Top 10 Chinese Beauty Brands · H1 2026 Ranking Shifts

With the release of Yixian E-commerce's semi-annual report on the evening of September 2, all domestic beauty listed companies have unveiled their H1 2026 results.

Qingyan has compiled the TOP10 list of Chinese beauty enterprises for the first half of 2026 based on disclosed public financial data.

Amidst intensifying competition, the ranking has seen major changes compared with the past, with each of the top ten players showing a "catch-up" momentum.

So, which companies led the industry in the first half of this year?

7 up, 3 down

According to Qingyan's analysis, the total revenue of the top ten Chinese beauty companies in H1 2026 reached RMB 28.312 billion, almost flat compared with RMB 28.304 billion in the same period of 2025.

In terms of revenue growth, 7 companies recorded positive growth, while only Shangmei, Giant Bio and Marubi saw single-digit declines.

Among them, Linqingxuan and Mao Geping both grew by more than 20%, with the former up 42.6% and the latter 26.24%.

In addition, Freda achieved double-digit growth of 17.57%.

The other companies that recorded revenue growth all posted increases of less than 10%.

In terms of ranking, Proya remains the **** Chinese beauty company, and it is the only Chinese cosmetics company with revenue exceeding RMB 5 billion in H1 2026.

In H1 2026, there were 3 companies with revenue in the RMB 3-4 billion range: Shanghai Jahwa, Shangmei and Mao Geping;

another 3 companies had revenue between RMB 2-3 billion: Giant Bio, Betnie and Yixian E-commerce.

Marubi, Linqingxuan and Freda all had revenue below RMB 2 billion.

In terms of net profit attributable to shareholders, only Proya exceeded RMB 1 billion, reaching RMB 1.168 billion.

Giant Bio and Mao Geping ranked 2nd and 3rd with net profits of RMB 940 million and RMB 805 million respectively.

The remaining 7 companies all had net profits below RMB 500 million.

Yixian E-commerce remained the only loss-making company, with a net loss of RMB 151 million in H1 2026.

Overall, 5 of the top ten companies recorded growth in net profit, with Proya, Shanghai Jahwa and Linqingxuan posting growth rates above 40% (46.26%, 43.35% and 40.7% respectively).

In addition, Mao Geping and Betnie recorded net profit growth of 20.26% and 18.3% respectively.

However, Shangmei, Giant Bio and Marubi saw their net profits decline to varying degrees.

It should be noted that Aqua (formerly S'Young) has long adopted a "dual-drive" business model of own brands and agency brands.

In addition to its own brands such as Yumeijing, Xiaomihu, Huayaohua, EviDenS, RéVive and PIER AUGÉ, it also represents a number of Johnson & Johnson brands.

Aqua rarely disclosed its own-brand performance in the past, so it was frequently listed in the top ten based on overall revenue.

In H1 2026, Aqua disclosed that its own-brand revenue was RMB 1.148 billion.

Therefore, based on its own brands only, the company did not make the top ten list this time.

Chando (natural hall) is in the process of applying for a Hong Kong IPO. The group once ranked among the top ten in 2025 with annual revenue of RMB 5.318 billion (see Qingyan article "Latest! Top 10 Chinese Beauty Companies Shake Up").

However, as of now, Chando has not updated its prospectus, and its H1 2026 performance has not been disclosed, so it is also not included in this ranking.

Another Chinese beauty company, Fuerjia, reported revenue of RMB 1.156 billion in H1 2026, up 33.95% year-on-year, but still lower than Freda (10th place), thus missing the top ten.

Huaxi Bio (only counting skin science innovation and transformation business) recorded revenue of RMB 448 million in H1 2026, falling out of the top ten.

Fierce competition, rankings shift

China's beauty market is facing a cyclical challenge of growth gear-shifting.

How to navigate the cycle and sustain upward momentum is undoubtedly a deep test of a company's comprehensive operational capabilities.

Qingyan found that the top ten rankings in the first half of the past three years have changed significantly, with new entrants and dropouts, reflecting the intense competition.

Specifically, the top 3 positions have been firmly occupied by Proya, Shangmei and Shanghai Jahwa.

Proya remains ****;

in H1 2024 and H1 2025, Shangmei slightly outperformed Shanghai Jahwa to rank second, but in H1 2026, Shanghai Jahwa overtook Shangmei by a small margin to move up to second place.

Betnie, which ranked 4th in H1 2024, saw its ranking fluctuate, dropping to 7th in H1 2025 and rising to 6th in H1 2026.

