The ‘Asian-ification’ of Beauty:<\/strong><\/p>\n With unusual ingredients, new science and branding prowess, companies from Korea, China and Japan are challenging the dominance of Western beauty brands.<\/p>\n You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that ginseng, mushrooms, bamboo, bird\u2019s nest and pig collagen are an old family recipe for slow-cooked Oriental stew. But in fact, these ingredients are as common in some beauty regimes as they are on the dinner table.<\/p>\n Along with bee venom, donkey milk and aloe vera, seemingly exotic ingredients have been popular in Asian beauty products for quite some time. Now, the Asian brands that use them in makeup, creams, masks, peels and serums find themselves at the forefront of the global beauty business.<\/p>\n While the West has long been a breeding ground for beauty trends, brands from the East have increasingly been claiming a bigger stake of the global beauty market, estimated to be worth $44 billion, according to the NPD Group. As a report by Euromonitor International revealed, 80 percent of global skincare revenue gain by 2019 will come from Asia, with China set to account for 75 percent of total regional growth.<\/p>\n \u201cAsian-ifcation (Asia\u2019s increasing influence on innovation in beauty) is continuing to be one of the major growth factors in beauty, especially skincare,\u201d Nicole Tyrimou, beauty and personal care analyst at Euromonitor International, told BoF. \u201cWhile influencing innovation through the introduction of new product concepts, Asian beauty brands are expanding well beyond their home market.\u201d<\/p>\n Fueled first by obsessive beauty bloggers and an increasing ease of international shipping, the Asian beauty craze has now gone mainstream, with brands such as Suqqu setting up shop in Fenwick, Shiseido in Harvey Nichols, AmorePacific in Nordstrom, RMK in Selfridges, and SK-II in Harrods. So, what does this world of double-cleansing, essences and mask sheets have to offer?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Western market has long been influenced by emerging beauty trends from Japan, but we are increasingly looking to China and South Korea for developments in skincare,\u201d said Daniela Rinaldi, group commercial director at Harvey Nichols. \u201cThey are driving innovation in the field, from BB creams to serums, brightening creams, dark spot correctors, face masks and anti-aging products. Asian consumers are some of the most discerning globally and tend to spend more on beauty products than those in the West, which tends to translate to Asian brands investing in higher quality ingredients within their products.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, AmorePacific is one of many homegrown Asian brands that have emerged as a major competitor to established Western brands. Founded in 1945, AmorePacific had its humble beginnings in the kitchen of Suh Kyung Bae, chairman and chief executive of the Korean company. As the story goes, Suh\u2019s grandmother concocted a camellia oil formula, selling it to trendy women who would use the oil to style their hair.<\/p>\n Seven decades later, riding on the overwhelming popularity of K-pop and Korean style trends, AmorePacific<\/a> Group has become Korea\u2019s largest cosmetics manufacturer, housing over 26 brands including Sulwhasoo<\/a>, Etude House<\/a> and Laneige<\/a>. It is also the 14th largest cosmetics company in the world by sales, with record revenue of 4.7 trillion won ($5.7 billion) in 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cAmorePacific has definitely made a big impact in the Western space. Sulwhasoo and AmorePacific are among the brands that are experiencing higher-than-average growth at Nordstrom,\u201d said Gemma Lionello, Nordstrom executive vice president and general merchandise manager, cosmetics. \u201cWhereas this hasn\u2019t always been the case, customers from all areas of the globe are purchasing Asian beauty products.\u201d<\/p>\n This is part of AmorePacific\u2019s strategy, as the group eyes the US as the next stop in their global expansion plans. \u201cWe have been growing our presence across Asia, North America and Europe. In particular, we are seeing an accelerated growth in the US market,\u201d Kim Seung-Hwan, chief strategy officer at AmorePacific, told BoF. \u201cIn total, we have over 200 counters for our brands throughout the US, including Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. We recently opened a large store in Bloomingdales. For Laneige, our premium beauty brand, it\u2019s in over 750 Target stores.\u201d<\/p>\n While the domestic market currently drives most of AmorePacific\u2019s revenue, global sales accounted for almost 19 percent, with sales in the US increasing by 49 percent from 2013 to 2014. \u201cOur goal is to grow our global business at an annual rate of over 40 percent on average, making it accountable for 50 percent of the total revenue by 2020,\u201d stated Kim.