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Top 10 Luxury Beauty Brands in China, Ranked by Tmall's Double 11 Sales
Updated 12 min read
On this page
- How the ranking was built
- The top 10 luxury beauty brands in China
- 1. Estée Lauder
- 2. Lancôme
- 3. La Mer
- 4. SK-II
- 5. Clé de Peau Beauté
- 6. YSL Beauty
- 7. Clarins
- 8. Helena Rubinstein
- 9. Guerlain
- 10. Shiseido
- Same brands, different platform: Tmall vs Douyin
- What happened to the 2017 list
- What the ranking tells a brand entering China
- Benchmark your brand against the ten
- Frequently asked questions
This ranking of the top luxury beauty brands in China rests on one published source: the Double 11 (双11) beauty list that Tmall (天猫) published on 12 November 2025. Tmall orders brands by paid sales on its platform from 15 October to 11 November 2025, and marks the data unaudited. Set aside the five Chinese brands, keep those whose owners sell them as luxury, prestige or super-premium lines (plus Clarins, an edge case), and eleven remain. The ten highest placed are led by Estée Lauder (2nd overall) and Lancôme (3rd).
This page first ran in early 2018 as a top 10 for 2017. It promised ten houses, profiled four and named no measure; the section before the closing shows what became of them.
To see where your own brand would sit against these ten, start with our market research for beauty brands in China.
How the ranking was built
The ten brands come from Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, which ranks brands by cumulative paid sales (GMV) on Tmall from 15 October to 11 November 2025. Tmall’s footnote, published on 12 November 2025, calls the data unaudited and for reference only.
Ebrun, a Chinese e-commerce news site, confirmed on 13 November 2025 that Tmall itself released the list. The 2024 and 2023 places come from Pinguan, a trade site, which reproduced Tmall’s lists on 13 November 2024 without platform or brand confirmation.
What counts as luxury here. A brand counts when its owner sells it as a luxury, prestige or super-premium line. That covers the L’Oréal Luxe roster (annual report 2025), Estée Lauder Companies’ luxury and prestige brands (fiscal 2026 results), Shiseido’s Prestige brands and LVMH’s Guerlain. It also covers SK-II, which P&G’s annual report for the year to June 2025 calls “super-premium”. Out: L’Oréal Paris, SkinCeuticals and La Roche-Posay, which sit outside L’Oréal Luxe, and Olay, which P&G files beside SK-II without that label. The five Chinese brands fall outside this page’s scope. Clarins is the edge case, explained in its entry.
Counting Clarins, 11 of the 20 brands on Tmall’s 2025 list qualify. The ten below are the highest placed, and Kiehl’s, 16th, is the eleventh.
We use Double 11 because we could trace Tmall’s beauty list for it across three years; the 618 2026 results cover the mid-year festival. For the all-brand field, see our analysis of the leading cosmetics brands in China and the wider beauty brand analyses in China.
We prefer a platform’s own list to an outside estimate, because the platform counts its own checkout. The price is a view of one platform only, which the section on Douyin (抖音) below makes plain.
The top 10 luxury beauty brands in China
Estée Lauder is the highest-placed luxury brand on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, 2nd overall behind Proya, and Shiseido closes the ten at 15th.
| # | Brand (Chinese name on Tmall’s list) | Owner | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Estée Lauder (雅诗兰黛) | Estée Lauder Companies | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 2 | Lancôme (兰蔻) | L’Oréal Luxe | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | La Mer (海蓝之谜) | Estée Lauder Companies | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| 4 | SK-II | P&G | 7 | 8 | 11 |
| 5 | Clé de Peau Beauté (肌肤之钥) | Shiseido | 10 | 11 | 13 |
| 6 | YSL Beauty (圣罗兰) | L’Oréal Luxe | 11 | 15 | 17 |
| 7 | Clarins (娇韵诗) | Groupe Clarins | 12 | 14 | 12 |
| 8 | Helena Rubinstein (赫莲娜) | L’Oréal Luxe | 13 | 6 | 9 |
| 9 | Guerlain (娇兰) | LVMH | 14 | 12 | 10 |
| 10 | Shiseido (资生堂) | Shiseido | 15 | 17 | 14 |
Tmall Double 11 beauty lists: 2025 published by Tmall on 12 November 2025; 2024 and 2023 as reproduced by Pinguan on 13 November 2024.
1. Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder ranked 2nd on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, behind only the Chinese brand Proya, and up from 4th in both 2024 and 2023. In its fiscal 2026 results (19 August 2026), Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) reported mainland China net sales of $3,058 million across all its brands for the year to 30 June. That was 12% more than a year earlier as reported, 9% organically, and about a fifth of group sales. ELC also says it won “the #1 positions in Prestige Beauty” during the 11.11 and 6.18 festivals, a company claim rather than a platform figure.
On Douyin Mall’s Double 11 2025 skincare list, the brand is 8th. We read Estée Lauder as the clearest growth signal in the ten, because the brand’s Tmall climb and its owner’s China accounts point the same way. More on how Estée Lauder sells online in China.
