Consumer China

Cosmetics: saving face

  • Published 04 Mar 2010

Urban middle class women helped cosmetics sales grow 17% last year to Rmb 137bn, lead predominantly by skincare products.

Chairman Mao once said women should "hold up half the sky". But when it comes to consumer spending decisions, they are exceeding their quota. Measure after measure shows China's women as the prime driver of consumerism – and it is this willingness to spend that makes the cosmetics sector a perennial outperformer in China's retail universe.