<\/p>\n Elaborate rituals<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSouth Korea and Japan have long been a source of game-changing R&D in skincare. A great deal of this innovation is driven by the hyper-sophistication of the skincare client in Asia,\u201d said Jan Masters, editor at Harrods Magazine, a monthly title published by the London-based luxury department store.<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s influence on the global beauty and skincare market has been far-reaching, with long-esteemed brands such as SK-II<\/a> and Shiseido<\/a> popularizing anti-aging ingredients and newcomers like Suqqu and RMK offering skincare and skin-tone balancing products.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Japanese market is the second biggest beauty market in the world after the US,\u201d stated Yuka Kaneko, managing director at Kao Corporation-owned E’quipe Japan, which manufactures and distributes brands RMK<\/a> and Suqqu<\/a>. \u201cThe average Japanese woman spends more money on skincare than on any other product, so skincare product innovation has always been the biggest driver for us.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Kaneko, Kao Corp. \u2014 which also has Bior\u00e9<\/a>, Kanebo<\/a>, Liese<\/a>, Molton Brown<\/a> and Sofina<\/a> under its stable of brands \u2014 has seen healthy sales in Europe. In the year end of 2014, Kao Corp. reported sales in Japan of $7,844,203, followed by the rest of Asia at $1,699,632 and the US at $1,048,385. However, Asia remains the company\u2019s focus over the next five years.<\/p>\n Kaneko observed, \u201cOur Asian customers buy skincare products as series for a better result, meaning that they purchase a group of three to five products at once. The Western customer is more cautious and tends to purchase one product at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n This is reflective of Asian consumers\u2019 skincare regime, which often include as many as 10 steps compared with the far fewer steps in the West. While this may be seen as a window of opportunity for brands to get customers to spend more, it has provided Asian brands with more of an incentive to experiment, specialise and innovate.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen from Korea, China and Japan are known for the care, time and research they put into their skincare regimes. They ensure they\u2019re well-educated about what they\u2019re using, making them demanding consumers because they expect the best,\u201d said Lisa Niven, online beauty editor at British Vogue.<\/p>\n According to Jude Chao, who runs popular Korean beauty blog Fifty Shades of Snail, this leads to a much higher standard of beauty in parts of Asia.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Western media, if you don\u2019t have any breakouts, scars or wrinkles, that\u2019s considered good skin. In Asian societies, it\u2019s much stricter. It\u2019s about not having a single mark, not even a freckle,\u201d said Chao. \u201cIt goes as deep as the texture of your skin, which, in Asian ideals, should be full of moisture. Bouncy is the world that people like to use. If you think about it from an R&D standpoint, there isn\u2019t this intense drive in the West to achieve those specific goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Innovating products<\/strong><\/p>\n Asia has emerged as a source of innovation in the industry because of the creativity, speed and dedication with which products are developed there.<\/p>\n One recent trend to emerge is the cushion compact, a makeup compact built with urethane foam, which safely contains and preserves makeup liquid comprising of foundation, sunscreen and skincare formula. According to AmorePacific, one of its own-brand cushion compacts was sold every 1.2 seconds in 2014. Already a popular item in Korea for its easy and flawless application, the cushion has recently gained attention in the global cosmetics market.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to Seoul at the end of last year and I was just blown away by the technology and advancements in makeup,\u201d said Lisa Eldridge, creative director of Lanc\u00f4me<\/a>, who was inspired by the cushion compact and brought the idea back with her overseas. \u201cWe\u2019ve just launched the cushion foundation for Lanc\u00f4me \u2014 we\u2019re the first Western brand to launch a Korean concept in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Lanc\u00f4me certainly isn\u2019t the only Western cosmetic brand to gain inspiration from the East. In April, New York-based Bobbi Brown<\/a> announced South Korean actress Claudia Kim as its first Asian celebrity face. Known locally as Kim Soo Hyun, the model-actress, who recently starred in Marvel movie “Avengers 2: Age of Ultron,” will kick off her promotional activities for the makeup giant next month, not only in Korea, but all over Asia alongside current Bobbi Brown face, Kate Upton. Part of Kim\u2019s role will be to offer \u201cK-beauty\u201d (Korean style) makeup lessons.<\/p>\n Another beauty trend to come from Korea is the ulzzang look, a popular Korean term meaning “best face” or “good looking,\u201d which involves certain characteristics such as dewy skin, doe eyes and the \u201cjust bitten\u201d lip look. The latter sparked a beauty craze after members of South Korean girl group Girls\u2019 Generation used the look for their \u201cI Got A Boy\u201d music video in 2013.