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China’s beauty paradox: Exports catch up to K-beauty despite domestic slowdown

China’s domestic online beauty sales are falling as C-beauty companies are ramping up export efforts and moving into international retail channels. The gap suggests a deliberate pivot from C-beauty toward overseas growth, targeting the categories and regions that K-beauty has spent the past decade winning over.According to Jefferies’ China online beauty tracker, the country recorded a 6% year-on-year cosmetics sales decline in September 2026. Skin care fell 6.1%, while color cosmetics went down 5.2%. 
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Waste-derived feedstocks push circular beauty toward commercial scale
Circular feedstocks — ingredients sourced by upcycling food, agricultural, or industrial byproducts — are emerging as minimally resource-intensive personal care solutions as the industry pushes to achieve genuine sustainability.The beauty industry is increasingly rooted in sustainability through heightened consumer demands and tightening regulations. The sector is also facing an enhanced sense of urgency to generate resource-low ingredient options as supply chains feel the strain of climate-related biodiversity loss. 
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Reusable period care moves beyond eco hook to comfort and cultural fit
The reusable menstrual product category is growing due to product differentiation, according to Yuji Health. More open conversations around periods over the past years, coupled with a push toward clean beauty, are causing a boom in menstrual cups, reusable pads, and period underwear.  But now, the non-single-use period care segment is maturing further from its initial sustainability focus and moving to secure a position in the mainstream by offering easier-to-use products. 
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Sustainable beauty solutions
Innova Market Insights data indicates that new personal care launches with sustainable claims grew at a +31% CAGR from July 2021 to June 2026. While cruelty-free remains a key consumer marker of sustainable beauty, innovation is expanding into areas such as sustainable oils, 2-in-1 formats, recycled materials, and reef- and ocean-friendly solutions.
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Who masters the art of multifunctionality? We do.
Multifunctional ingredients are transforming personal care preservation by combining microbial protection with formulation efficiency, natural-origin positioning, skin benefits, sensory enhancement and easier processing. Ashland’s recent launches illustrate how preservative strategies can deliver added value, helping formulators create safer, more transparent, consumer-relevant products with stronger performance and clearer ingredient purpose.

This Technical Paper is brought to you by Ashland.
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EvanHealy: Botanical beauty and fostering farmer relationships

David Gordon, co-founder and CEO at EvanHealy, talks to us about building a botanical skin care brand in an increasingly crowded market. He explains how EvanHealy’s approach to ethical sourcing centers on personal relationships with farmers and producers, trust, and working with people who have a deep understanding of the land. We also explore the impact of climate change on botanical skin care and why direct engagement with farms is becoming increasingly important to ensure an ethical relationship with botanical sourcing.

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Dove and Clean Cult diversify with first-time fragrance and body care launches
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Dove has entered fine fragrance, and the home cleaning brand Clean Cult has expanded into personal care. The moves demonstrate how brands are expanding into beauty categories new to them, catering to growth and specific demands across segments. Dove has made its debut in the highly lucrative fine fragrance market with a limited edition, Original Beauty Bar scented perfume. Meanwhile, Clean Cult’s Castile Soap marks its expansion into body and skin care with a multi-purpose product touted to have over 20 uses. 
Beauty leads P&G Q1 FY2027 growth, driven by skin and hair care
A phone that says P&G on it.
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has reported net sales of US$23.3 billion for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2027 (July to September 2026), up 4% year-on-year. Organic sales, which exclude foreign exchange and acquisitions and divestitures, also grew 4%. P&G’s Beauty segment led the group’s top-line growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, although higher commodity costs weighed on margins across the business. 
Ulta Beauty expands AI shopping strategy with ChatGPT plugin
woman in beauty shop
Ulta Beauty has launched its own plugin on ChatGPT to offer AI-powered personalized beauty recommendations and shopping efficiency.  The plugin provides consumers with recommendations based on the information they provide in the form of an AI bundle — a bundle of products tailored to the consumer. The AI bundle is made with products from the Ulta Beauty catalog within ChatGPT. 
Luxury beauty in business: Puig, Dolce & Gabbana and Capsum push beyond core...
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Luxury giants are looking beyond their established strongholds for their next phase of growth, pushing into makeup and skin care with planned US and Asia expansions. Puig posted record third-quarter net revenue of €1.39 billion (US$1.56 billion), up 5.6% like-for-like, with makeup, niche fragrances, and dermocosmetics among the categories delivering double-digit growth. 
Cosmax and Harvard Med eye weight-loss market as beauty and pharma blur
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Cosmax is using its microbiome research to enter the wellness and pharmaceutical markets through a partnership with Harvard Medical School researchers. The Korean beauty manufacturer’s push beyond cosmetics into biotech and medicine comes as demand for weight-loss drugs and clinical anti-aging rises. Cosmax signed a joint research agreement with Mass General Bingham (MGB), a Harvard-affiliated hospital network based in Boston, US, according to the Korean Times. Under the project, the partners aim to develop health supplement ingredients and drug candidates for weight management, metabolic health, and anti-aging. It will run through 2029.
IFF backs probiotic strain quality over CFU counts, taps biomics to predict...
Researcher in lab with probiotics

