In the online-centric C-beauty market, Maogeping stands out as an anomaly. The brand founder, the charismatic Mao Geping, an opera singer-turned-celebrity makeup artist, has always made it a priority to have an offline presence, despite C-beauty’s reign online.
Last year, the brand, known for its customized beauty lessons reserved for VIP customers and ancient Chinese aesthetics-inspired product design, entered Wuhan SKP, Chengdu SKP and Hangzhou Tower, all of which are top-grossing luxury shopping malls in the country.
Its robust offline retail model, one that focuses on mid- to high-end department store counters, coupled with livestreamed makeup tutorials, helped the brand go public in Hong Kong and achieve stronger profitability — last year, its net profit margin reached 22.7 percent, second only to Giant Biogene, a Chinese biotech company-turned-cosmeceutical giant.
A Maogeping beauty counter.
According to Maogeping’s latest 2025 interim report, offline cosmetic sales grew 26.6 percent year-over-year to 1,224.2 million renminbi, or $172 million, which now accounts for about half of overall sales.
Data from China‘s National Bureau of Statistics shows that retail sales of cosmetics recorded a robust 8.6 percent growth in September, far outpacing the overall market’s 3 percent growth. However, online beauty retail fell for three consecutive months, registering a 2.43 percent drop.
“Online traffic kept us alive — and thriving. It’s efficient, precise and data-driven, allowing our brand and products to gain visibility in a short time. But we’re also facing a new challenge: when every brand is shouting in the same digital marketplace, our brand individuality is being flattened by the algorithm,” said Yoyo You, Joocyee’s brand general manager.
Founded in 2019, the Gen Z-focused brand is projected to reach 900 million renminbi, or $126.5 million, in sales by the end of 2025, driven by this year’s offline retail expansion.
For You, offline retail helped lift the sales of key categories such as foundations and higher-priced items.
“In terms of site selection, we no longer follow a linear expansion model of entering first-tier cities before moving into second- and third-tier ones, or domestic before overseas markets. Instead, we adopt a unified set of criteria to evaluate all potential locations — including foot traffic, target demographics, location quality, and surrounding environment,” said You.
Joocyee’s latest Wuhan store.
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“For example, our first two stores were opened in Changsha IFS and Chongqing Times Paradise Walk, rather than in Shanghai or Beijing. We don’t let the lack of an ideal site in a first-tier city hold back progress elsewhere,” You added.
Apart from stores in Changsha, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Nanjing, Xi’an and Wuhan, Joocyee recently brought its boudoir-themed retail design to Shanghai’s popular Yanqing Road, where it engaged its influencer community on a deeper level.
Influencers posing in front of the Joocyee pop-up in Shanghai.
According to a recent report from NielsenIQ, China’s beauty market is expected to reach 610 billion renminbi, or $85.6 billion, this year. Offline sales account for 21 percent, spread across traditional shopping malls, multibrand retailers such as Sephora, Harmay and Wow Colour, as well as new retail channels like convenience stores and Sam’s Club. The remaining share comes from other brick-and-mortar formats, including retail fairs and pop-ups.
Multibrand retailers and department stores remain the most important channel where brands can “penetrate ‘new first-tier’ and ‘lower-tier’ markets while advancing both premiumization and localization,” said the report.
As for more mature first-tier cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, where beauty counters are still dominated by major global names, emerging local players are finding innovative ways to reach a targeted audience base on the ground.
Founded four years ago in Shanghai, Fancy Cube, a clean beauty label, first found its core audience among a niche group — Gen Alpha students at international schools — before quickly expanding its following to include their parents.
Inspired by her daughter’s love of cosplay, which often required playful makeup, Fancy Cube founder Lulu Guo, a former Shanghai Jahwa executive, launched the brand with a mission to break all C-beauty rules — the buildable makeup balm comes in simple colors and encourages its users to DIY suitable palettes, and display it as necklace or bag charms.
Fancy Cube’s playful product.
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“C-beauty brands have been promoting the wrong beauty ideals — it’s full coverage, or what we call a ‘fake white face.’ It’s a face-tuned aesthetic, often promoted via the authoritative voice of celebrity makeup artists. But let’s remember, celebrities live under the spotlight; we live under broad daylight. For us, that amount of makeup can be brutal to the naked eye, especially within social distance,” Guo said of her approach, one that encourages users to show off their “delicate Asian skin.”
“It might take Maogeping an hour to ‘sculpt’ a face; for me, 20 minutes,” said Guo of her “less is more” makeup philosophy that “blends endlessly like watercolor, yet outlines the skin like gouache,” said Guo, borrowing from painterly techniques.
For Fancy Cube, plans to expand its retail footprint beyond a downtown makeup studio may entail more than prime real estate. Guo, who plans to hire fine art graduates as makeup assistants for her future retail projects, said that “their understanding of beauty sets them apart from the cookie-cutter talents produced by makeup schools.”
Fancy Cube’s product display can double as inventory.
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“It’s about engaging with an offline audience while also creating employment opportunities,” said Guo, referring to the Chinese government’s push to revive brick-and-mortar.
In February, Beijing authorities released a “Three-Year Action Plan for Optimizing the Consumer Environment,” which urged retailers to provide “high-quality goods and services” and enhance “the convenience, comfort, and satisfaction of consumers.”
“It has become a consensus among officials and brands — that in times of uncertainty, we need some sort of small pleasures, both in terms of experience and product,” Guo added.
“As consumers continue to mature, people now hold higher expectations for beauty brands, especially in terms of experience,” said Yue Wu, founder of Beauty Shanghai and Notes Shanghai, a biannual perfume fair that made its debut last April.
“For instance, visiting exhibitions or exploring lifestyle districts has become part of consumers’ daily lives, and they expect the same from beauty brands,” explained Wu.
The inaugural Beauty Shanghai was launched this October as a four-day event that attracted over 165 beauty brands from 14 countries and regions. During the weekend, over 5,000 consumers visited the fair.
Inside Beauty Shanghai.
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“The fair was able to attract the ideal audience mix — consumers who are curious, discerning, and have strong purchasing power in the beauty and personal care category,” explained Wu.
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