Beauty and skincare marketing in China

Before setting a China beauty launch date, confirm the import route and product classification. General-trade requirements differ from those for qualifying cross-border retail imports. Claims and platform admission need separate checks.

Start with the sales route, then check the claims and plan the content. The table below covers general-trade imports. It does not establish a blanket ban on mentioning an unfiled product.

Gate	Who says yes	What it blocks until it is done
Product filing or registration	National Medical Products Administration	General-trade import clearance
Domestic responsible person	You appoint one, the regulator records it	The filing itself
Claim evidence	You, published on the regulator’s site	Every efficacy line in every post
Verified accounts and store	Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat	Paid reach, the shop, creator briefs

Every rule below comes from the regulation, the law or a platform’s own documentation, and each is cited where it appears. All sources were re-checked in September 2026. We review this page every quarter, because Chinese platform rules move faster than the regulations do.

Why beauty is won and lost on Xiaohongshu

Xiaohongshu (小红书) is where Chinese shoppers go to decide, not to be entertained.

Xiaohongshu passed 400 million monthly active users and 800 million searches a day. Source: Xiaohongshu, Video Creator Trend Observation Report, reported by Beijing Business Today (北京商报) via Sina Finance (新浪财经), May 2026. https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2026-05-27/doc-inhziqxq9291575.shtml

The audience shape is why beauty lands there rather than somewhere else.

The platform’s own advertiser brief gives a male to female split of 3 to 7, monthly search penetration of 70%, and half the user base born after 1995. Source: Xiaohongshu official brief (小红书官方通案), reported by Qian-gua Data (千瓜数据), April 2025. https://www.qian-gua.com/information/detail/3149

And they arrive with a question rather than a mood.

About 200 million users a month use Xiaohongshu to seek purchase advice, and users open the app around 16 times a day. Source: Xiaohongshu 2026 WILL conference, reported by 100EC (网经社), December 2025. https://www.100ec.cn/detail--6655530.html

Build the budget around relevant search questions and measure how long each note keeps attracting qualified visits. A fixed lifespan for campaign posts or ranked notes is not established here.

Our RedNote Agency page covers the platform in practice, and our guide to Xiaohongshu marketing for foreign brands covers the account setup underneath it.

What a beauty marketing agency in China checks before the first post

China splits cosmetics in two, and the split decides your timeline.

Cosmetics for hair dye, perming, spot removal and whitening, sun protection and hair loss prevention, plus any cosmetic claiming a new efficacy, are special cosmetics. Everything else is ordinary. Source: State Council, Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation (化妆品监督管理条例), Order 727, Article 16, in force January 2021. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2020-06/29/content_5522593.htm

For general-trade imports, the registration and filing rules below apply. Qualifying cross-border retail imports for personal use follow a separate framework.

Qualifying cross-border retail imports are exempt from first-import licensing, registration, or filing requirements. They are for personal use and may not be resold. Source: Ministry of Commerce, Notice 486, November 2018. https://cws.mofcom.gov.cn/gztz/art/2018/art_b7becbacb58a4d0d8bf17b91a168f044.html

For general-trade imports, special cosmetics have to be registered with the National Medical Products Administration (国家药监局) before they can be produced or imported. Imported ordinary cosmetics only have to be filed with the same body. A whitening serum and a cleansing balm are not on the same schedule, and a brand that plans both together will miss one of them.

You also cannot do it alone from outside.

An overseas registrant or filer must appoint a legal entity inside China to handle registration and filing, help with adverse reaction monitoring and carry out product recalls. Source: Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation, Article 23, in force January 2021. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2020-06/29/content_5522593.htm

Then the claims. This is the part that catches good brands, because in China the evidence behind a claim isn’t private. You publish it.

Efficacy claims must have sufficient scientific basis, and the registrant or filer must publish a summary of the literature, research data or efficacy evaluation behind them on a website designated by the regulator, open to public scrutiny. Source: Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation, Article 22, in force January 2021. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2020-06/29/content_5522593.htm

So a claim your home market treats as marketing copy is, in China, a testing invoice and a public file. The method for that testing is its own document.

The Cosmetic Efficacy Claim Evaluation Specification (化妆品功效宣称评价规范) was issued by the National Medical Products Administration and took effect on May 1, 2021. Source: China Center for Food and Drug International Exchange (中国食品药品国际交流中心), announcement 2021 No. 50, April 2021. https://www.ccfdie.org/cn/yjxx/hzp/webinfo/2021/04/1614390286444040.htm

Advertising law then sits on top of all of it. It’s blunt.

Advertisements may not use terms such as “national level”, “highest level” or “best”. Source: Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China, Article 9, in force since September 2015. https://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2021-10/29/content_5647620.htm

Outside medical, drug and medical device advertising, no advertisement may refer to disease treatment or use medical language that could confuse the product with a drug or a device. Source: Advertising Law, Article 17. https://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2021-10/29/content_5647620.htm

Neither rule is enforced gently, and the fine is written into the law itself.

Publishing an advertisement that breaches Article 9 draws a fine of 200,000 to 1,000,000 yuan on the advertiser, and in serious cases the business licence can be revoked. Source: Advertising Law, Article 57. https://www.gov.cn/guoqing/2021-10/29/content_5647620.htm

Do not write	Why it fails	What works instead
Treats eczema	Disease-treatment claim, Advertising Law 17	Remove the medical claim; substantiate any cosmetic efficacy claim
Best sunscreen in Japan	Superlative banned outright, Advertising Law 9	The SPF number, and where it was tested
Whitening claim without required registration	General-trade special cosmetics require registration	Resolve product eligibility before promotion; a texture claim does not replace registration
97% of users saw results	Cited data must be true and sourced, Advertising Law 11	The same figure with panel size, date and testing house
Clinically proven, with nothing filed	The evidence summary is public, Regulation 22	The named test, and a pointer to the published summary

How a beauty product actually gets recommended

No brand controls the organic route to scale on Xiaohongshu (小红书). What a brand does control is whether its paid creator work is declared. Since 2023 that has not been optional.