Giant Bio has been hovering around 4th and 5th place. It maintained high growth in H1 2024 and H1 2025, but saw a slight decline of 6.26% in H1 2026.

Mao Geping rose one spot from a year ago to rank 4th.

It is worth noting that Linqingxuan made its debut in the top ten, ranking 9th.

The company went public on December 30, 2025, and凭借 good growth momentum became a "new player" in the top ten.

Freda has been relatively stable, always ranking 10th over the past three years.

As mentioned above, Aqua was not included due to a change in statistical口径; it had steadily ranked 6th in H1 2024 and H1 2025, but with only its own brands counted, it missed the list this year.

Huaxi Bio, due to a continuous decline in performance, only ranked 8th in H1 2024 and never returned to the list.

Overall, the competitive landscape of the top ten Chinese beauty companies has changed considerably in recent years, with some high-growth companies gradually fading and others seizing opportunities to rebound.

RMB 1 billion: new threshold for brand top 10

At the brand level, Qingyan further ranked the brands of listed Chinese beauty companies.

The top ten Chinese beauty brands are: Proya, Hanse, Kefumei, Winona, Linqingxuan, Marubi, Fuerjia (cosmetics business only), Yilian, Yiyé and Carst.

In terms of parent companies, 90% of the brands come from the top ten companies, with only Fuerjia coming from Fuerjia Group, which did not make the top ten.

Notably, Proya has two brands on the list (Proya and Carst); Shangmei also has two brands (Hanse and Yiyé).

Most of these ten brands are core brands of their respective companies. Among them, Linqingxuan, Kefumei, Hanse, Winona, Marubi and Fuerjia each contribute more than 70% of their parent company's revenue.

Interestingly, among the top ten brands, only Yiyé and Carst account for less than 20% of their parent company's revenue, but their inclusion still shows that Shangmei and Proya's second growth curve brands have gained traction.

Overall, all top ten Chinese beauty brands exceeded RMB 500 million in revenue in H1 2026.

For example, Carst, ranked 10th, achieved revenue of RMB 551 million in H1 2026.

Among these ten brands, only three exceeded RMB 2 billion: Proya, Hanse and Kefumei.

Moreover, only Proya brand exceeded RMB 3 billion, reaching RMB 3.692 billion, a clear lead.

It is worth noting that based on Carst's H1 2026 revenue of RMB 551 million, the annual revenue threshold for the top ten brands is likely to exceed RMB 1 billion.

In addition, among the ten brands, 6 achieved revenue growth in H1 2026, while 4 recorded declines.

Yiyé had the highest growth rate of 59.9%.

Linqingxuan and Fuerjia also grew by more than 30%, at 42.6% and 34.22% respectively.

It should be noted that companies such as Shanghai Jahwa, Mao Geping and Yixian E-commerce did not disclose brand-level revenue in their H1 2026 reports, so they could not be ranked.

It is also worth mentioning that Mao Geping disclosed in its H1 2024 report that its MAOGEPING brand accounted for 99.3% of revenue, and in H1 2026 it also stated that MAOGEPING contributed the majority of its sales.

Therefore, based on Mao Geping's H1 2026 revenue, the MAOGEPING brand is estimated to have generated around RMB 3.2 billion in the first half.

As we all know, with the changing economic cycle and the fading of traffic dividends, the domestic beauty market has entered a new growth dilemma.

As a result, many companies are actively seeking a second growth curve beyond their main brand, and building a multi-brand matrix has become a consensus among leading beauty groups.

Currently, industry leaders such as Proya and Shangmei have already formed a second growth curve after years of development.

Following this correct path, more and more companies are also starting to act.

For example, Linqingxuan, while consolidating its main brand, has begun to build multiple sub-brands: Huarongzhuang (community beauty services), Xiaoxinxuan (teenage skincare), Moqi (men's skincare), and Shaohua (CS channel).

In addition, Shangmei publicly stated that in the second half of 2026, it will launch several new brands including Hello Kitty, Light Guardian and Cui Yutao to further enrich its brand matrix.

Proya has also acquired a majority stake in Hua Zhixiao (Flower Knows).

It is foreseeable that with the implementation and maturity of the multi-brand matrix strategy of the top ten companies, competition among Chinese beauty brands will become more intense on the one hand, and the Chinese beauty market is expected to present a new pattern of flourishing diversity on the other.

Notes:

1. The top ten list only includes listed companies;

2. IPO companies such as Chando have not disclosed the latest financial information and are therefore not included.

This article is from WeChat public account “Qingyan”, author: Congbai, republished with permission from 36kr.