In the "Double Eleven" in 2023, Winona, a subsidiary of Yunnan Bettini, was promoted to Top5, a category of Tmall beauty products, and was ranked as the best brand in history, becoming the only China brand in the top ten of the list for seven consecutive years from 2017 to 2023.
A few days ago, at the 2022 and 2023 Science and Technology Awards and Academic Works Awards Conference of China Ethnic Medicine Association held in Beijing, Dr. Security, the general manager of the R&D Department of Yunnan Baiyao Group, led the compilation and publication of the skin care efficacy of natural plant raw materials, and won the second prize of academic works. At the same time, after polishing for more than two years, a new skin care product-Pill-medicine-separated building soothing essence, which marks a major breakthrough in basic research, will be available in the near future.
Yunnan Baiyao, Betaine, Xicao Resources, Kunming Yuanfang, Panlong Yunhai, in recent years, with the rise of local plant beauty brands, the development of Yunnan beauty industry has entered the fast lane.
The Economic Work Conference of the Provincial Party Committee held in December, 2023 pointed out that Yunnan’s beauty industry has developed rapidly, with an output value close to 15 billion yuan. If a group of leading enterprises are gathered, it is fully qualified to create a "China Green Beauty Valley" with plateau plant characteristics.
Good resource endowment and strong scientific research strength give Yunnan a unique advantage in beauty cosmetics.
The unique green thorn fruit in the cold Liangshan area such as Diqing can repair the damaged skin barrier. Truffle is a high-end ingredient in anti-aging and whitening skin care products, and rose extract can effectively resist oxidation.
With the change of "functional satisfaction and ingredient concern", beauty cosmetics made of plants are favored by consumers and become a new trend in the development of beauty industry.
On March 25th, 2021, Yunnan Betani Biotechnology Group Co., Ltd. was listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with an opening market value exceeding 70 billion yuan, becoming the "first share of cosmeceuticals" in China.
"Yunnan has a unique climate, high altitude, low latitude, large temperature difference, less pollution, high naturalness and purity of plants, and more active ingredients. There are more than 15,000 species of higher plants in the province, accounting for nearly 60% of the national plant species. " Zhao Chunhua, deputy general manager of Yunnan Xicao Resources Development Co., Ltd. introduced. Zhao Chunhua said that rich biological resources are the innate advantage of developing green beauty cosmetics in Yunnan. According to the National Catalogue of Used Cosmetic Raw Materials (2021 Edition), among the 8,965 raw materials used in cosmetics produced and sold in China, there are more than 3,400 kinds of plant raw materials, among which a large number of edible and medicinal plants are used in cosmetics, which has opened up the three-dimensional application of food, medicine and makeup, attracting many plant beauty brands to enter Yunnan one after another. Zhao Chunhua introduced that the functional components of more than 100 endemic plants in Yunnan have been developed and applied only in the resources of western grass.
The advantages of Yunnan’s beauty industry development come from many links in the industrial chain-
Yunnan has a perfect biomedical industrial chain, covering the whole process of research and development, production and sales. At present, the province is continuing to promote the development of biotechnology medicine industry focusing on vaccines, making every effort to build the best quality raw material base of natural medicines, and forming the whole industrial chain development system of natural medicines (traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine) featuring healthy products.
The development and utilization of plant resources in Yunnan has strong scientific research advantages, and has rich professional knowledge and experience in planting Chinese herbal medicines, biotechnology research and development, drug registration and approval, etc. It has a number of excellent scientific research institutes such as Kunming Institute of Botany of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicinal Plants of Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as well as a number of experts and scholars such as Professor Pei Shengji, an advocate of ethnobotany in China and chief scientist of skin care brand of botanists, with strong scientific research strength and fruitful research results. Through Industry-University-Research docking and achievement transformation, innovative products are continuously introduced to meet the diversified needs of the market.
