The Chinese beauty (C-beauty) wave has hit our shores. After experiencing significant growth at home—domestic cosmetic brands accounted for 55.2% of market share in 2024, favored for their perceived value, effectiveness, and cultural savvy—top players are now turning their attention overseas.

In the first eight months of 2025, China’s cosmetic exports rose 11.7% year-over-year (YoY) to $5.2 billion (36.68 billion yuan), marking a third consecutive year of double-digit growth. Through social media marketing and omnichannel expansion, these brands are gaining more than new customers; they’re reshaping global aesthetics and shining a spotlight on Chinese culture.

Below, BeautyMatter rounds up the Chinese makeup brands set to make the biggest splash in 2026.

Maogeping 毛戈平
Founder: Mao Geping
Bestseller: Luminous Moisture Perfect Cream Foundation ($56.6 million in retail sales in 2024), Luxury Caviar Cushion Foundation ($28 million in H1 2025)
Price: $30 to $57 for color cosmetics

Maogeping was named Hurun’s top Chinese makeup brand of 2025—and for good reason. In 2024 alone, the company went public in Hong Kong to the tune of $1.8 billion, becoming the first C-beauty brand to list in the city, and recorded a 42% YoY surge in color cosmetics sales to $325 million (2.3 billion yuan).

Founded by renowned makeup artist Mao Geping in 2000, the premium makeup brand is best known for its “light and shadow art,” a philosophy and product line that uses highlighting and contouring to enhance facial structure. It is also rooted in Eastern aesthetics, often taking cues from traditional painting, sculpture, and theater, leading to ongoing collaborations with The Palace Museum and becoming the official beauty provider for Team China.

As of June 2025, Maogeping had 405 self-operated counters and 32 distributor-operated counters in 120 cities across China. In October, the Hangzhou-based company opened its first official flagship store in Hong Kong, with founder Mao calling the move “a crucial step in the internationalization of the brand.” Looking ahead, it plans to launch an in-house R&D center by the end of 2026, explore new product categories (it entered fragrances in 2025), and roll out two to four overseas counters per year, making it one to watch.

Florasis 花西子
Founder: Wu Chenglong
Bestseller: Blooming Rouge Love Lock Lipstick, Floral Engraving Phoenix Makeup Palette
Price range: $15 to $59

When it comes to celebrating Chinese culture, Florasis is in a class of its own. The premium makeup label looks straight out of a period drama: think lipsticks encased in ancient love locks, makeup palettes engraved with mythological scenes, and botanical formulas based in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Since its inception in 2017, Florasis has gained a sizable social media following (12 million on Douyin; 1.2 million on TikTok) and now ships to over 100 countries. Its products resonate with consumers at home and abroad, seen as both works of art and an embodiment of China’s “Guochao” or national pride trend. In September 2024, the brand debuted in Europe with a counter at the Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf, and in early 2025, it unveiled its first overseas flagship store in Tokyo and launched on the Middle East’s leading luxury e-commerce platform, Ounass.

Though US investments are on hold amid trade disruptions, the C-beauty leader continues to cross borders, recently securing a spot in Ulta Beauty’s online marketplace.

Judydoll 橘朵
Bestseller: 2 IN 1 Highlighter Contour Palette (over 24 million units sold), Cushion Lip Powder Cream (over 20 million units)
Price range: $2 to $19

Judydoll may not boast the premium prices of Maogeping or Florasis, but it’s still pulling in the big bucks. In 2024, it was the #1 makeup brand by sales volume in China, growing 23% YoY to surpass $345 million (2.5 billion yuan).

Founded by Shanghai’s Joy Group in 2017, Judydoll has become a hit with Gen Z thanks to its cool-girl aesthetic, affordable prices, and constant launches—dropping hundreds of SKUs a year. More than trendy, its products are innovative; its Iron Mascara, for example, features an angled brush head designed to lift short, straight Asian lashes, while its Iced Watery Lip Gloss combines a unique metal applicator and a hydrating formula to achieve that plump, glassy “Douyin makeup” look.

Like its C-beauty counterparts, Judydoll has embarked overseas with a robust omnichannel approach. After landing on Amazon US in September 2025, the label had an especially busy October: unveiling its 100th boutique in China, opening its first international store in Singapore, and going live on UK retailer Skin Cupid. Momentum has been strong in South East Asia too, as evidenced by its two shop-in-shop installations in Watsons Indonesia, a spot typically reserved for top 10 brands.

Flower Knows 花知晓
Founder: Yang Zifeng and Zhou Tiancheng
Bestseller: Sweetie Bear and Strawberry Cupid collections
Price range: $8 to $45

At a glance, Flower Knows transports users to a world of romance and whimsy. Founded in 2016, the viral cosmetics brand is best known for its maximalist packaging, similar to Florasis, but with a vintage European twist—imagine French pastries, Neoclassical architecture, Rococo patterns, and lots of bows.