2. Lancôme
Lancôme ranked 3rd on Tmall’s Double 11 beauty list in 2025, 2024 and 2023, the only one of the ten to hold the same place all three years. The L’Oréal Luxe brand is also the only one of this page’s 2017 picks still in the top five, which the 2017 section takes up. Its deep dive covers how Lancôme built its China business.
3. La Mer
La Mer placed 6th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, after 5th in 2024 and 6th in 2023. It is the second ELC brand in the top six, and ELC’s fiscal 2026 results name it with Estée Lauder and Jo Malone London behind the claimed #1 positions.
4. SK-II
SK-II ranked 7th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, up from 8th in 2024 and 11th in 2023. Alizila, Alibaba’s newsroom, reported on 24 October 2025 that eight beauty brands crossed RMB 100 million within ten minutes of checkout opening. It named SK-II among three premium skincare labels with double-digit growth in the first hour.
P&G’s annual report for the year to June 2025 calls SK-II “super-premium”, priced above its segment average. P&G’s release of 29 July 2026 says its skin care organic sales were unchanged in the April to June quarter. A better product mix, led by SK-II’s growth, was offset by a volume decline in Greater China. More on how SK-II grew in China.
5. Clé de Peau Beauté
Clé de Peau Beauté reached 10th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, up from 11th in 2024 and 13th in 2023. That is its first top-ten place in the three years shown. On its corporate site, Shiseido classes it as a Prestige brand, its term for high-end lines sold mainly through beauty consultants. Alizila’s October 2025 report named it with SK-II and Clarins for double-digit first-hour growth.
6. YSL Beauty
YSL Beauty ranked 11th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, up from 15th in 2024 and 17th in 2023, the biggest climb among the ten since 2024. The brand belongs to L’Oréal Luxe, whose 2025 annual report names Yves Saint Laurent Libre the No. 1 feminine fragrance worldwide. YSL Beauty is missing from Douyin Mall’s list, which covers skincare only, so the gap says little.
7. Clarins
Clarins sits 12th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, after 14th in 2024 and 12th in 2023, and it is this ranking’s stated edge case. Groupe Clarins calls itself “N°1 in premium skincare in Europe” on its corporate site, not a luxury house. We keep it because Alizila’s report of 24 October 2025 grouped Clarins with SK-II and Clé de Peau Beauté as “premium skincare labels”. Without Clarins, Kiehl’s (16th) would take the tenth place.
8. Helena Rubinstein
Helena Rubinstein ranked 13th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, down seven places from 6th in 2024: the largest fall of any brand in the top 20. It was 9th in 2023. On Douyin Mall’s skincare list for the same festival, the L’Oréal Luxe brand ranks 4th, the highest of any luxury name there. The next section sets the two lists side by side.
9. Guerlain
Guerlain came 14th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, down two places a year from 10th in 2023.
From this page’s first edition, January 2018.
LVMH’s January 2026 letter to shareholders says Guerlain’s 2025 was buoyed by new additions to its Aqua Allegoria and L’Art & La Matière fragrance lines. Guerlain is also one of this page’s 2017 picks.
10. Shiseido
Shiseido closes the ten at 15th on Tmall’s Double 11 2025 beauty list, after 17th in 2024 and 14th in 2023. With Clé de Peau Beauté, it gives the Tokyo-based group two Prestige brands in the ten. More on Shiseido’s beauty-device push in China.
Just outside, and left out. Kiehl’s, an L’Oréal Luxe brand, ranked 16th on Tmall’s Double 11 beauty list in 2025, 2024 and 2023: the eleventh luxury name. Outside the definition: L’Oréal Paris (4th), SkinCeuticals (5th), Olay (9th) and La Roche-Posay (17th). The five Chinese brands in the 2025 top 20, per Ebrun on 13 November 2025, are Proya (1st), Winona (8th), Comfy (18th), Chando (19th) and Mao Geping (20th). See China’s homegrown beauty brands.
Same brands, different platform: Tmall vs Douyin
Douyin Mall’s Double 11 2025 skincare list ranks Helena Rubinstein 4th, against 13th on Tmall’s beauty list for the same festival. Chinese brands also take 9 of Douyin’s 20 places, against 5 on Tmall, by the counts of the trade outlets C2CC (12 November 2025) and Ebrun (13 November 2025).
| Brand | Tmall beauty, Double 11 2025 | Douyin skincare, Double 11 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Helena Rubinstein | 13 | 4 |
| Estée Lauder | 2 | 8 |
| Lancôme | 3 | 10 |
| SK-II | 7 | 12 |
| La Mer | 6 | 16 |
| Clé de Peau Beauté | 10 | 18 |
| Shiseido | 15 | 20 |
| First place | Proya | KANS |
| Chinese brands in the top 20 | 5 | 9 |
Both lists as reproduced by C2CC on 12 November 2025; Chinese-brand counts from Ebrun and C2CC.
Seven of the ten luxury brands also make Douyin’s skincare top 20; YSL Beauty, Clarins and Guerlain do not. Douyin also ranks a name absent from Tmall’s top 20: The History of Whoo, LG H&H’s Korean brand, at 9th.
