Skintelligence: how China’s growing trend is influencing skincare

 This is thanks, in part, to the rise in consumer interest toward ingredient intelligence. In China, this growing “skintelligence” has led to an increase in demand for skin care and personal care products that have transparent branding toward their ingredients, utilize high-quality ingredients, and aim to educate the user rather than convince them that product will garner a specific result.

Defining skintelligence and skintillectualism

Skintelligence—or, “skintillectualism”—has led to a change in the way global consumers find new products, and companies are having to adjust to that change in order to gain consumer trust. Where skin care companies used to advertise and market their products according to function (anti-aging, moisturizing, or brightening, for example), they now have to focus on marketing to consumers that know exactly what they’re looking for. 

Part of this is due to the ease of access to information that the internet provides. Consumers are now able to find virtually any information they want online, and they know that they don’t have to look too far to find out how they can compare a silicone-based hydrator to a natural hyaluronic acid. This rise in ingredient awareness has helped convince consumers that splurging on a more expensive product will often pay off in different ways, especially if it means that skin care companies with cheaper products cut corners on ingredient quality in order to offer the product at a lower price. 

At one point, a consumer was more likely to purchase a product that advertised using buzzwords like “elixir.” Now, however, those same consumers are less likely to purchase a product that does not use transparency in its advertising, particularly in China. Today, companies such as Deciem, makers of the affordable but transparent skin care line “The Ordinary,” have been able to profit off of those ingredient-savvy consumers in ways they were never able to before. 

This is all, of course, targeting a younger demographic. Deciem, which is also owned by the same umbrella company that owns consumer-facing brands such as Estée Lauder and Clinique, is one of the corporation’s more affordable lines. The brand caters specifically to young skintillectuals that want to feel as if they’re in control of the skin care ingredients they put on their face and body. This allows consumers to custom create a skin care routine based on their needs, rather than buying a couple of products from one company that promises to address a lot of issues without explaining how.

Modern consumer trends in personal care

The modern consumer, instead, might have two cleansers, an anti-aging toner, a couple of different serums, a moisturizer, a hydrator, something to address blemishes, a brightening product, a primer, and an SPF. This means that skin care companies may have to invest in higher quality ingredients and the creation of multiple products, but have the advantage of being able to sell a variety of products to the same consumer—often for high price tags.

The French luxury skin care company L’Occitane, for example, has a couple of different product lines that use the traditional strategy of using words like “anti-aging” and “perfecting” to describe its product uses. Each product line features a handful of products that range from eye creams to moisturizers, but all address essentially the same concern within each line. Herbivore, on the other hand, might attract a young consumer in the same price range looking for products that contain specific ingredients. Both brands offer similar products, but skintelligent consumers are more likely to buy an anti-aging facial oil from Herbivore that advertises its active ingredient (bakuchiol, in this case), than an anti-aging facial oil from L’Occitane simply because L’Occitane is less transparent about its active ingredients, regardless of the price.