---
title: "From Ingredient Upgrade to Scene Revolution: Douyin Skincare White Paper Reveals the Breakthrough Path for Beauty Brands in 2025"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/228192730.md"
description: "The \"2024 Douyin Skincare Industry White Paper\" was jointly released by the Yicai Business Data Center and Kuaishou Engine, revealing the structural changes in China's skincare industry under consumption upgrades and intensified competition. Consumers' understanding of skincare is gradually shifting from ingredients to efficacy and precision skincare, requiring brands to achieve integration of \"brand effectiveness and sales\" within the content ecosystem. Skincare retail is expected to exceed 295.9 billion yuan in 2024, with the raw material sector becoming a new hotspot for investment and financing, where biotechnology raw material financing companies account for the highest proportion"
datetime: "2025-02-13T11:16:00.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/228192730.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/228192730.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/228192730.md)
generator: "portal-rs"
---

# From Ingredient Upgrade to Scene Revolution: Douyin Skincare White Paper Reveals the Breakthrough Path for Beauty Brands in 2025

Under the dual factors of consumption upgrading and intensified competition, China's skincare industry is undergoing a structural transformation.

On one hand, consumers are progressing from "ingredient skincare" to "functional skincare" and "precise skincare," with a deepening understanding of ingredients, technology, and experience, making consumption upgrading an inevitable trend; on the other hand, the cosmetics industry is steadily improving, experiencing counter-cyclical growth in recent years, but domestic and foreign brands have developed into segmented tracks, requiring businesses to urgently find differentiated breakthrough directions.

At this turning point filled with opportunities and uncertainties, content platforms represented by Douyin have restructured the beauty consumption chain through interest-driven recommendations and precise traffic distribution.

From raw material innovation to medical beauty integration, from emotional healing to portable scenarios, how can brands achieve "product effectiveness and sales" integration within the content ecosystem? **China Business Network Data Center** **(CBNData)**, in collaboration with Douyin's parent company, has jointly released the **2024 Douyin Skincare Industry White Paper**, which consolidates massive big data from Douyin, over 1,200 consumer surveys, brand merchant cases, and testimonials from platforms, merchants, and opinion leaders, summarizing trends in the skincare industry and the attitudes and demands of beauty-minded consumer groups. Through case studies of leading brand marketing, it showcases five cutting-edge trends in the skincare category, providing references for brands to navigate cycles and create incremental growth.

### **Investment and financing trends, intensified competition, and opportunities in segmented categories guide brand differentiation breakthroughs**

Since 2022, the consumer confidence index has remained low, yet the retail of cosmetics in China has steadily improved, with significant growth potential in the future. As a core category of cosmetics retail, skincare products are experiencing a mild recovery in sync with the market. According to Euromonitor data, the total retail sales and growth rate of skincare products are expected to increase year by year from 2022 to 2024, with transaction amounts exceeding 295.9 billion yuan in 2024.

The investment side serves as a "barometer" for the industry's direction. In 2024, the raw material sector has become a new hotspot for investment and financing in beauty and skincare, with biotechnology raw material financing companies accounting for the highest proportion among all financing companies, reaching 42%. Capital is eager to enter the market, and the raw material sector is also beginning to iterate. New raw material components such as plant and biotechnology are accelerating registration, with peptides, recombinant collagen, and barrier repair products favored by the market.

### **Competitive landscape: Channel games, self-research support, and the synergy of content and product power assist merchants in breaking through**

From offline convenience stores to integrated beauty and skincare stores, and then to e-commerce and content consumption platforms, the purchasing channels for skincare products are continuously evolving. From 2020 to 2024, the online channel share for skincare products has been steadily increasing, maintaining a stable proportion of over 40%, highlighting its importance; **at the same time, content platforms are gradually becoming a new battleground for beauty and skincare products.** Among them, the Douyin platform, as a representative, has seen the business share of skincare products in core online channels increase year by year, with a growth rate of 28% in 2024, leading online growth.

