Bloggers touting makeup secrets spur Estee Lauder’s China sales

BEIJING (June 1): Chinese millennials are becoming the world’s biggest beauty queens, thanks to the power of the internet.

Makeup and grooming tips proffered by popular lifestyle bloggers are inspiring women in their late teens to early 30s to splurge 585 yuan ($119) on a Tom Ford lipstick and 1,350 yuan on an 8-gram compact of La Mer’s illuminating foundation powder online. That demand helped drive a 20% jump in Estee Lauder Cos.’s sales in China in the quarter through March, making it the New York-based group’s fastest-growing cosmetics market.

“In the past, Chinese women didn’t put on foundation, mascara, and eye shadow,” said Fabrice Weber, Estee Lauder’s Asia-Pacific president, in an interview in Hong Kong. “Today, it’s perfectly OK. Millennials are completely uninhibited to think ‘I need to look stunning.’”

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