Key Takeaways:
Chinese New Year (CNY), also known as the Spring Festival, is a time of travel, traditions, family reunions, and, of course, shopping.
In 2025, Chinese payment giants China UnionPay and NetsUnion Clearing Corp processed more than 25 billion transactions totaling 9.78 trillion yuan ($1.34 trillion) during the eight-day holiday period. Meanwhile, total spending on goods and services rose 9.9% and 12.3% year over year, respectively, according to the country’s taxation authority, signaling resilient demand despite broader economic headwinds.
And this year could see even bigger gains. China extended its official holiday period to nine days for the first time, from February 15 to 23, and allocated 2.05 billion yuan ($297 million) in vouchers, subsidies, and cash incentives in hopes of boosting domestic consumption across sectors.
As Chinese shoppers seek functional products, holiday exclusives, and new experiences, beauty brands are well-positioned to capture seasonal spending. But to break through the retail noise, they’ll need to combine cultural savvy with sharp commercial execution, treating CNY not as a single moment but as a springboard for the year ahead.
Market Forces Shaping Holiday Beauty Spend
Before diving into holiday trends, it’s important to look at the bigger picture.
Beauty remains a resilient category in China. Cosmetics sales rose 2.8% to just over 1.1 trillion yuan ($159 billion) in 2025, according to the China Association of Fragrance, Flavor and Cosmetic Industries, outpacing overall retail sales growth nationwide. In the luxury segment, beauty also pulled ahead, growing 4%-7% in 2025 while China’s wider luxury industry contracted 3%-5%, according to Bain & Co.
That said, spending behaviors have shifted over the last few years. According to Jacques Roizen, an independent China market advisor for global consumer brands, Chinese beauty consumers have become extremely rational. They are highly promotion-sensitive, very knowledgeable about ingredients, and increasingly focused on efficacy and fast, visible results rather than brand storytelling alone.
“Consumers are not necessarily spending more overall; they are reallocating spending toward what they believe works best,” Roizen told BeautyMatter. “That can mean fewer but higher-quality gifts, or investing in targeted solutions rather than broad beauty routines.”
Jacob Cooke, CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, echoes this shift toward efficacy. “It’s not only during CNY—in the past few years, the whole beauty market has been moving toward more targeted and needs-based products. Consumers are becoming more ingredient-aware and formula-focused, and they choose products that clearly solve their specific skin concerns,” he said.
Reflecting these trends, NielsenIQ reported that skincare sales grew 34% year over year across channels during the 2025 CNY holiday. For 2026, the market research firm recommends that brands double down on “inside-out renewal needs,” prioritizing safe ingredients, premium skincare, and long-lasting, moisturizing makeup.
Seasonal Trends: Sunscreen, Niche Categories on the Rise
As consumers prioritize utility, new categories are gaining momentum this holiday season. According to Hangzhou-based beauty e-commerce service supplier eBeauty Group, the sunscreen category on Tmall jumped 39% year over year in total transaction value in January 2026, reflecting the surge in travel activity (China expects 9.5 billion interregional passenger trips from February 2 to March 13).
Crystal Yu, Head of Research Team at eBeauty Group, noted that brands such as SK-II, Kiehl’s, and La Mer have recently launched new sunscreen products. “Compared to previous years, these launches happened earlier, right at the beginning of the year, instead of the usual release period in April or May before summer.”
At the same time, niche categories such as hand creams (+20%), lip balms (+20%), lip serums (+21%), and shower oils (+25%) saw double-digit growth rates in transaction value on Tmall in January, surpassing the overall skincare category (+18%). Although the number of buyers of facial care sets, facial serums, and perfumes declined compared to last year, these categories still outperformed the overall beauty market, reported eBeauty.
Beauty’s Expanding Role: From Self-Expression to Social Moments
Gifting remains central to the festival, with beauty and personal care products largely viewed as low-risk choices. In January, lipsticks (+18%), perfumes (+30%), and makeup sets (+50%) posted double-digit transaction growth on Tmall, while social media discussions around “gifting myself,” “gifting friends,” and “gifting clients” also rose year over year, according to eBeauty.
