China’s leading homegrown beauty companies delivered sharply divergent performances in the first half of 2026, as slowing flagship brands put greater pressure on emerging labels, category expansion and multi-brand strategies to deliver growth.
China’s leading domestic beauty companies reported mixed results for the first half of 2026, with growth slowing across several established players even as Mao Geping continued to expand at double-digit rates.
Proya, one of China’s largest listed domestic beauty companies, generated US$754 million (RMB5.37 billion) in first-half revenue, broadly flat from a year earlier with growth of just 0.24%. Its namesake Proya brand recorded a 7.19% decline in revenue to US$518 million (RMB3.69 billion), while smaller labels within the group grew considerably faster. Off&Relax revenue rose 70.81%, while Insbaha and Awaken Seeds more than doubled sales.
Reported net profit attributable to shareholders rose 46.26% to US$164 million (RMB1.17 billion), boosted by a non-recurring gain related to Proya’s acquisition of a controlling interest in Chinese cosmetics brand Flower Knows. Excluding non-recurring items, net profit declined 13.8%.
Other domestic players also faced pressure. Chicmax reported an 8.6% decline in first-half revenue, while sales at its core Kans brand fell 20.4%. Marubi Biotechnology’s revenue declined 5.76%, while Giant Biogene recorded a 6.3% fall, according to first-half earnings compiled by Jing Daily.
Mao Geping was a notable exception. The Hong Kong-listed premium beauty group reported revenue of US$486 million (RMB3.27 billion), up 26.2% year-on-year, while net profit increased 20.3% to US$120 million (RMB807 million).
Colour cosmetics remained its strongest category, with revenue rising 38.3% to US$293 million (RMB1.97 billion). Online sales increased 33.2%, outpacing the 19.9% growth recorded through offline channels.
The uneven performances come against a stronger long-term backdrop for China’s homegrown beauty industry. Domestic brands accounted for 57.37% of China’s cosmetics market in 2025, up from 55.20% a year earlier and marking a fifth consecutive year of market-share gains, according to the China Association of Fragrance Flavour and Cosmetic Industries.
China’s cosmetics market also surpassed US$159 billion (RMB1.1 trillion) in transactions for the first time in 2025, illustrating the scale of the market in which domestic players are increasingly competing with global beauty groups.
International expansion is becoming another part of that growth story. China’s cosmetics exports rose nearly 12% year-on-year to more than US$5 billion during the first eight months of 2025, marking a third consecutive year of double-digit growth.
Southeast Asia is emerging as one testing ground. Chinese beauty group Joy Group opened its first standalone stores outside China in Singapore last year for Judydoll and Joocyee, with expansion into other Southeast Asian markets planned. Proya is also looking further afield, with plans to enter the US through Ulta Beauty, extending a C-beauty internationalisation push that has so far been led largely by younger cosmetics brands.
The first-half results therefore arrive at a pivotal point for C-beauty. Domestic brands have already captured a majority of their home market and are building a larger international presence. The latest earnings suggest the opportunity remains sizeable, but growth is becoming increasingly uneven among the companies that drove C-beauty’s rise.