2025 is already more than halfway through, and the global beauty landscape has quietly shifted.
On the evening of August 20, with the release of the latest financial reports from Estée Lauder and Coty, all publicly listed global beauty groups have now delivered their results for the first half of 2025 (January–June). Based on the disclosed public financial data, CHAILEEDO has compiled the global top 10 beauty companies ranking for the first half of this year.
So, in today’s sluggish consumer environment, where many companies are voicing challenges, which ones have withstood the pressure of economic downturn? And which have found themselves struggling under performance headwinds? What new dynamics are emerging in the global beauty market?
Top 10 Global Beauty Companies: 7 Declined
According to CHAILEEDO’s statistics, after excluding non-cosmetics businesses, the global top 10 beauty companies ranking for the first half of 2025 has seen new changes. Overall, from January to June 2025, the combined sales of the top 10 global beauty companies reached about 560 billion yuan, down 11.917 billion yuan from 571.917 billion yuan in the same period of 2024, representing a year-on-year decline of 2.08 percentage points.
In terms of ranking, L’Oréal remains the world’s largest beauty group, taking a commanding lead with sales of 187.744 billion yuan—about 79.1 billion yuan higher than second-place Unilever, which recorded sales of 108.605 billion yuan.
Among the top 10, only L’Oréal and Unilever surpassed 100 billion yuan in sales. Below this threshold, only Procter & Gamble crossed the 50 billion yuan mark with 51.808 billion yuan, while Estée Lauder Group’s sales were close to 50 billion yuan. The remaining six companies—Beiersdorf, LVMH, Kao, Shiseido, Puig, and Coty—each reported sales under 40 billion yuan.
Looking at performance growth, out of the 10 companies, only L’Oréal and Puig achieved steady increases of 6.5% and 7.6% respectively, while Beiersdorf remained nearly flat compared to last year. The other seven companies all recorded varying degrees of sales decline. Estée Lauder posted the sharpest drop (-10.87%), followed by Shiseido (-7.61%) and Coty (-7.18%). The mildest decline came from Unilever, which slipped just 0.07%.
It is worth noting that since Puig “defeated” Brazilian beauty group Natura&Co in the first half of last year to enter the global top 10, it has remained firmly on the list. In the first half of this year, thanks to its strong growth, Puig further climbed to 9th place.
However, Puig’s growth stands out as an exception. Under the weight of economic headwinds, most international beauty companies were unable to withstand the pressure.
“Top Tier” Stable, “Middle Tier” Chaotic, New Forces Rising
CHAILEEDO reviewed the global top 10 beauty company rankings for the first half of the past five years and found that the global beauty market exhibits the characteristics of “top tier stability, middle tier turmoil, and emerging new forces.”
Looking at the ranked companies, the “top camp remains unshakable.” From the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2025, the top four spots have been largely occupied by L’Oréal, Unilever, Estée Lauder, and Procter & Gamble.
Among them, L’Oréal and Unilever have consistently held the first and second positions, becoming the undisputed “evergreens” of the global beauty market. In the first half of this year, Estée Lauder, which had consistently held third place from the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2024, fell to fourth, overtaken by Procter & Gamble. However, the revenue gap between the two remains relatively small.
Natura&Co, which ranked fifth in the first halves of 2021 and 2022, has been replaced by Beiersdorf over the past three years. Its ranking has continued to decline, and by the first half of 2024, it fell out of the top 10.
Shiseido is another company showing a “continuous decline” in ranking. In the first half of 2021, the group was sixth on the list, then gradually fell to eighth in the first half of 2024, maintaining this position into this year.
Meanwhile, as a “gatekeeper” in the top 10 list, Coty’s situation is clearly more difficult. Its ranking has remained near the bottom of the list, and its performance continued to decline in the first half of this year.
It is worth noting that outside the top 10, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, which owns brands such as CeraVe, achieved $2.448 billion (approximately 17.561 billion yuan) in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 12.2%, nearly matching Coty’s $2.551 billion (approximately 18.299 billion yuan).
Financial reports show that GlaxoSmithKline’s two main business segments—daily skincare and aesthetic injectables—both performed strongly. Its daily skincare business grew 7.7% year-on-year to $719 million (approximately 5.161 billion yuan), marking three consecutive years of growth. Currently, GlaxoSmithKline has raised its full-year growth forecast from the previous 10%-12% to 12%-14%. If it maintains this growth rate, it is likely to enter the global top 10 beauty companies in the coming years.