Beyond gifting, beauty has taken on a deeper emotional role, shaping personal rituals and festive self-expression.
“For many young consumers, doing makeup for the holiday is not only about looking better or managing social occasions,” said Gloria Gan, Mintel’s Senior Analyst based in Shanghai. “It can also be a self-pleasing ritual that helps them ease into the festive mindset, offering a sense of relaxation and emotional reset.”
As part of the celebration, DIY-style aesthetic expressions, such as hand-painted nail art and self-service manicures, have become more popular. “This is not necessarily about looking good for others, but about spending time on themselves and enjoying the hands-on creative process,” Gan described.
CNY makeup has also become part of social sharing. “Whether it is guochao-inspired [celebrating national pride] looks that draw on intangible cultural heritage elements or playful zodiac-themed styles, these looks create a strong festive mood and photograph well,” Gan shared.
During last year’s festival, NielsenIQ found that hair and manicure group-buy orders rose 1.5 times on Douyin, while searches for “New Year photo shoot” nearly doubled on the Chinese social networking and e-commerce platform RedNote, highlighting emotional value and self-expression as key drivers of beauty consumption.
Designing Campaigns That Convert and Connect
Together, these consumer behaviors provide a framework for CNY marketing, where functional products, localized packaging, and shareable content all play a key role.
French skincare label Clarins exemplifies this approach. A partner brand of eBeauty, Clarins integrated the horse zodiac in its gift box design, in-store visuals, and the bottle design of its hero product, Double Serum, leaning into cultural motifs to connect with the holiday. It also strategically launched its new blockbuster, Double Serum Foundation, and offered sets of both pillar products and on-trend smaller categories for more diverse gifting options.
Estée Lauder, another eBeauty partner, combined limited-edition products with red envelope covers, “[transforming] traditional zodiac symbols into thoughtfully designed social currency, sparking consumers’ desire for both collecting and gifting,” added Yu.
Yu advised that beauty brands should adopt “more sincere localized CNY packaging,” from gift boxes to bottle designs, and adopt social elements such as WeChat red envelope covers and mini-program games to create buzzworthy content for young consumers.
Gan largely echoes these recommendations, encouraging brands to offer flexible gift sets (mix-and-match, splittable kits) and to leverage digital tools like AR try-on and Chinese makeup tutorials to drive online engagement. She also emphasizes extending emotional services, from handwritten-note services to family-oriented activities that tap into the reunion spirit of CNY.
“This could take the form of multigenerational service options, such as mother-daughter nail experiences or skincare services tailored to older family members,” said Gan. “By creating activities that family members can take part in together, brands can connect beauty routines more directly to the holiday theme of togetherness and build warmer, more emotionally resonant engagement.”
Why Efforts Fall Flat
In practice, however, execution often falls short of marketing potential. As Cooke pointed out, many global beauty brand campaigns feel “quite safe and similar” to last year’s efforts. Instead, he looks to sports brands for examples of creativity.
“Nike used a ‘break free’ concept to talk about escaping the social pressure of holiday family visits through sports. The North Face connected the Year of the Horse with its 60th anniversary and used the phrase ‘exploration is in our nature,’ which feels very local and authentic,” he said.
In other words, localization alone isn’t enough. As Roizen put it, “Brands should be careful not to ‘cosplay’ local culture in a way that weakens their core DNA. Chinese consumers today are highly sophisticated; they expect cultural elements to feel credible and consistent with the brand’s identity, not layered on top for the season.”
For global players, local relevance should be built through meaningful partnerships, product innovation, and culturally attuned storytelling anchored in the brand’s unique values, Roizen explained. His guidance also varies by segment: luxury brands should focus on depth, craftsmanship, and collectible-level gifting that reinforces brand heritage and emotional value, while mass and masstige players should focus on hero products supported by strong promotional tactics and clear efficacy messaging.
“Ultimately, the brands that win during CNY are those that combine commercial sharpness with cultural intelligence—without compromising who they are,” Roizen concluded.