In terms of leading enterprises, Yunnan Baiyao, a well-known trademark in China and a century-old pharmaceutical company, has been consistent since its establishment in 1902, inheriting the exploration, application and innovative research of Chinese medicine plants, and Betaine Winona has become the light of domestic products. A number of enterprises, such as Kunyao Group, watson biological, Bio-Valley and Jianzhijia Biomedical Company, have focused on deciphering the effective components in plants and made every effort to open up the whole industrial chain of green beauty industry.
Photo courtesy of Propaganda Department of Yuxi Municipal Committee of Yuxi watson biological Technology Co., Ltd.
"Herbal skin care is an important source of innovation for national skin care products. Starting from Yunnan’s characteristic plants, finding a skin healing prescription that is more suitable for orientals is an important breakthrough for Yunnan Baiyao to build a world-class brand and compete for a broader market. " Gu Ming, general manager of skin care BU of Yunnan Baiyao Group Co., Ltd., introduced that Yunnan Baiyao complied with the new wave of consumption growth under the background of big health industry, based on the advantages of extraction, efficacy research and proportion of medicinal plants in the group for more than 100 years, and devoted itself to medical research technology to push open the door to the efficacy of medicinal plants to beautify skin.
Betaine, the first brand of functional skin care products in China, took the lead in setting up Yunnan Characteristic Plant Extraction Laboratory in 2021, focusing on the research and development of functional cosmetics, functional foods and medicines with Yunnan Characteristic Plant Extracts as raw materials, developing high value-added plant health products, and realizing 40 independent research and development of functional cosmetics plant raw materials. On November 8, 2023, Betaine Institute held a signing ceremony in Paris with the Skin Research Center of St. Louis Hospital, France, and announced the formal establishment of the French Research Center of Betaine Group, marking the internationalization of the company’s research and development.
After more than 20 years’ development, Xicao Resources has owned a number of national and provincial innovation and development service platforms, such as the public service platform for industrial technology foundation of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the new R&D institutions in Yunnan Province, and the innovation center for raw materials manufacturing of plants and cosmetics in Yunnan Province, and has established cooperative relations with many universities and research institutions, which has strong strength in scientific research and technological research, transformation of scientific and technological achievements, market promotion of products, etc., and has brought strong impetus to product innovation.
Yimei Tianxiang Group has a 2000-mu flower planting base in weichu, which has become the main raw material planting base of Yimei Tianxiang skin care products brand.
Zhen Meiyan’s parent company, Baimai Bio, invested tens of millions of yuan to develop a 1,000-mu flower planting R&D base, and deeply researched and developed high-quality raw materials, making Zhen Meiyan the first "original traceability" flower-based makeup brand in China.
Insiders pointed out that Yunnan’s colorful national culture and folk wisdom in using plants have integrated endemic plants with national culture, adding more story-telling market topics to Yunnan’s plant beauty cosmetics. At the same time, Yunnan’s superior geographical advantages, backed by a strong domestic market with a population of 1.4 billion and a market in South Asia and Southeast Asia with a population of 2.3 billion have laid a solid foundation for the development of Yunnan’s beauty cosmetics.
Leading enterprises demonstrate and promote green "cloud makeup" to enter the "fast lane"
In recent years, domestic beauty brands have risen rapidly, gradually regaining the "home advantage" made in China.
On the basis of characteristic plants and medicinal plants, many local brands have built their own unique brand stories and formed a different brand culture.
As a leading domestic beauty cosmetics enterprise, Bettini’s brand Winona has been rooted in Yunnan for a long time, making full use of the advantages of Yunnan’s characteristic plants and vigorously developing green beauty cosmetics. It has formed a clear brand through Winona, which focuses on sensitive muscles, Winona Baby, a high-end professional anti-aging skin care brand, and Befuting, a professional anti-acne medical brand.
In recent years, Betani has made great efforts. The central factory with an investment of nearly 500 million yuan and an annual output value of 5 billion yuan was completed and put into operation in 2023, attracting upstream and downstream enterprises in relevant industrial chains to settle in, promoting industrial agglomeration and improvement of industrial chains, promoting industrial upgrading and transformation and development, and providing important support for the province to cultivate advantageous biomedical industries.