Additionally, due to its high proportion of oral care, Colgate-Palmolive does not appear in the global top 10 cosmetics ranking when considering only personal care. Colgate’s beauty and personal care business is mainly concentrated in oral, personal, and home care. Based on the previous annual report, estimating about 20% of its total business from personal care, Colgate’s personal care sales for the first half of this year reached approximately $1.549 billion (around 11.117 billion yuan), insufficient to make the list.
Chinese Market Begins to Heat Up
Another point of interest is that in recent years, due to weak consumption in China, international beauty groups have generally experienced a slowdown in the Chinese market. As a result, many companies have openly “called out” China, citing “underperforming results.”
For example, in the first half of this year, among Shiseido’s five global regions, the largest sales decline occurred in its China Travel Retail segment, where revenue reached 8.476 billion yuan, down 12.4% year-on-year. Shiseido has repeatedly mentioned the impact of weak China travel retail performance on its overall results, stating, “In travel retail (cosmetics and fragrance sales in airports and downtown duty-free stores), due to low consumer spending by Chinese tourists, both Hainan Island in China and the South Korea region are facing a severe situation, with a noticeable drop in revenue.”
Estée Lauder also noted in its financial report that net sales in mainland China declined by a low single-digit percentage, primarily due to an overall weak retail environment, including subdued consumer sentiment. The report shows that Estée Lauder’s China market sales fell by 6% in FY2025.
In addition, in the first half of this year, among L’Oréal’s five global regions, only the North Asia region—including China—experienced a year-on-year decline of 1.1%, while the other four regions all achieved positive growth. L’Oréal also indicated that excluding travel retail, the North Asia region still posted slight positive growth.
Meanwhile, second-ranked Unilever reported that in the first half of this year, revenues in the Asia-Pacific and Africa markets declined 4.5% year-on-year. Within China, core sales showed a downward trend, reflecting continued weakness across categories.
However, there is a glimmer of hope. Several companies reported that since Q2 2025, the Chinese market has shown clear signs of recovery.
For instance, L’Oréal noted that after adjustments, the mainland China market grew by about 3% in Q2, reversing the slight decline seen in Q1.
Puig, which recorded the highest sales growth in H1 2025, also reported that in Q2, APAC performance—including China—accelerated significantly, generating €123 million (approximately 1.027 billion yuan) in revenue, up 19.5% year-on-year. This strong performance was largely driven by robust growth in South Korea and Japan, while Charlotte Tilbury boosted overall regional results through strengthened localized marketing in Australia and China.
Procter & Gamble reported that in Q4 FY2025 (April–June 2025), organic sales of skincare products in mainland China grew. CHAILEEDO intelligence data also indicates that SK-II performed strongly in the Chinese market during this quarter.
Estée Lauder expressed optimism for the second half of the year in mainland China, expecting the market to return to low single-digit growth in FY2026 (July 2025–June 2026). Notably, its high-end brand La Mer has already achieved double-digit organic sales growth in China for two consecutive fiscal quarters.
It is therefore foreseeable that as the Chinese market gradually heats up, international beauty companies will continue to expand their presence. In its latest report, Estée Lauder also stated that starting FY2026, it will separately disclose performance in mainland China, reflecting the high importance the company places on this market.
Estée Lauder is not alone. L’Oréal has also stepped up its initiatives in China. For example, in March this year, it established two major funds—the “Tiantu Beauty Leadership Fund” and the “Cathay Innovation Beauty Future Fund”—aimed at investing in early-stage beauty brands to discover more youthful brands and expand influence in China. Public information shows that the Tiantu Beauty Leadership Fund alone has an investment amount of 500 million yuan.
Shiseido China and Travel Retail CEO Toshinobu Meizu has repeatedly emphasized that Shiseido China adheres to a “dual-track” innovation strategy, introducing group innovations while continuously increasing local R&D investment to seize emerging market opportunities. In April, Shiseido launched its new medical-aesthetic brand RQ PYOLOGY, officially advancing its “dual beauty layout” in the Chinese market.
Undoubtedly, China remains a critical market for global beauty. However, facing increasingly intense competition and a complex, ever-changing environment, how international beauty companies can demonstrate stronger risk resilience and growth potential is a shared challenge they must confront.