<\/p>\n Since then, the \u201cjust bitten\u201d lips look (where the middle of the lips are a darker colour and gradient softly outwards to lighter colours) has popped up everywhere in Korean pop culture, from actress Yoon Eun Hye in Korean drama \u201cI Miss You\u201d to actress Han Ji Min in a shoot for Elle Korea. Hot on the heels of this trend, Revlon<\/a> released a \u2018Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain\u2019 lipstick line that give lips a gradient flush of colour.<\/p>\n \u201cBB and CC creams have also been a huge success \u2014 so many Western brands have their own version now and the ones who don\u2019t always tell me that they\u2019re under huge pressure to create one,\u201d said British Vogue\u2019s Niven, referring to brands such as Clinique, Dior, Est\u00e9e Lauder and Chanel, who have since come out with their own versions.<\/p>\n At many of these companies, there is an emphasis on using traditional ingredients that have long been part of the culture.<\/p>\n \u201cJust as rose and lavender have long been used in the West, we\u2019ve focused on developing botanical ingredients that have been passed down for generations in Asia,\u201d said AmorePacific\u2019s Kim.<\/p>\n For Sensai<\/a>, the star ingredient of their product is Koishimaru silk. “This ingredient is taken from the precious Koishimaru cocoon. This rare ingredient, which is used in almost all Sensai products, promotes hyaluronic acid synthesis ensuring the skin\u2019s natural reservoir of moisture stays plentiful,” said Fujii Namiko of Sensai.<\/p>\n But the added value comes from the intensive R&D that goes into ingredients is why a firm like AmorePacific was able to register some 200 patents for beauty and skincare formulas worldwide last year.<\/p>\n \u201cAmorePacific has spent nearly 40 years in the research of green tea\u2019s active properties, such as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the dominant anti-oxidant in green tea. As for ginseng, we have nearly 60 years\u2019 worth of accumulated research around the extraction and use of ginsenoside compound K, the anti-aging element in ginseng,\u201d said Kim.<\/p>\n The brand launched one of the world\u2019s first ginseng-based cosmetics in 1966 and the cultivation of its green tea essence has been ongoing on Jeju Island since 1979. Ginseng and green tea are now relatively common additions in beauty products from international labels like The Body Shop<\/a> to Origins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hiroko Ozeki of Shiseido believes that some of the firm\u2019s most effective formulas come from ingredients that have been known since ancient times.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact they have survived this long is a testament to the strong force of vitality within them, making these ingredients more suitable for stable product formulations. Our philosophy is to focus on time-honoured ingredients with a record of proven effectiveness, like ginkgo, collagen and plankton extracts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Product regulations<\/strong><\/p>\n What impedes many Asian beauty brands from expanding further into Western markets is the regulatory framework around health and safety and the knock-off effect creates around export and distribution. Approval by the relevant governmental bodies and pharmaceutical registration laws differ greatly by country and region around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest challenges when entering a Western market is the paperwork involved, which includes regulation and formula registration,\u201d said E’quipe Japan\u2019s Kaneko. \u201cAround 10 percent of our nano-technology products are well-received in our homeland, but we cannot bring them into Europe. For the US, it affects about 25 to 30 percent of our product due to colour regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, Sensai, which is owned by Kanebo, the leading Japanese producer of cosmetics, was not entering the Asian market at all as its sights were set overseas. “Our plan is to first build a solid presence in Europe, and then expand from Europe to Japan and other Asian markets. Thus, Sensai products are developed according to European regulation laws,” said Namiko.<\/p>\n But most experts agree that despite the hurdles they face, Asia\u2019s leading beauty brands will continue to infiltrate markets in the West. By combining ancient ingredients with advanced science and clever branding, many will continue to shape consumer behaviour there too.<\/p>\n Source: Business of Fashion<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Match your journey to the duty free & travel retail along your whole route with www.dutyfreehunter.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"sulwhasoo\"](\"https:\/\/www.dutyfreehunter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/sulwhasoo.jpg\")
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