Where goods or services are promoted through knowledge sharing, experience sharing or product reviews with a purchase link attached, the publisher must conspicuously label the content as an advertisement. Source: State Administration for Market Regulation, Internet Advertising Measures (互联网广告管理办法), Order 72, Article 9, in force May 2023. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2023/issue_10506/202306/content_6885261.html

On Xiaohongshu that declaration runs through Pugongying, the platform’s own creator marketplace. It has a price.

Pugongying charges 10% of the deal in standard mode and 20% in the premium mode that adds platform promotion. Source: Niaoge Biji (鸟哥笔记), October 2022. https://www.niaogebiji.com/article-482538-1.html

Check the store’s current category rules and documentary requirements before booking creators. Customs exemptions do not guarantee platform admission. Match the application to the exact product, seller, and trade route.

If your range includes food supplements, review them separately before copying a beauty creator brief. Our health supplement marketing guide explains the product routes and the restrictions on health-food endorsements.

How many KOC posts a launch actually needs

Nobody publishes a benchmark for this. The platform doesn’t release one, and anyone quoting a single national number is guessing.

The number comes out of search coverage. Pick the Chinese phrases a buyer types before choosing. Count how many notes it takes for yours to hold the first screen on each. Multiply. That’s the seeding plan, and it’s arithmetic rather than a rule of thumb.

Launch size	Search terms to own	Notes per term	Where the plan lands
One hero product, one city	3 to 5	4 to 6	Roughly 12 to 30 notes
Full range, national	10 to 15	4 to 6	Roughly 40 to 90 notes
Category claim, sustained	20 or more	6 or more	120 and up, continuing

Treat that as planning arithmetic, not a benchmark. The inputs are yours: your terms, how contested each one is, your budget. Two brands in the same subcategory can land three times apart and both be right.

Creator fees vary with the agreed brief, usage rights, and distribution. Request itemized quotes for the actual scope.

Our Influencer Marketing service page sets out how briefs, declaration and usage rights are handled.

Douyin live commerce: when it pays and when it does not

Douyin (抖音) sells beauty at volume. It also moves the legal risk onto the person doing the talking.

A seller promoting goods through internet livestream, where this amounts to commercial advertising, takes on the duties of an advertiser. Livestream room operators and livestream marketing staff take on the duties of an advertising operator and publisher when commissioned to do so. Source: Internet Advertising Measures, Order 72, Article 19, in force May 2023. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2023/issue_10506/202306/content_6885261.html

That matters more in beauty than anywhere else, because the words that sell on camera are the words Article 17 of the Advertising Law forbids. A host who says a serum treats acne has just made your brand the advertiser behind an illegal claim.

Confirm the account route and current verification requirements before launch. Account verification does not approve the advertising script.

Live commerce pays for beauty brands with three things already in place: a store that can take the order, enough search coverage that viewers who leave can find them again, and a script a lawyer has read. Miss one and a livestream becomes an expensive way to hand traffic to a competitor.

One case does justify going to Douyin first: color cosmetics that demonstrate well on camera, at a price a viewer decides on in ninety seconds. Those sell before they ever build a search footprint. Skincare almost never behaves that way. Our Douyin platform page covers the format in more detail.

What a beauty package includes, and what it costs

Build the business case on growth, not on a boom.

Retail sales of cosmetics grew 5.1% in 2025 across units above the designated size, ahead of total retail growth of 3.7%. Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China (国家统计局), 2025 Statistical Communique, February 2026. https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202602/t20260228_1962662.html

TheRedScroll works on fixed scope and fixed price. Ad spend is billed separately with no markups. Contracts run six months minimum, because search coverage in beauty does not build in eight weeks.

A beauty scope usually draws on four services. Strategy, Campaigns and Analytics for the term research. Content Production for the notes. Influencer Marketing for declared creator work. China Market Entry while the filing and the domestic responsible person are open. Advertising comes later, once there is something worth amplifying.

Three things move a beauty budget more than the retainer does. Creator fees, which scale with the number of terms you decided to own. Efficacy testing, which is a lab invoice and a calendar rather than a marketing line. And translation of the filing dossier, which is slow, boring and always underestimated.

The full rate card sits on our pricing page, every package and per-item rate published. When we checked the market in April 2026, that was still unusual.

0 out of 37 agencies analyzed offer fixed-price packages. Source: TheRedScroll competitive analysis, April 2026.

Scope, timeline and reporting

The commercial process is short. A 30-minute discovery call, a fixed-price proposal, then live in two weeks.

Fourteen days from signed contract to first post going live. Source: TheRedScroll, September 2026. https://www.theredscroll.com/

Two weeks covers accounts, profiles and the first content. It doesn’t cover your product filing, which runs on the regulator’s clock and has to start well before any of this. Reporting is monthly, and it reports search rank by term, declared note performance and store conversion rather than impressions, because impressions in beauty tell you almost nothing.

Book a call

Tell us the product, the filing status and the launch date. We will tell you what is possible on that date, and what is not.