More than a year has passed since the outbreak of the epidemic and people have become accustomed to wearing masks. Under that guise, however, even the most vain of feminine beauties have reduced their lipstick use. How has the industry survived?
A couple of weekends ago, two ladies, a Ms. Zhang and a Ms. Dai, both citizens of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, went to the theatre to watch a performance. The two beauties met at the entrance, wearing full make up except for face masks. Taking off their masks, they found that neither of them had put on lipstick.
They are not alone. Overall, the sales volume for lipstick in China over the past year is approximately half that of the same period previously, reports Red Star News.
But there remains the desire to be beautiful, even if much of the face is obscured. Consumers’ attention has shifted from lips to the parts still exposed, such as the eyes. As a result, sales of other make-up products, particularly those for eyes, have rocketed.
An unnamed business manager at a cosmetics company in Guangzhou said, “It’s just that the single product of lipstick has declined, but last year’s eye-makeup products have performed well, such as eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, and eye shadow. These are all selling very well”.
For this company, having inventory across the whole range of make-up products has saved the firm from great financial difficulty. Others have been less fortunate.
Another, smaller make-up company based in the capital of Guangdong Province has lipstick as its primary offering. The face-mask phenomenon was for them very bad news indeed.
A salesman at the company estimated that their lipstick sales fell by about 40 percent last year. “On the one hand, it was affected by the domestic market. On the other, some of the products in the first half of last year could not be exported, but they recovered in the second half of the year. The foreign market is not so good either”, he said.
Generally speaking, the salary of sales managers in the make-up world is calculated based on order volumes. The salesman said that his salary last year was almost cut in half.
Lipstick Relegated to Become a Mere Gift
Some retailers are not even bothering to give lipsticks shelf space any more. Instead, all other make-up products have been given priority, together with skin-care products. For them, lipsticks are now basically gifts.
On the whole, the industry appears to be almost unchanged. At one of the many major cosmetics counters in the Chunxi Lu business district of Chengdu, a staff member said, “We are not much affected. There are still many people who buy [make-up products]. Our highlighters, foundations, and make-up sprays are all very popular”.
