off a wave of imitation content on Xiaohongshu (RED) (小红书) and Weibo. The brand split its marketing investment roughly equally between the two platforms, and the earned media it generated carried on converting to sales well after the launch. The imitation content extended the brand's social reach at no extra cost, which we believe is the main advantage of anchoring a product in culture over relying on performance claims alone.

Key Takeaways#

• The shift between makeup remover formats looks lasting. Cleansing oil (+24.1% YoY) and balm (+23.0% YoY) are replacing cleansing water (-14.7% YoY) as consumers learn more about skincare. Brands that depend on cleansing water face a shrinking revenue base.
• A well-timed ambassador campaign can support a product upgrade. Shu Uemura's Wang Yibo campaign on Weibo, launched together with a limited-edition packaging collaboration, is an amplification sequence other brands can repeat.
• Cream blush gained 15.3 percentage points of share in one year, and we believe the transition is still in progress. Brands with a deep range of cream products are well placed as the shift continues.
• Male consumers are a significant audience. Male consumers account for 29.1% of makeup remover discussion and 32.0% of blush discussion, which we believe is enough to justify dedicated product development, messaging and channel investment.
• Cultural design produces lasting organic content. Chaitang built its palette on New Chinese Style design and a campaign directed by its founder, which produced imitation content on social platforms that kept adding to its earned media.

About the Data#

This analysis draws on Moojing Market Intelligence (魔镜洞察) data on China's online beauty and skincare market in Q1 2024 across several leading Chinese e-commerce marketplaces. Social media voice share data is drawn from major Chinese social platforms. Year-on-year comparisons reference Q1 2023.