Rafael Nadal won Roland-Garros 14 times and Wimbledon twice, by the tournament’s own count in November 2024. A Tmall rank is a result on one surface, and Douyin is a different surface with different winners.
Not like for like. Tmall’s list covers all beauty from 15 October; Douyin’s covers skincare only from 9 October and is marked preliminary. Both are unaudited and count only their own platform, so counters, brand websites and duty-free shops such as those on Hainan island sit outside both.
We would not judge a luxury brand’s position in China on one platform’s list.
What happened to the 2017 list
Of the four houses this page profiled in early 2018, only Lancôme still sits near the top of Tmall’s beauty list, 3rd three years running. Guerlain slid from 10th in 2023 to 14th in 2025, and Chanel and Dior appear in none of Tmall’s beauty top 20 lists for those three years.
From the 2018 edition of this page.
Each 2017 entry told a lipstick story. The table sets the same four houses against Tmall’s lists.
| House | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lancôme | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Guerlain | 10 | 12 | 14 |
| Chanel | not in top 20 | not in top 20 | not in top 20 |
| Dior | not in top 20 | not in top 20 | not in top 20 |
Sources as for the first table.
Chanel announced a Tmall store in 2019. Alizila reported in July 2019 that it would open a beauty and fragrance flagship there the next month, also on the Tmall Luxury Pavilion launched in 2017. Tmall’s footnote says its list ranks brands taking part in the Double 11 event, and that a place left empty “for special reasons” goes to another brand. So Chanel sold less than the 20th brand, did not take part, or was left off for a reason Tmall does not give.
Dior’s absence reads the same way. LVMH’s January 2026 letter says that in fragrances, Parfums Christian Dior “benefited from the successful launches of Miss Dior Essence and Dior Homme”.
We read the gap this way: the 2017 list measured fame, and the 2025 list measures festival sales on one platform. A house can lead the first and miss the second.
What the ranking tells a brand entering China
The ranking tells a new entrant that Tmall’s beauty top 20 barely moves: 19 of the 20 brands on its Double 11 2025 list were on the 2024 list too. Ebrun named Mao Geping as the only newcomer (13 November 2025), and Pinguan’s tables show one change in 2024 as well, AMIRO out and Elizabeth Arden in.
Ownership is just as concentrated. Six groups hold the eleven luxury places, and L’Oréal Luxe alone holds four: Lancôme, YSL Beauty, Helena Rubinstein and Kiehl’s.
Those groups report a market turning up. L’Oréal’s 2025 annual report says L’Oréal Luxe’s momentum in North Asia accelerated in the second half “as the selective market in China returned to growth”. It also says the division became “the number one player in North Asia”. ELC’s China growth points the same way; P&G’s Greater China skin care volume, noted under SK-II, is the exception. For a luxury brand new to China, we draw three conclusions.
What we would take from it.
- We would not plan on a place in Tmall’s Double 11 top 20 in the first years: the list let in one new name in 2024 and one in 2025.
- Expect rivals whose China business is growing, not retreating.
- We would set Tmall and Douyin targets separately, since one brand ranked 13th on one and 4th on the other in the same festival.
Before planning, read the lessons the top 10 cosmetics brands hold for new entrants and how luxury beauty brands market in China. The size of the high-end segment and why Chinese consumers buy luxury cosmetics are covered separately.
Benchmark your brand against the ten
Two findings should shape any benchmark: Tmall’s top 20 changed by one name in each of 2024 and 2025, and Tmall and Douyin rank the same brands far apart. Two brands in this ranking, Lancôme and YSL Beauty, are among our published case studies. To map the competitors and channels your brand would face, see how our China market research works. Get in touch to talk it through.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official ranking of luxury beauty sales in China?
Not a market-wide one, in the sources we checked. Platforms publish festival lists with their own windows and caveats: Tmall marks its Double 11 2025 list unaudited, and Douyin Mall marks its list preliminary. The owners we checked report China only as a market or a region, never brand by brand, as in the mainland China line of Estée Lauder Companies' fiscal 2026 results.
Which Asian luxury beauty brands rank highest in China?
On Tmall's Double 11 2025 beauty list, the highest Asian luxury names are Japanese: P&G's SK-II at 7th, then Shiseido's Clé de Peau Beauté at 10th and Shiseido at 15th. No Korean brand made Tmall's top 20; the best-placed Korean name is The History of Whoo, 9th on Douyin Mall's skincare list. See Japanese beauty brands in China and Korean beauty in China.
Are there Chinese luxury beauty brands in these rankings?
Proya has topped Tmall's Double 11 beauty list in 2023, 2024 and 2025, but this ranking covers international houses only. Mao Geping, another Chinese brand, entered Tmall's top 20 in 2025, as Ebrun reported on 13 November 2025. For Chinese labels sold as luxury, see our guide to local luxury labels and premium beauty and fragrance in China.
How often does Tmall publish these rankings?
A full-period beauty list follows each Double 11; the 2025 one came out on 12 November 2025. The counting window moves: as Pinguan reproduced them, the 2023 and 2024 windows opened on 31 October and 21 October, against 15 October in 2025. This page moves to the 2026 list once Tmall publishes it, and what changes for Double 11 2026 is covered separately.
