Made in China

Gone are the days when these three words implied plastic and mass-produced goods. Instead, many Western cosmetic companies are looking to the East for inspiration.

By Jonathan Ford, Pearlfisher

The West has always looked to the East as leaders in technology and innovation and, in recent years, the fortunes of the European high street have been bolstered by the influx of Eastern retail outlets. For instance, fusion food has had an enormous impact on the tastes and dining styles of Westerners, and Chinese medicine is now readily available alongside traditional Western practices. But, as the Beijing Olympics draw closer and the two cultures are brought together more formally, we look at what the cultural diffusion—or fusion—could mean for the cosmetics sector.
  
Historically, the West has embraced the kitsch and kooky fashion and cosmetic brands of the East, such as Hello Kitty, while luxury premium brand Chanel routinely leads the top five brands of choice lists in the East. So, will the prestige of Western brands become diluted? Or will the Olympics act as a catalyst for Eastern beauty to influence this marketplace and for Eastern beauty brands to grow in the West?

Geisha Glam

In the past couple of years, changes on both a macro and a micro level have started to blend the influence of these two cultures and paved the way for a potential cross-cultural cosmetics explosion. On a macro level, sleek and sexy Japanese brands, such as Shiseido and Shu Uemura, have become highly desirable and found greater prominence on European beauty shelves. We have also seen the more traditional Japanese brands, such as Suqqu, successfully entering the UK market. Meanwhile, global brand giant L’Oréal bought the leading Chinese cosmetic brand Yue-Sai and the leading skin care brand Mininurse and gave Yue-Sai a premium revamp in 2006 to give the Chinese what they were looking for from luxury Western brands.
  

Will Hanae Mori's Magical Moon match the success of her Butterfly fragrance?

We must also pay attention to the influence of celebrities and the movies and remember that movies are the bible of beauty due to their undisputed global reach. In this context, Western beauty is no longer the unrivaled archetype. Shiseido formerly engaged Angelina Jolie as its brand face, presumably for the universal appeal factor. However, very recently it has also engaged the services of leading Chinese actress Miriam Yeung as global ambassador and campaign face.
  
Following the success of the film Memoirs of a Geisha, geisha glamour is being fêted in current beauty advertising, such as Max Factor’s Masterpiece Mascara and NARS’ Kabuki brush collection, drawing on the makeup ritual of the geishas to produce a flawless finish.

Tasty Take-aways

Similarly on a micro level, there is a significant melding of cultures on-shelf. What is happening with packaging has the potential to precipitate an even greater change to our beauty landscape. Vera Wang, Kenzo and Comme des Garcons have always been big names in the fragrance sector although their fragrances are probably seen as more classic and cosmopolitan rather than having the heritage of the East. But there is a new wave of Japanese individuals fronting fashion and fragrance brands that are becoming hotly sought after; names such as Hanae Mori and Masaki Matsushima.
  
Hanae Mori’s fashion blends East and West, and fragrance experts around the world covet and respect her fragrant creations–each a work of art from the bottle to the scent. It remains to be seen whether her new exquisite Magical Moon with a glass moon stopper can match the sensational Hanae Mori Butterfly with its unique glass butterfly closure. Masaki Matsushima is known for blending Japanese traditions and modernist trends: geometric bottles with a gamut of exotic notes. Mintea blends green and white teas–with overtones of traditional Japanese tea ceremonies–with a novel and post-modern puzzle-piece bottle.
  

L'Occitane's Cherry Blossom Collection is fresh and stylish.

These fragrance brands blend Eastern ingredients and ritual with striking and unique packaging design, and we are now starting to see not just Western fragrance brands following their lead, but Western skin care and cosmetic brands looking to the other side of the world for inspiration and innovation. Beauty entrepreneur Dame Anita Roddick was probably one of the first to bring an Eastern influence to Europe with her Body Shop blotting papers and unbelievably successful Adzuki Cleansing Grains, but how are today’s brands communicating an Eastern flavor through their packaging design?
  
There seems to be something of a dichotomy within the marketplace. On one hand we have Lancôme, that presented us with its stylish, but slightly gimmicky, Kohl Oriental Duo Eyeliner: two liners in one pencil in the shape of a chopstick. There is also the well-publicized launch this Fall of Gwen Stefani’s homage to Tokyo’s famous Harajuku girls with her collection of fragrance-filled, oriental pop figurines representing her and her backup singers, Harajuku Lovers. These offerings undoubtedly pay tribute to Chinese/Japanese iconography, but are obvious attempts to jump on the Eastern bandwagon.
  
More notable is the subtle transference and blending of Eastern and Western motifs and design cues in product and packaging. For example, the cherry blossom (Sakura), which is revered as the national flower of Japan and the ultimate Eastern symbol of natural beauty, is featured in many new fragrance and skin care products in the West. The packaging for L’Occitane’s Cherry Blossom Collection is fresh and stylish. It simply uses the very recognizable outline of a cherry blossom branch embossed into the bottles that comprise the collection. The Western world is buying into a more holistic approach to beauty and has realized that the East was there first, so we are now capitalizing on their simple, natural and Zen approach to beauty and its visual representation. As a result, we may see more brands adopting this approach as Eastern, and particularly Chinese, culture becomes even more front of mind in the coming months.
  

Shu Uemura's packaging for hair products is inspiring.

It is looking more likely that rather than diluting the Western luxury market, Western brands will follow the example of many Eastern brands, which are beautiful in their simplicity of their design. And, alongside this, that the East will start to explore its own premium beauty market and maybe inject our shelves with a more premium offer that is different from anything we’ve seen before. You cannot fail to be inspired by two of Shu Uemura’s new products. The Art of Hair range, and in particular the Illuminating Shampoo, with its sleek and polished packaging (a bright red glass bottle) looks more like a premium drink than a shampoo and is a very striking category disrupter. The brand has also just
launched its new Spring Mode Make-up Collection. The Rebirth Collection Tri-Color Eye Pencil has a revolutionary design with a clean, user-friendly and ingeniously designed stacked eyeliner and shadow pencil offering three shades in a beautifully neat and sleek applicator.
  
China has been able to learn directly from neighboring Japan and also from the West and now in these times of change, Chinese brands can dare to be bold. The West needs to watch its back. We should no longer expect a very obvious plastic, mass, one-size-fits-all, Made in China stamped offer, but a focus on premium products and beautiful, different designs.
  
It may be the Year of the Rat but it could also be the Year of the Chinese beauty brand.

About the Author
Jonathan Ford is creative partner of Pearlfisher, a future-focused design consultancy in New York and London. More info: [email protected].