Consumers' skintone management demands are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Brands must now provide effective, safe and more comprehensive products while preparing to offer more holistic treatments in the future.
Laurie Du, Director, China Insights
Market Definitions
This Report focuses on consumer attitudes towards skintone management and the use of the following products with skintone management claims such as skin whitening, brightening, evening skintone, removing blemishes/spots, reducing dullness, boosting radiance/glow etc:
• Facial skincare products (cleanser, lotion, essence, cream, oil, eye serum/eye cream, suncare, face masks etc)
• Bodycare, bath and shower products (body cream, shower gel, body scrub etc)
• Professional/medical skincare products and beauty devices
• Cosmetics that claim to alter skintone and complexion or cover blemishes, including facial cosmetics (base makeup, concealer, highlighter, contour, blush etc) and body cosmetics (body highlighter/powder/oil, body spray etc)
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Executive summary
- Key issues covered in this Report
- Definitions
- What you need to know
- Market factors
- The development of the skincare products for skintone management market in China
- Brands and market competition
- The consumer
- Keys to success
- What we think
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The market
- Market factors
- Strong demand for skin whitening/skintone management
- Graph 1: skincare goals, 2024
- Increasing popularity of outdoor pursuits boosts demand
- Graph 2: participation in outdoor sports and fitness activities, 2020-24
- Development of cosmetic procedures creates new usage scenarios and challenges for skintone management products
- Graph 3: desired benefits from post-operative repair products, 2024
- Continued innovation in ingredients, but stricter regulations increase challenges
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Companies and brands
- Competitive landscape
- The development of the skincare products for skintone management market in China
- Competition intensifying in the skintone management segment
- Accelerate product iteration to maintain the strength of hero products
- Many emerging competitors in the skintone management segment
- PROYA strengthens its skin whitening offering with its exclusive Optical 335 ingredient
- Simpcare launches a specially developed natural skin whitening ingredient derived from the mulberry plant
- Winona launches a dermatological-grade skin whitening essence
- Leading international brands continue to invest in R&D as a completely new skin whitening ingredient appears on the market
- Increasing number of new skin whitening products in the premium skincare segment
- New product trends
- Strong innovation globally in skintone management products
- Graph 4: proportion of skincare products with skintone management claims, by subcategory, 2020-25
- Communication around skintone management touches on diverse and complex issues, with marked differences between markets
- Graph 5: language used in communications around new skintone management facial skincare products, 2024-25
- Skintone management products are multi-functional
- SK-II describes multiple types of dullness and their causes
- Increasing claims of redness reduction in new skintone management facial care products
- Products with redness reduction claims are specifically targeting the skin whitening needs of sensitive skin
- Skintone management products that address redness
- Diversity of formats and textures in new skintone management products
- Graph 6: new facial care products with skintone management claims, by format and texture, 2020-25
- Use new formats and textures to convey additional value
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The consumer
- From overall skintone to finer blemishes, consumers have much higher expectations for skintone management
- Main skintone concerns are dull complexion, dark eye circles and uneven facial skintone
- Graph 7: skintone concerns, 2023-25
- Over half of consumers pay more attention to details of skintone imperfections
- Graph 8: skintone concerns, by different attitudes towards skintone management (overall skintone vs detailed skintone imperfections)
- Graph 9: attitudes towards skintone management, 2025
- Consumers with sensitive skin have greater skintone concerns, requiring both skintone management and skin repair functions
- Graph 10: skintone concerns, sensitive skin vs non-sensitive skin, 2025
- Skintone management and anti-ageing needs overlap, consider improving offerings that combine both needs
- Graph 11: usage of anti-ageing skincare products among those with skintone concerns, 2025
- Skincare products still top choice for skintone management, consumers expect fast-acting products and long-lasting effects
- Skincare products still the top choice for skintone management
- Graph 12: measures for addressing main skintone concerns, 2025
- Graph 13: choice of skincare products for skintone management, 2025
- Consumers’ main complaints are non-lasting effects and a long wait for results
- Graph 14: pain points when using skin brightening and whitening skincare products, 2025
- Brightening/whitening now an important part of normal skincare routines but usage frequency could still be improved
- Graph 15: usage frequency of skincare products with brightening/whitening effects, 2025
- High-frequency users focus more on preventative skintone management and are more knowledgeable about ingredients
- Graph 16: attitudes towards skintone management – awareness of ingredients, by usage frequency, 2025
- Graph 17: attitudes towards skintone management – prevention vs repair, by usage frequency, 2025
- High-frequency users demand fast-acting products with long-lasting effects while low-frequency users are most concerned about gentleness and safety
- Graph 18: pain points when using skincare products with brightening/whitening claims, by usage frequency, 2025
- Consumers need more diverse overall skintone management treatments
- Most consumers believe that skintone concerns can be improved but not completely resolved
- Graph 19: views on different skintone concerns, 2025
- Nearly half of consumers are willing to spend more money on methods other than skincare products
- Graph 20: attitudes towards resolving/improving skintone concerns, concerned with detailed imperfections vs concerned with overall skintone, 2025
- Increasing variety of combination approaches, skincare products seen as a necessity but combination treatments gaining penetration
- Severity/complexity of skintone concerns leading consumers to combine treatments from different categories
- Graph 21: number of skintone concerns mentioned, by groups using different combinations of measures/methods, 2025
- Graph 22: skintone concerns, by groups using different combinations of measures/methods, 2025
- Create effective, safe and scenario-based skintone management treatments for consumers of different product combinations
- Graph 23: pain points of skincare products with brightening/whitening effects, by groups using different combinations of measures/methods, 2025
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Issues and insights
- Short-term: upgrade functionality by combining repair and anti-ageing to create multi-purpose skintone management products
- Consumers less interested in single-purpose products but brands can combine multiple functions to deliver additional value
- Anti-ageing + skin whitening combination results in greater overall outcomes
- Repair + skin whitening can help to open up the skin whitening for sensitive skin segment
- Anti-ageing + skin whitening + repair, a new three-in-one definition of skincare
- Medium-term: improve consumer education by dispelling the myth of instant skin whitening
- Consumer demands for instant results have created a vicious cycle of intensifying competition
- Communicate with consumers about expected outcomes at different stages to manage their expectations
- Develop personalised skincare plans for consumers and provide incentives to encourage regular, long-term use
- Looking to the future: focus on a healthy complexion and provide consumers with more comprehensive and holistic treatments
- The beauty category is becoming more lifestyle focused and skintone management can lead this trend
- Brands using cross-category marketing to provide consumers with multi-category solutions
- Incorporate Chinese yangsheng concepts to provide nourishment for the body, mind and spirit
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Appendix – methodology and abbreviations
- Methodology
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