At a contract factory in the Baiyun District of Guangzhou, Fang Xing was also busy processing cosmetics for international brands in 2013. Three years later, when he started his own brand, focalure, he chose a very different path from perfect diary, huaxizi and other brands – skipping the domestic market and moving directly into Southeast Asia.
The decision seemed risky at the time, but time gave the answer.
At the beginning of 2025, focalure’s tiktok Indonesia official account had 2.8 million followers, the average daily sales of small stores exceeded $100000, and its Matte Lip Glaze ranked first in the tiktok beauty category in Vietnam.
While other domestic beauty brands are still fighting for domestic market share, focalure has ranked first in cross-border e-commerce cosmetics sales in Southeast Asia, Russia, Bangladesh and other markets.
01 contrarian thinking: emerging market strategy to avoid the Red Sea
In 2016, domestic cosmetics ushered in a key turning point. With geopolitical changes, Korean cosmetics brands have suffered in the Chinese market, leaving a huge market gap. At this point, focalure quietly looks to the broader overseas market.
Contrary to the path of most brands “first local and then overseas”, focalure adopts the strategy of overseas market first. Its predecessor, Guangzhou Jizhi Trading Co., Ltd., has focused on foreign trade OEM since 2013 and accumulated international supply chain experience. When the brand was founded in 2016, founder Fang Xing keenly found that “unlike the mature markets of Europe and the United States, Southeast Asia is in the stage of consumption upgrading from” None “to” yes “, with great growth potential.”.
This judgment is verified by the data: the compound annual growth rate of the beauty market in Southeast Asia is 10.1%, far exceeding the global average of 7%. Focalure quickly rolled out channels on shopee, lazada, Amazon and other platforms, and within a year became the first online makeup brand in Russia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.
02 localization Code: Southeast Asian adaptation of a Lip Glaze
Walking into focalure’s Guangzhou R&D center, the versions of the same product in different markets are surprisingly different.
In view of the high temperature and strong ultraviolet environment in the Southeast Asian market, the product especially strengthens the functions of oil control, waterproof and sweat prevention. In Vietnam and other areas with low consumption power, product pricing is strictly controlled in the $3-5 range, only one tenth of that of major European and American brands.
“Compared with Japanese, Korean, European and American brands, Chinese brands are difficult to establish brand potential in the short term, and must rely on extreme localization to break the situation,” Fang Xing once concluded. This localization is not only reflected in product functions:
·Color adaptation: develop exclusive color numbers for different skin tones, such as the deep nude color system favored by Indonesian consumers
·Ingredient adjustments: developing halal certified formulas for Muslim markets
·Cultural integration: packaging design integrates ethnic pattern elements in Southeast Asia
In the European and American markets, focalure has launched a full range of flash products with the slogan of “sparkle is everything”, and the unit price has been raised to about $10. This regional operation strategy enables the brand to blossom in both Southeast Asia and North America in early 2025.
03 Tiktok storm: flow magic from quantity to quality
In March 2025, a set of data attracted industry attention: focalure Matte Lip Glaze sold tens of thousands of pieces on tiktok platform in Vietnam in 30 days, ranking first in the beauty category. Behind it is the traffic engine linked by 70 bloggers:
·429 original videos were launched intensively
·89 special live broadcasts continue to grow grass
·2.4 million views infiltrated layer upon layer
·The final conversion rate is 0.17%
This is focalure’s classic play of “winning by quantity and leaping by quality”. The brand has established a matrix account system in tiktok, and the Indonesian official account @ focalure.beauty alone has accumulated 2.7 million followers. Its content strategy accurately grasps the characteristics of the platform:
Close-up visual impact: lip close-up comparison video creates a record of 12 million views
Plain person authenticity assessment: enhance credibility through comparison before and after trial
Daily higher frequency touch: maintaining user brand memory
Tag operation shows more skills: # focalure Related videos have been played more than 1.3 billion times, and # pinkflash has exceeded 300 million. This traffic precipitation allowed the brand to set a record of $200000 Gmv per day during the 2023 promotion period.
04 channel game: the symbiotic way between e-commerce platform and independent station
In terms of sales channel layout, focalure shows amazing balance.
Open shopee Philippines station, its official store shows a huge scale of 1.4 million followers, with a score of 4.9 and 92.3% of users giving a five-star praise of 7. “Good product quality, affordable price, outstanding effect” became a high-frequency evaluation 7. Similar products are also popular on lazada and other platforms, with sales of eyeliner, Lip Glaze and other explosive products exceeding 10000 pieces.
At the same time, the independent station built by the brand through Shopify carries the mission of private traffic operation:
·Home page attracts clicks with hot events+eye-catching discounts
·Support the settlement of Hong Kong dollar, British pound, euro and other five currencies
·Natural search traffic accounts for nearly 60%
This mode of “platform drainage+independent station precipitation” forms a virtuous circle. Third-party data show that in 2025, the traffic of focalure independent stations continued to rise, and computer direct search and organic search became the main sources.
05 compliance alarm: red line and cost of going to sea Enterprises
There are also risks hidden in the rapid expansion.
In May 2025, an administrative penalty announcement issued by credit Guangzhou showed that focalure was fined 23898 yuan for false propaganda of “popjuce fruit and double Lip Glaze” and violation of the standard for declaration of cosmetic efficacy. This is not an example:
·Guangzhou Hanming company was fined 20000 yuan for selling unregistered imported cosmetics
·Guangzhou Bonnie chemical was fined 86000 yuan for adding hair dye without authorization
·Hangzhou barley en biology was investigated and punished for false propaganda of “special for pregnant women”
These cases are a wake-up call for domestic cosmetics to go to sea. With global regulation tightening, the growth model driven by marketing alone is facing challenges. The global competition in the cosmetics industry is essentially a long-term race for trust.
Open focalure’s supplier manual, its core competitiveness is prominently listed: the only large-scale beauty flexible supply chain in China.
Relying on years of experience in OEM for major brands, focalure has established a rapid response mechanism. When a big brand new product is popular in Europe and the United States, its affordable alternative version can land in Southeast Asian stores in two weeks.
This ability to “respond quickly to small orders” allows brands to capture the rapidly changing makeup trends on tiktok in a timely manner.
Ending: the transition from contract factories to multinational brands
At focalure’s research and development center in early 2025, engineers were commissioning a new generation of waterproof formulas. Container trucks lined up outside, laden with makeup boxes bound for Jakarta.
Focalure took a decade to complete its identity transformation from a contract factory in Guangzhou to a beauty overlord in Southeast Asia. Its journey to sea proves that in emerging markets, performance price ratio is the ticket, localization is the pass, and supply chain is the password for sustainable operation.
While big names in Europe and the United States are still battling Asia with a global formula, focalure has taught the industry a lesson: Paris perfume evaporates in the hot Jakarta sun, but a $5 waterproof Lip Glaze can withstand heat waves and print on the screens of 2.8 million tiktok users.
