When it comes to beauty products, young consumers are paying more attention to ingredients than brand names. We have a nick name for this group of consumers - “Skintellectuals” (成分党). International skin care brands such as The Ordinary, Drunk Elephant and domestic brand Home Facial Pro and Winona are super popular among Gen Z.
According to Bevol App (美丽修行), an App that allows users to search for ingredients of products, top 10 most concerned ingredients among Chinese consumers in 2019 are:
1. Niacinamide
2. Tocopheryl Acetate
3. Sodium hyaluronate
4. Retinyl Palmitate
5. Squalane
6. Retinol
7. Salicylic Acid
8. Allantoin
9. Vitamin E
10. Dipotassium Glycyrrhizinate
Most of these popular ingredients have anti-aging, moisturizing, whitening, and anti-inflammatory functions.
CFDA records show in 2019, there were 300k+ registered products (67.25% of all) containing the top 30 ingredients in below list. The most widely used ingredient is Sodium hyaluronate, which is used in 150k+ products.