Nutrition Insight

Amid a growing demand for probiotics, IFF underscores the importance of improving the inherent quality of strains used in supplements, rather than increasing their colony-forming units (CFU) count. CFUs are used to estimate the number of viable microbial cells in a product. Nutrition Insight meets with Dr. Arthur Ouwehand, a technical fellow at IFF, to discuss probiotic quality, research advances, and knowledge gaps. The company uses biomics to predict how a strain will behave in the human body. Biomics is the multidimensional analysis of biological data, Ouwehand explains. He says the analysis covers many aspects, such as metabolomics (analysis of metabolites), proteomics (proteins), and transcriptomics (RNA transcripts). “Biomics, in general, will not guarantee that a probiotic works, but it will help us make informed choices on what probiotic to test, for what potential health benefit,” he details. 
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Business News
Amazon Prime sales reward beauty brands building demand...
Beauty and Cosmetics was the most-purchased category on Amazon during Prime Big Deal Days 2026, held earlier this month from October 6–7. During the shopping event, skin care brands claimed nine of the top ten bestselling spots, but according to a report by Market Defense, prior demand drew shoppers in more than the lure of a discount. The report shows shoppers discovering products through influencers, brand affiliates, and social media platforms, before arriving on Amazon with a specific item or ingredient on their mind. According to Market Defense, brands should prioritize “capturing demand rather than manufacturing it through aggressive promotions” as they head into the final months of 2026.
A mother and daughter doing their makeup in the mirror.
Business News
Global beauty shifts from selling to building in India
The global beauty industry is building in India instead of solely expanding in the country. What was once a focus on selling into India has progressed to investing in long-term commitment in the country. In the past few weeks, growth moves in India have spanned the entire value chain. Symrise has expanded fragrance ingredient production in the country. Kiko Milano announced plans to double its retail footprint. Nykaa and L’Oréal launched a new Kiehl’s product, and The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) named the latest winners of its Indian founder program. 
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Policy & regulation news
Staggered deadlines complicate EU citral compliance for...
The EU’s incoming citral restrictions contain staggered deadlines that could catch out some cosmetics companies. Personal care products containing the same molecule may have to exit shelves a month apart, creating compliance confusion. Regulation (EU) 2026/909 sets product-specific limits for several cosmetic ingredients, including citral, after safety assessments by the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS). The known fragrance allergen was evaluated for its potential to cause skin sensitization. The regulation converts the committee’s safe-use levels into maximum concentrations for different personal care products (lip care, oral care, fragrance, etc.). 

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Anti-aging collagen solutionsOct2026

Innova Market Insights data shows that consumers worldwide are increasingly interested in collagen as part of their diet, with aging-related concerns emerging as an important area of focus. Reflecting...

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Next-level “skinification” Oct 2026

Innova Market Insights data indicates a 38% growth in skincare-related claims in hair and body product launches from July 2021 to June 2026. This trend highlights the growing convergence of skincare and haircare, as brands increasingly apply skincare-inspired ingredients, technologies, and targeted benefits to products for the hair, scalp, and body.

Trend analysis

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Sustainable beauty solutionsOct 2026

Innova Market Insights data indicates that new personal care launches with sustainable claims grew at a +31% CAGR from July 2021 to June 2026. While cruelty-free remains a key consumer marker of sustainable beauty, innovation is expanding into areas such as sustainable oils, 2-in-1 formats, recycled materials, and reef- and ocean-friendly solutions.

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EvanHealy video thumbnail: Smiling bearded man alongside Evanhealy organic skincare products, including facial tonic, purifying infusion and eye balm, set among autumn leaves
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EvanHealy: Botanical beauty and fostering farmer relationships

David Gordon, co-founder and CEO at EvanHealy, talks to us about building a botanical skin care brand in an increasingly crowded market. He explains how EvanHealy’s approach to ethical sourcing centers on personal relationships with farmers and producers, trust, and working with people who have...

Azitra video thumbnail: Laboratory researcher handling a sample beside a microscope, with a black-and-white portrait inset in a pink circular frame
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Azitra: Functional human filaggrin for barrier support
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LeNose targets Gen Z home luxury with perfumer-crafted hand soaps
Vantage body care ad featuring a woman applying a body scrub, with the message “Body care meets faceification. High-performance, head to toe
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Body care meets faceification. High-performance, head to toe
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