China Beauty and HPC "April monthly: We expect premium brand strength to..."

Research evidence excerpt

China Beauty and HPC "April monthly: We expect premium brand strength to..."

Global Research

19 May 2026ab

China Beauty and HPC Equities

ChinaApril monthly: We expect premium brand

strength to continue; all eyes on pricing Cosmetics

Ingrid Zhang

Analyst

ingrid.zhang@ubs.com

April sales rose 4.7% YoY, outperforming overall retail sales growth +86-21-3866 8853

China cosmetics sales posted 4.7% YoY growth in April, outpacing total retail sales Xin Chen

growth of 0.2%. 4M26 China cosmetics sales totalled Rmb154.2bn, up 5.6% YoY (vs. Analyst

total retail sales growth of 1.9% YoY). Looking at the 2023-26 CAGR, cosmetics sales S1460511050002

remained stable compared with 1Q (5.7% as of April vs. 5.4% as of 1Q), whereas total xin.chen@ubs.com

retail sales slowed 1.4ppt (2.2% as of April vs. 3.6% as of 1Q). We attribute the +86-21-3866 8864

outperformance to continued premium beauty brand strength. According to Beauty in Jaehyung Choi

Sight, in April: 1) Tmall beauty sales came in at Rmb 9.5bn, down 8.7% (skincare - Analyst

13.4%/makeup +0.2%), while only two local brands were among the top 10. 2) Douyin jaehyung.choi@ubs.com

beauty sales came in at Rmb20.9bn, up 19.3% (skincare +10.4%/makeup +c40%), +82-2-3702 8172

with eight local brands among the top 10. Douyin 6/18 presales kicked off on 15 May; Beini Du

First day premium brand performance further improved compared with the same Associate

periods in 2025 and 2024. S1460525090002

betty-za.du@ubs.com

Read-through from 1Q results of global beauty MNCs +86-213-866 8753

In 1Q26, China business was positive for global MNCs, in line with our expectation. It

was mainly helped by outperformance of premium/dermatological beauty brands and

Hainan travel retail sales. For example, L'Oreal's mainland China sales growth