Unlike offline retail and shelf e-commerce, Douyin offers a rich supply of products and a vast amount of interest-based content. The combination of abundant product supply and collaborative interest content has gradually cultivated new purchasing habits among users. In 2024, the growth rate of the conversion population interested in skincare on Douyin reached 26%, with interest in skincare purchases continuing to rise.

From the brand perspective, the competition in "scientific research capability" and "content capability" is also becoming increasingly fierce. On one hand, leading brands are replacing "raw material processing" with "self-research technology" to enhance their product strength; on the other hand, brands are shifting their business focus towards self-operated platforms to drive business growth. In 2024, the number of transactions from brand self-broadcasting on Douyin increased by 45% compared to 2023. By strengthening content capability, brands effectively enhanced user stickiness and achieved a full-link connection from planting grass to conversion.

### **Category Opportunities: Demand Expansion, Price Upgrade, Core Categories Guiding Subdivision Opportunities**

Douyin's **"short," "video," and "fast"** content ecosystem has also accelerated users' consumption pace. Accompanied by price upgrades and demand expansion, the four core subcategories of skincare products on Douyin in 2024: facial care sets, liquid essences, lotions and creams, and sheet masks, all have relatively fast price growth or sales growth.

In detail, among the TOP 10 brands on Douyin, **facial care sets** in the mid-to-high price market of 250-500 yuan lead the growth, with a core focus on popular ingredients such as peptides, collagen, and plant whitening; **liquid essences** are driven by the high-price market, with growth rates for essence products priced above 500 yuan far exceeding those in the mid-to-low end; In the field of **emulsion creams**, domestic brands are penetrating the mass market, while international brands clearly dominate the high-priced market trend. The market below 250 yuan for **sheet masks** prefers concepts like pore cleansing, acne removal, and soft masks, while the market above 500 yuan focuses on repair, tightening, and anti-wrinkle effects.

### **Seven Major Mindsets Drive Growth** **Segment Preferences Reveal Precise Marketing Paths**

According to data from Juyuan Cloud Map, over 70% of the skincare audience on Douyin are women, with the core demographic aged 24-40, while Douyin skincare attracts high-end consumers.

**From basic attributes to attitude labels, the consumption preferences and decision-making logic of segmented groups determine the brand growth ceiling.** In terms of consumption attitude, do they pursue practicality or value? In terms of consumption concepts, do they focus on emotional decision-making or rational decision-making? To better position consumers' consumption concepts and mindsets, Douyin has summarized **seven major mindsets from the beauty purchase audience, helping brands communicate precisely with target consumer groups, achieving a shift from** **“** **traffic coverage** **”** **to** **“** **mind resonance** **.”**

Starting from the dimensions of “emotional - rational decision-making” and “practical - value decision-making,” the following will focus on analyzing three major groups with “high proportion” + “high purchasing power”: the Aesthetic Trendy Art Crowd, the Self-Indulgent Quality Enjoyers, and the Style Connoisseurs. These three groups emphasize emotional experience and value satisfaction in their consumption decisions, making them more suited to Douyin's rich and personalized content ecosystem, and thus they regard Douyin as an important channel for obtaining information and making consumption decisions.

**“Aesthetic Trendy Art Crowd”: The Z Generation Skincare Pioneers Balancing Cost-Effectiveness and Ritual**

The **“Aesthetic Trendy Art Crowd”** pursues cost-effectiveness and places great importance on brand tone and reputation. As beauty enthusiasts, they prefer live shopping and show high engagement with beauty and skincare-related content on Douyin, especially demonstrating stronger interest in promotions, emotional/ritual skincare, and emerging skincare trends, willing to pay for innovative and unique products.

