China Premium Skincare Online Sales Fell 11.6% in H1 2026

Premium skincare sales in China fell 11.6% in H1 2026, from CN¥ 37.7 billion to CN¥ 33.4 billion across three of the largest online marketplaces, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. Over the same period luxury skincare grew 9.1% to CN¥ 26.3 billion, as premium shoppers moved mostly up to luxury while mass skincare held roughly level.

This article covers the third chapter of the full report, on China's beauty spending by price tier from 2023 to the first half of 2026.

Key figures

• 22.3%: premium's share of skincare in H1 2026, from 24.9%
• +14.7% and +15.6%: premium colour cosmetics and premium fragrance, 2025 on 2024
• 80%: Chinese brands' share of sampled premium skincare sales on content-led commerce, 2025

Method and scope: observed online sales across three of China's largest online marketplaces, modelled by Moojing Market Intelligence from listings and captured prices. Premium is a unit price of CN¥ 360-1,080 (~US$ 50-150), mass is below it and luxury above it, applied identically to every segment and marketplace. This is not the total market, and figures are consolidated across the marketplaces unless the text gives them by channel type, where content-led commerce rests on a single marketplace.

Is premium beauty growing or shrinking in China?#

Premium beauty in China is shrinking in skincare alone, since premium skincare sales across three of the largest online marketplaces fell 6.4% in 2025 while the skincare category grew 2.0%, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. Premium colour cosmetics, by contrast, grew 14.7% against a category at +6.8%, and premium fragrance grew 15.6% against a category at +18.3%.

Adding the segments together does show total premium spend falling, but only because skincare accounts for ~78% of all premium beauty spend and drags the total down with it. Measured by half-year, skincare is also the only segment whose premium sales are still falling, so the premium total describes skincare and says little about colour cosmetics or fragrance.

Which skincare price tiers grew between 2023 and 2025?#

Between 2023 and 2025, mass-priced skincare in China grew 3.4% across three of the largest online marketplaces, while the premium band fell 11.0% and the luxury band fell 17.1%, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. Mass was therefore the only skincare tier that grew over the two years, although luxury has been recovering since its 2024 low.

The other segments tell a different story. In fragrance every band grew in 2025, with mass at +10.6% and luxury rising fastest, by 49.7%, while in colour cosmetics premium outgrew a mass tier that grew 5.4% and the luxury band was essentially flat. We believe the shift in skincare says as much about the rising quality of affordable products as it does about consumer caution.

Where are Chinese shoppers trading down in skincare, and where are they trading up?#

Chinese shoppers are trading down in serums and eye care and trading up in cleansers and toners, while gift sets have come under pressure as a whole, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. Between 2023 and 2025 the premium share of eye care fell from 32.6% to 26.3%, the steepest drop of any skincare function, while that of cleansers rose from 8.8% to 14.6%.

To see where it is happening we matched eight skincare functions node for node across the two established marketplaces, where the marketplaces' product categories line up, and measured the premium share of each function's sales in 2023 and 2025. Eye care and sunscreen are measured across all three marketplaces, and the cleanser figure, although the fastest rise, starts from a low base. The premium share of serums and essences, the largest premium pool, went from 44.7% to 42.5%, and sets and gift boxes held their premium share at ~36% while the function as a whole came under pressure, which is a different kind of trading down. Creams and sunscreen were flat and masks edged up, from 16.1% to 17.7%, while the premium share of toners rose from 21.2% to 24.9%, although these are consolidated figures and toners traded up on one of the two marketplaces and down on the other.

Colour cosmetics went the other way, although not evenly, since across all three marketplaces the premium share of lip products rose from 17.6% to 21.3% and that of eye products from 5.2% to 8.5%. Face products, the largest sub-category, stayed at ~17% overall, while the premium share of sets and palettes, measured on the two marketplaces that carry them as a category, went from 43.0% to 32.3% as the sub-category grew at the mass and luxury ends. We do not break fragrance down any further, because perfume alone makes up 93-95% of the category.

What happened to premium skincare in the first half of 2026?#

In the first half of 2026 the shift in Chinese skincare went further and in a new direction, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. Premium skincare fell 11.6% against H1 2025, from CN¥ 37.7 billion to CN¥ 33.4 billion, while luxury skincare grew 9.1% to CN¥ 26.3 billion and mass skincare held roughly level.

The premium band's share of skincare therefore fell from 24.9% to 22.3%. Measured on January to April alone, before one marketplace restructured its categories, the direction is the same, with premium at −13.8% and luxury at +10.1%. Outside skincare, premium kept growing, by 5.5% in the marketplaces' combined colour cosmetics, fragrance and tools category, behind the mass tier's 9.8%, and by 6.2% in fragrance alone, where it held its 33.6% share of the segment.

Exhibit 14. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, H1 2025 and H1 2026. Mass is under CN¥ 360, premium CN¥ 360-1,080, luxury above CN¥ 1,080. Not the total market.

Have Chinese brands taken over premium skincare in China?#

Whether Chinese brands have taken over premium skincare depends on the channel, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. In a sample of best-selling premium skincare, international brands held 66% of sales on the established marketplaces in 2025, up from 60% in 2024, while Chinese brands held 80% on content-led commerce, up from 76%.

We tested the trade's common view that Chinese brands have taken over premium skincare, the largest premium pool, by taking the 500 best-selling skincare items on each marketplace in 2024 and 2025, keeping those priced within the premium band, and classifying the brand behind each one as Chinese or international, with a source recorded for each brand. The sample covers between a fifth and a half of premium-band sales depending on the marketplace and year, so the exhibit describes the top of the band rather than all of it. Both channels moved further in the direction they were already heading. Consolidated across all three marketplaces, the split moved from ~52/48 Chinese to international to 47/53, which we read as mostly a mix effect, because the content-led best-seller list filled up with mass-priced items, leaving less premium in that sample and giving the established marketplaces more weight in the total.

Exhibit 15. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data. Brand origin of sampled premium skincare sales, 2024 and 2025, as an analyst classification. No brand is named.

What should a premium brand take from this?#

Consumers in China have not stopped buying premium skincare, although they have changed which premium they buy, where they buy it and from whom, according to Moojing Market Intelligence's H1 2026 report. We believe this is the most useful way for a brand to frame its China strategy for the rest of 2026.

The reason is that an international premium brand that does not sell through content-led commerce is missing the channel where Chinese brands lead premium skincare, while a Chinese premium brand that sells only there has yet to be tested on the marketplaces where premium is still mostly international.

The function-by-function and sub-category detail behind these findings, and the sampling method for the brand-origin test, are in the full report, and our China beauty market intelligence page sets out what else we cover in the category.