The Chinese cosmetics startup attracted top investors with a valuation of over USD 1 billion. The color cosmetics sector is gaining momentum.
The recent two decades have seen rapid growth in China’s beauty industry. Color cosmetics is one of the leading sectors underpinning the country's increasing spending on personal image.
According to 36 Kr, Perfect Diary, one of the hottest emerging stars in color cosmetics, has completed a new round of fundraising with a valuation of over USD 1 billion. Hillhouse Capital Group led in the investment, followed by Sequoia Capital and Chinese Culture Group.
Founded in 2017, Perfect Diary is an e-commerce-based cosmetic brand. The company is committed to exploring the trends in international cosmetics and the frontiers of fashion to provide easy-to-use cosmetics products for young Asian women.
The founding members are all post-80s and post-90s with an international background and global mindset. Being confident about China’s beauty industry, Perfect Diary aims to create an iconic sense of ‘Chinese Beauty’ with international influences.
In order to achieve the same quality with international brands, it chooses the best makeup OEMs in the world, which also cooperate with Dior, YSL, etc. Having a full product category, its strategy is to launches one or two phenomenal products at a time to build brand awareness among consumers.
Perfect Diary is professional in branding and online traffic management. By launching co-branded cosmetic products with KOLs, idols and even some famous organizations like the British Museum, the brand rapidly bulked up in brand awareness and sales, expecting to surpass CNY 3 billion (USD 429 million) in revenue on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform.
This strong uptrend in color makeup is supported not only by an upturn in living standards spurred by the ongoing consumption upgrade and the rising awareness of personal grooming amongst Chinese consumers, but also the expanding user base among millennials and Gen Z. Moreover, men in China are more confident and willing to purchase and use beauty products, including both skincare and cosmetic. The main consumer force of the men’s beauty market is the younger generation, who are more open; traditional opinion is being updated and some traditional consumption boundaries are gradually disappearing. The sales of men’s skincare products surged 82% above the previous year. Color cosmetics for men posted a 122% high in increase amounts. We should no longer deem beauty an exclusively female domain.
Another indispensable factor in boosting color cosmetics is the application of live broadcasting and social media. Internet celebrities and influencers on social network platforms RED, Douyin (Chinese Tik-Tok) and the likes livestream reviews of countless cosmetic products and give beauty advice to the audience.
Chinese male beauty blogger Li Jiaqi, who can live stream testing as many as 380 lipsticks a day, is also a strong promoter of Perfect Diary. He earned more than CNY 10 million (USD 1.53 million) over the past year – a successful case of leveraging new media channels and the trend for color cosmetics.