**“Self-Indulgent Quality Enjoyers”: A Benchmark for Exquisite Skincare Merging Rational Decision-Making and Emotional Experience**

Focusing on quality of life, pursuing refinement and fashion, and knowing how to enjoy every moment of life, the **“Self-Indulgent Quality Enjoyers”** are undoubtedly the “Queen of Orders.” Their rational decision-making and pursuit of efficacy lead to longer decision cycles, often searching for scientific skincare content on Douyin, with Douyin live streams and short videos being their main purchasing channels In addition, they focus on cutting-edge skincare trends such as medical beauty, early C and late A, and emotional skincare, showing high interest in daily VLOGs and overseas living. With a strong consumer mindset and moderate discount mentality, it also means they have higher brand loyalty, making them a key target for skincare brands.

**"Taste Connoisseurs": From Quality Benchmarks to Ritualistic Self-Indulgence**

**"Taste Connoisseurs"** demonstrate professionalism and competence at work, while pursuing quality and style in life, rather than blindly following trends. They pay attention to brand tone and product reputation, are not discount-driven, make quick decisions, have high brand loyalty, and often choose duty-free shops and brand counters for daily purchases, preferring international high-end brands. On Douyin, they have a strong mindset towards rituals and major promotions, favoring content related to celebrity news and fashion styling.

Additionally, there are the **"Rational Necessity Group"** who are rational and content with essential consumption, focusing on spiritual quality; the **"Good Product Enthusiasts"** who are ultra-sensitive to discounts and enjoy quick purchases; the **"Value-Oriented Life Enthusiasts"** who care more about cost-effectiveness than brands and are willing to pay for immediate results; and the **"Socially Engaged Consumers"** who enjoy sharing, are easily influenced, and like to maintain close social circles.

**The characteristics of these segmented groups also suggest to businesses that crowd management needs to shift from** **"basic attributes"** **to** **"attitude labels,"** **matching segmented needs through major promotional events, emotional value, and ingredient education to achieve effective communication with target audiences.**

### **Five Major Trends in Skincare on Douyin Redefine Product and Marketing Boundaries**

Currently, consumer demand is shifting from "basic hydration" to "precise targeting," from "daily care" to "medical-grade repair," and from "functional satisfaction" to "emotional healing." Combining data and analysis, CBNData has summarized five major trends in skincare products. For brands, these five trends are not only directions for technological innovation but also indicators for grasping user mindsets.

**Trend One: Efficiency Reigns, Efficacy Skincare Advances to Refinement and Complexity**

**In the wave of efficacy skincare, the segmented effects under anti-aging and whitening are becoming new growth engines.** Data from the massive cloud map shows that the popularity of anti-aging and whitening effects on Douyin remains high, with sales amounts for tightening, anti-wrinkle, collagen, and fine line reduction leading; the whitening effects of brightening, improving dullness, and anti-oxidation are growing rapidly.

 At the same time, consumers' pursuit of whitening, repairing, and anti-aging effects has become increasingly specific. The "precise skincare" market is rising strongly, with functional skincare evolving towards "targeted spot reduction," "directed anti-aging," and "acne skin repair."

The emerging brand KAZOO has achieved a breakthrough through "precise anti-aging." Its eye care products focus on a "gentle and non-irritating" experience, integrating the "home SPA" concept into daily skincare routines; the neck care line emphasizes high-active ingredients and professional care solutions, positioning itself as "precise anti-aging" to meet advanced needs.

Data shows that KAZOO's GMV on Douyin in 2024 surpassed 500 million, with the neck care category topping TOP1 and eye care firmly in TOP2.

 Image source: KAZOO WeChat Official Account

In 2024, keywords such as "endogenous anti-aging," "biotechnology," and "deep skin whitening" will drive "cell-level" skincare products to grow multidimensionally on Douyin, with significant increases in the number of buyers, purchase frequency, and volume, pushing sales growth over 250%. Additionally, multi-functional products have become a new favorite in the market, with over 70% of consumers preferring multi-functional products, and the sunscreen category has become a hot opportunity.