"In the next step, Betani will continue to focus on the whole process of product R&D, production and sales through raw material advantages, R&D advantages, industrial chain advantages and brand advantages, so that Yunnan brands can enter the country and the world." Zhong Wei, public director and assistant to the chairman of Betani Group, said.
"It is extremely difficult for the skin care industry to be sophisticated. It must have independent intellectual property rights and core technologies. Now the market has strict requirements for the control of the entire industrial chain." Gu Ming said frankly that Yunnan Baiyao took the skin care industry as one of its key strategic layouts, actively integrated resources and made great efforts in basic scientific research. It took five years and invited more than 60 professional scholars to jointly compile a series of books entitled "Collection of Skin Care Efficacy of Natural Plant Raw Materials". Combining the research results, it summarized the basic information, active substances, efficacy and mechanism of more than 1,000 plants. This is the first book to comprehensively explore the application of natural plants in the skin care field and provide it for the whole plant skin care research industry.
Relying on years of rich experience in cultivating Yunyao, in 2007, Yunnan Panlong Yunhai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. began to set foot in the field of cosmetics around the development idea of "internal adjustment and external nutrition, health and beauty" and became the first batch of cosmetics R&D and production enterprises in Yunnan Province. Initiate the concept of "internal adjustment and external cultivation", make full use of the research results and production technology in Yunnan plant resources such as Notoginseng Radix, Dendrobium, Gastrodia elata, establish its own skin care brand "Shiliwei", develop and market more than 40 products, and the product sales cover 20 provinces and cities across the country, providing consumers with a series of detoxification and health care programs from "internal adjustment" drugs, health food and food to "external cultivation".
Wenshan Sanqi provides high-quality raw materials for the beauty industry.
"As a comprehensive institution focusing on the technical research and application of plant extraction health industry, Xicao Resources is based on the advantages of local resources, based on innovative technology research and development, and applies innovative technology to the biological activity research of plant costs, and finally realizes the multi-dimensional application of plant efficacy components in the fields of plant cosmetics and functional foods, providing customers with integrated services from research and development to production, and has achieved gratifying results in scientific research and development and brand building." Zhao Chunhua introduced.
In terms of scientific research and technical research, the company has 23 patents related to plant raw materials. For example, the molecular plant cell fluid prepared by the core patented technology can replace the use of "water" in cosmetics, and can turn the "anhydrous formula" from concept into reality, which has been applied to many plants. At present, Xicao has provided services for more than 300 well-known enterprises and brands, and has its own brand "Hundred Grass Fairy Tales".
The data shows that in 2023, the beauty industry in Yunnan Province achieved an output value of 15 billion yuan, with 12,668 enterprises engaged in the production and sales of cosmetics, and 59 enterprises with cosmetics production licenses, including 43 industrial enterprises above designated size in beauty-related industries.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, through years of development, Yunnan Province has initially built an industrial chain of upstream raw material planting, midstream plant extraction and downstream beauty products manufacturing in the functional beauty industry. The variety of perfume plants in the province ranks first in the country, the total output of flavors and fragrances ranks fourth in the country, and the export volume accounts for 15% of the country. Eucalyptus leaf oil accounts for 98% of the global market share, and major products such as flavors and fragrances, cosmetics, washing products and oral products have been launched, initially forming well-known local leading enterprises and well-known brands.
In the next step, Yunnan Province will focus on "natural plant extraction and plateau characteristic biological application", give full play to the advantages of characteristic plant resources, vigorously develop flavors and fragrances, functional skin care products, washing products and functional toothpaste, accelerate the construction of beauty industry chain, and form an industrial system of raw material planting, plant extraction and substrate raw material auxiliary materials development, cosmetics manufacturing and terminal market development, so as to enhance the comprehensive benefits of industrial operation. By extending the chain and strengthening the chain, we will continue to build the whole beauty industry chain. By 2025, the operating income of the beauty industry will reach 30 billion yuan.
Written by: Yang Yanyan Duan Xiaorui Gao Yue, Duan Yi, Chen Xiaobo.
Original title: It’s time to build "China Green Valley"! Investigation on the development of Yunnan plant beauty industry (I)