China’s top 10 selling cosmetics brands have been revealed.

A report by Kantar Worldpanel concludes the beauty market remains buoyant in China over the first half of 2016 with brands battling it out for market share.

The cosmetics sector is a major driver of growth in the FMCG market in China. The skincare and colour make-up sector grew by 12 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in the year to June 2016, far higher than the overall 3.1 per cent growth rate of the total FMCG industry.

Kantar says the value growth is due to Chinese consumers becoming more sophisticated in their selection of beauty products, migrating to premium products.

This also presents brand new opportunities to both international and domestic players.

In its 2016 Cosmetics Brand Footprint ranking, Kantar Worldpanel reveals the top 10 best-selling brands in China.

Dabao leads the ranking with 23.1 per cent of the population choice, on average twice a year, meaning Dabao products were put into shoppers baskets 76.7 million times during the year.

Pechoin occupies second place and was the fastest riser in terms of consumer touch points, adding more than 3.6 million families to its brand over the last 12 months.

The next eight places are revealed in the chart below.

Despite strong growth, China’s cosmetics market remains incredibly competitive.

Of the 4000 brands tracked by Kantar Worldpanel, only 40 per cent of them saw an increase in net sales.

Amongst the top 20 growing brands in the market, a rise in penetration contributed 78 per cent to their collective growth, proving that the continual recruitment of shoppers is the key way to grow sales.

“Consumers today have unprecedented choices available to them thanks to overseas travel and eCommerce, yet the growth of Chinese brands and Korean/Japanese brands are noticeable,” said Jason Yu, GM at Kantar Worldpanel.

Brands who advocate health, efficacy and fun are winning consumers’ choices, on the back of unique product and marketing innovation as well as smart Omni-Channel deployment.

Other key conclusions from the Kantar Worldpanel study include:

• Premiumisation drove 82 per cent of the market’s total growth.

• Essence will be the next star segment – products at different price points with different functions are appealing to young consumers.

• There is still significant potential to drive trials of colour cosmetics, and cushion is becoming the point of market entry.

• Consumers are embracing natural and safe product concepts.