**Trend 2:** The demand for "sensitive skin" research is flourishing, and skincare efficacy is advancing towards complexity.

In 2024, the sales of "sensitive skin" specialized skincare products on Douyin increased by 25% year-on-year, with 74% of sensitive skin individuals opting for multi-functional skincare products. In terms of efficacy demand, gentle + efficacy and plant-based strong active ingredients are rapidly gaining momentum, becoming the new focus of the market.

**Trend 3:** Skincare demand is advancing towards medical aesthetics, and medical aesthetics and skincare are moving towards integration and resonance.

**Consumers' advanced needs for skin aging resistance and effective repair are driving medical-grade skincare products into the public eye.** Nearly 60% of respondents pay attention to medical-grade active ingredients when choosing skincare products, with prevention of aging, effective repair, and quick problem-solving becoming their three core demands Since 2024, medical-grade ingredients have accelerated in popularity, with leading brands speeding up the registration of new medical ingredient products. Ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, sugars, peptides, and amino acids are stepping into the spotlight. At the same time, special skin conditions such as damage and inflammation have become the core usage scenarios for medical-grade skincare products, breaking the traditional perception of "pre- and post-medical beauty treatment" and further expanding their daily usage boundaries.

The professional skincare brand **"Kefumei"** focuses on "collagen" as its core anchor point, achieving explosive growth of over 100% year-on-year on Douyin through a combination of **"big product explosion + deep content binding + self-broadcast iteration."** It firmly holds the TOP1 position in the liquid essence category.

 Image source: Kefumei official Weibo

**Trend Four:** **"Emotional Skin"** continues to gain attention, with skin issues strongly linked to emotions.

In our survey, we found that under external environmental pressure, nearly 70% of respondents reported a decline in their skin condition, and discussions on "stress skin," "emotional skin," and "sleepless skin" on Douyin have been on the rise. Issues such as dullness, pigmentation, and accelerated aging triggered by emotions are receiving significant attention. Over 80% of consumers have a correct understanding of "emotional skincare," and 96% are willing to try related products.

**With the penetration of "emotional skincare" awareness, emotional healing skincare products are rapidly expanding in scale on Douyin.** Products that combine **"inner healing of emotions" + "outer healing of skin"** have become a new blue ocean. Concepts and ingredients targeting emotional skin are continuously emerging, with saffron, β-endorphins, and immune-regulating ingredients gaining popularity.

**Trend Five:** Skincare usage scenarios are becoming more segmented, with strong demand for portable independent product packaging.

**As people's awareness of skincare increases and outdoor scenarios diversify, the demand for portable skincare products is further extending into segmented categories.** The preservation needs of functional skincare products are driving the rapid growth of "single-use essences" and "portable essence packaging." Additionally, the concepts of single-use and repackaged products are gradually extending to neck creams, masks, and facial care sets, bringing new growth opportunities for brands

### **How Brands Navigate Cycles in the Interest Content Ecosystem**

**In a market environment where consumer decisions are increasingly rational and demands are highly differentiated, the competition in the beauty and skincare sector has evolved from an initial focus on product strength and channel power to a systematic battle of** **“** **technology** **+** **content** **+** **operations** **.”** Brands not only need innovative barriers on the technology front but also require precise understanding of the content preferences of their target audience and refined operational reach within specific circles.

For skincare brands to achieve sustainable growth, they must combine hardcore research and development with brand storytelling, lowering the cognitive threshold for ingredient efficacy through contextualized content, and achieving deep emotional value binding with consumers through refined operations. In this process, Douyin, with its vast user base, rich interest content, strong data processing capabilities, and precise traffic distribution mechanisms, provides brands with full-chain marketing support from planting seeds of interest to conversion.

Through Douyin, brands can build a multi-touchpoint marketing matrix, promoting a seamless transition from interest generation to conversion, helping brands break through in fierce market competition, create blockbuster products, and achieve differentiated breakthroughs

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> **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**