You want to know what’s hot in Asia Beauty and the best way to check out the market? Read on!
- Animal Byproducts are still popular! You can find snake venom, snail secretion and horse fat in personal care products boasting for anti-aging,moisturization and the wonder healing properties. The horse fat in particular is hot in both Taiwan and Japan where I visited. It’s touted as the best oil for face, hair and body to practically do anything you want it to do as the amino acids content in horse fat is similar to human’s. Since last year was the year of the horse, I suspect that there could be a Chinese zodiac trend going on for the future so you start seeing ingredients from Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, Pigs and so on provided none of them are non-disease carrier. In the event of dog, marketers can easily promote Dog Rose Extract just for the name- sake to celebrate the year of the Dog just as there are dragon blood extracts for the year of the Dragon. If Argan oil, Marula oil are considered the hottest oils in the states, Horse oil definitely gets the crown in Asia.
- Beauty massage tools- there are virtually a specific massager for your entire body from head to toe! Asian people believe in massages as it promote circulation and also relive tension as the work hours in Asia tend to be a lot longer. Starting from massaging hair brushes, to neck roller, face roller, and nose roller (yes, there are rollers claim to make your nose look smaller), to the whole body roller, finger roller, leg roller and toe rollers, all to promote better circulation leading to health and beauty.
- What I did not find, surprisingly, was face slimming mask! Apparently it’s only a trend in Korea and have not being caught up in the neighboring countries. I have used a few face slimmers and do find them effective. That’s an area worth investigating as when people get older, the face get rounder.
- Do not bother to go to department stores to find beauty trends. The best beauty secrets are in the smaller medicinal boutiques. When you go to department stores, you see the same brands you can see in USA. Do your treasure hunts at Watsons, Sasa or the local beauty pharmacies.
- Washnets are popular and often enclosed when you buy a beauty soap. Most of the people in the states have been using shower gels in stead of soap as it foams better. In Asia, where soap is still popular, they put a special washnet over the soap to promote creamy and dense foam. Some beauty soaps come with the washnet as a gift with purchase to enhance the user experience.
- Eye-focused beauty- Since Asian eyes tend to be smaller and single lids, the amount of products of eye-lid glues, eye-lid tapes, false-eyelashes are just flourishing in the market. One trend in particular is creation of the “Tear Bag”. In the states, everyone wants to get rid of that under eye bags but in Asia, it’s considered a sign of “innocence”. thus products illuminating the lid area just under the pupils are very popular. There are even tools to press out the shape of tear bag which I found quite drastic.
- The best salesmanship are found in Taiwan markets! If you have never checked out a day or night market in Taiwan, I highly suggest you do. The way they sell is as if they graduated from the top salesmanship classes. Every day I said to myself, I will just “check it out” and not buying but ending up with loads of goods. They perfected the pitches by demonstrating and pushing your hot buttons and well-thought out phrases to counter your potential rejections. Seriously, if these people are ever selling on direct selling channels in USA, they are millionaires! If they are ever on Shark Tank, they WILL get the deals!
- The shops in Japan believe in return customers. Virtually every shops I visited, they always give me a coupon for the next visit. In USA, the stores practice this the best is Bath & Body Works. Everytime you buy, you get a coupon for the next time. Yes, repeat customer worths a lot more than one-time customers. Grab them!
- Innovation is everywhere. I have seen patented toothpick, toilet/sink combo for limited space and massager/pen, massager/scratcher combo everywhere. Asia tends to be crowded so any space-saving, time-saving devices are popular and can be found. While we in the states have a mantra of Made In USA, why not learn how others innovate?
What works in Asia beauty market may not necessary work in USA but due to the recent invasion of Asia beauty trend of alphabet creams, there are brands just jump on everything Asia. It is important to consider the target market and culture differences and play on the marketing angles. Hope this article enlightened your beauty scope especially in product development. There is a market for everything. Products don’t sell. Salespeople do. Undereye bags is a sign of beauty. Beat that! Hope you enjoy my 2015 Asia Trip recap. If you’d like to create beauty products or need anything beauty related, feel free to reach out ginger@gracekingdombeauty.com
Creating Beauty From Concept To Counter
Ginger