With over 4 million followers on overseas social media accounts, Flower Knows is one of the most influential C-beauty brands online, with some TikTok videos racking up over 30 million views. The brand has also benefited from organic celebrity endorsements from names like Lana Del Rey and Sabrina Carpenter, shimmying its way into the mainstream.

While China makes up 90% of sales, the US is its next biggest market, accounting for 60% to 70% of its overseas business. The brand started selling in the country via its website in 2022, then entered Urban Outfitters in mid-2024 before becoming one of the few C-beauty brands to join Ulta.com this December. And this is just the start, as the Gen Z favorite announced the completion of its Series B financing in September, with plans to continue expanding overseas and reach $142 million ( 1 billion yuan) in revenue by the end of 2025.

Timage 彩棠
Founder: Tang Yi
Bestseller: Matte Porcelain Lasting Foundation, Cloud Radiant Cushion Foundation and Concealer
Price range: $21 to $42

While Judydoll and Flower Knows are young and girly, Timage is like the mature older sister. Owned by China’s largest beauty conglomerate, Proya, the brand is minimalist and chic, focused on promoting simple makeup styles that enhance natural beauty.

Living up to its philosophy of “simplifying complexity,” Timage began seeing success after releasing its three-color concealer, three-color contouring, and three-color blush—professional, multifunctional products tailored to Asian skin types. It has largely continued down this path with much success, growing 21% YoY in sales to $99.8 million (705 million yuan) in H1 2025, making it the second-largest brand under the Proya umbrella.

Though Timage has an e-commerce presence in South East Asia and Japan, it doesn’t yet have the social media virality of its C-beauty rivals. Still, it’s beginning to build recognition: In September 2025, the brand participated in “The Chinese Beauty Shop” (巴黎合伙人), a reality show that invited Chinese celebrities to operate a C-beauty pop-up shop in Paris, receiving a warm reception for its primer and blush.

Carslan 卡姿兰
Founder: Tang Xilong
Bestseller: Soft Focus Loose Setting Powder, Black Magnet Soft Focus Liquid Powder Makeup Setting Spray
Price range: $10 to $46

When a brand campaign becomes a meme, either something has gone right or terribly wrong. Lucky for Carslan, its “Carslan Big Eyes” mascara slogan (卡姿兰大眼睛) was widely adopted by Chinese netizens to praise (often jokingly) big, bright eyes—to the extent that the brand applied for several trademarks for the phrase in 2022.

Beyond fueling internet slang, Carslan has made a name for itself in research. Established in 2001, the Guangzhou-based label boasts R&D teams in Japan and Italy, 128 China-authorized patents, and one of the largest smart factories in the C-beauty industry. It has carved out a niche by offering professional, science-backed products at budget-friendly prices, addressing concerns like oil control, hydration, lip lines, and dull skin.

At the end of 2022, Carslan kicked off its globalization plans in Vietnam, noting the market’s similar beauty buying habits to China, before expanding to other parts of South East Asia and the US. By Q3 2025, the brand had become the top-selling single store in the beauty category on TikTok Shop Vietnam. In May 2024, the brand also appointed Chinese actor Zhang Linghe as its first global ambassador, signaling its ambitions to amplify its reach.

Perfect Diary 完美日记
Founder: David Huang
Bestseller: Biolip Essence Lipstick
Price range: $16 to $45

Once synonymous with C-beauty’s global rise, Perfect Diary was established in 2017 and quickly peaked around 2019, becoming the #1 color cosmetics brand on Tmall. Its explosive growth was driven in part by aggressive discounting, celebrity ambassadors, and buzzy collaborations. The brand went public in New York in 2020 and expanded into South East Asia the following year, setting out on an ambitious plan to open 600 stores in just three years.

That momentum has since slowed. Parent company Yatsen Holdings reported that full-year revenue in 2022 fell 36.5% to $537.3 million (3.71 billion yuan) due to weakness in its color cosmetics segment and a challenging macroeconomic environment (those COVID-19 days!). However, the company is turning things around: Hurun reports that by the end of March 2025, Yatsen had applied for 246 patents worldwide, while Perfect Diary’s Biolip Essence Lipstick, which creates a bionic sebum film on the lips, was shortlisted for an award.

Perfect Diary is forging a new future, integrating skincare with makeup and emphasizing function over marketing flair. In Q3 2025, Yatsen reported a 25.2% YoY increase in net revenues from color cosmetic brands—a promising step toward recovery.