Back-to-Back Bankruptcies! Consolidation Accelerates in This 100-Billion Sector

In 2025, the reshuffle of the beauty tool market arrived more fiercely than expected.

Sunyoung Technology, an ODM enterprise once hailed as the "first stock of makeup tools" serving L'Oréal and Sephora, recently delisted from the New Third Board after its revenue declined by nearly 20% in the first half of 2025.

Not long ago, beauty tool brands such as lisaslab (referred to as Liyan) and POOCODI also suspended operations and issued announcements for store closures and clearance sales. Earlier this year, the beauty tool brand MOLYMORI also began clearance sales.
According to data from Zhongyan Puhua, China's beauty tool market reached 48.7 billion yuan in 2024 and is expected to exceed 55 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.5%, far exceeding the overall level of the beauty industry (8.3%). This seemingly prosperous sector is undergoing profound structural differentiation: the strong grow stronger, while the weak exit.

In the entire beauty tool category, makeup sponges account for a relatively higher share. Data platforms such as Mojing Market Intelligence and Chanmama show that the annual scale of the makeup sponge/beauty blender segment in the past two years is estimated to be in the range of 3–5 billion yuan. At the same time, makeup sponges are also one of the most competitive, innovative, and intensely "involution"-ridden categories.

The closure of Liyan is a microcosmic yet typical example.

"Clearance at 1 yuan, proceeds donated to charity"—Liyan wrote in its closure announcement on November 30. Founded in 2019, the brand caught the wave of the previous round of domestic beauty entrepreneurship. It initially accumulated users through content marketing on Xiaohongshu and community operations.
However, like many new brands that entered the market at the same time, it targeted the dividends of the "appearance economy" but soon found itself mired in the realities of homogenization and profitability challenges, ultimately unable to escape the fate of closure.
Makeup sponges are low-priced, highly substitutable, and price-sensitive tool-type products. Although micro-innovations can be achieved through materials and shapes, their low technological barriers make them easy to imitate, making it difficult to sustain brand premiums and continuously rising traffic costs.

The inherent shortcomings of the category also exert pressure on the upstream supply chain. ODM enterprises like Sunyoung Technology, deeply tied to major clients and export businesses, bear the brunt of market demand fluctuations. In the first half of 2025, its revenue decreased by 19.28% year-on-year, and net profit declined by 28.44%, ultimately leading to delisting.

From an industry-wide perspective, the entire beauty and personal care industry is undergoing cyclical adjustments and reshuffles. In the first half of 2025, nearly 30 beauty brands of various types publicly announced store closures or exits from the Chinese market.
The exit of brands like Liyan and the contraction of OEM performance together signal that the beauty tool market is entering a phase of clearance and structural realignment.

While many brands struggle to survive, a group of brands focused on makeup tools have already built strong moats and continue to expand through innovation.

In terms of brand competition, domestic brands demonstrate strong competitiveness in the beauty tool market. According to real-time data from the Tmall platform, in the "makeup sponge" category (including beauty blenders), domestic brands occupy nine of the top ten spots. Among them, AMORTALS and MAOJIJI directly dominate the top five, while brands like LISHU, YAOZHI, and GOODY also rank in the top ten.

On the Douyin platform, best-selling brands also include AMORTALS, LISHU, and YAOZHI, with product detail pages showing that multiple items have sold over 1 million units. While leading brands maintain their dominance, new brands continue to emerge in this field. For example, the emerging brand GUOXIAONIU, though not among the top ten on Tmall, saw its best-selling item achieve sales of over 1.5 million units on Douyin, with sales volume increasing by more than 189% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

Looking at these emerging domestic brands, their common success lies not only in providing tools but also in offering solutions and emotional value—products must be efficient and practical while also inspiring emotional resonance and even becoming social topics.
Taking "AMORTALS" as an example, its success can be seen as a systematic victory. Currently, in the makeup tool category, AMORTALS not only consistently ranks first on major e-commerce platforms but also became a billion-yuan sales brand as early as 2023.

CBO observations reveal that AMORTALS follows a strategy of "product function innovation + content marketing + IP operations."
It is reported that in 2021, the brand launched the 8XL giant beauty blender, giving it away for free to beauty bloggers instead of selling it. Its inherent traffic and topicality led many bloggers to create content spontaneously, allowing the brand to successfully capture the first wave of traffic. Subsequently, the brand continued collaborations with popular IPs such as "Time Traveler Painter" and "The Grave Robbers' Chronicles," transforming makeup sponges from mere tools into "emotional peripherals" with collectible and social attributes, breaking through niche restrictions and enhancing user loyalty.

MAOJIJI rose to prominence with a strategy of "professional positioning + deep content integration." From its early days, the brand collaborated extensively with mid-tier beauty bloggers, embedding products into specific usage scenarios through practical tests and specific makeup tutorials, achieving efficient conversion where "content acts as the shelf." Its signature "tomato and egg" color scheme and cute naming also naturally became points of social dissemination.

Data shows that during the 618 shopping festival this year, products like the "tomato and egg makeup sponge" achieved single-day sales of over 7,500 units on Douyin, with sales reaching 250,000 to 500,000 yuan.

YAOZHI, founded in 2018, became widely recognized for its "egg yolk pie" makeup sponges. With strong supply chain control capabilities and cost advantages, it offers high quality at an affordable price, making it the first choice for many students and beginners. LISHU, a trendy domestic beauty brand that emerged in 2016, declares "soulful radiance, extraordinary beauty," infusing imaginative inspiration into designs and offering dual-use (dry and wet) products, making it a popular choice for young consumers seeking both functionality and aesthetics.

Although the growth paths of these brands differ, their core principles are similar: beyond addressing basic functional pain points, they infuse products with emotional value and social attributes, making tools warm and shareable, thereby building brand loyalty that transcends price.

From the best-selling products of these brands, it is evident that makeup sponge products are evolving from "generic" to "specialized." Material innovation and functional segmentation are becoming key to establishing a professional image for beauty tool brands.
For example, AMORTALS' star product, the "100-Point Makeup Sponge," addresses the pain points of traditional sponges absorbing too much product and uneven application by using the brand's pioneering "Rubycell material," making the product synonymous with specialized functionality. MAOJIJI's patented "RBYCELL dense sponge material" features a dual design of a dense structure and a velvet surface, solving the dilemma of traditional sponges being unsuitable for both dry and wet use. It allows users to achieve matte or dewy makeup effects based on different needs.

At the same time, some brands have developed products with varying shapes, materials, and sizes tailored to different base makeup products (liquid foundation, cream foundation, cushion foundation), different makeup effects (dewy skin, soft matte skin), and even different facial areas (cheeks, nose wings).

For example, to address the makeup application needs of different facial areas, MAOJIJI proposed the "triangular cotton candy Tatami layout," designing products for specific areas such as the nose wings, cheeks, and neck to enhance consumers' application efficiency and experience.

It is worth noting that after starting with makeup tools like sponges and beauty blenders, leading beauty tool brands are no longer satisfied with a single category. Facial towels, eyelash curlers, and even color cosmetics have become battlefields for brands seeking new growth points.

Taking AMORTALS as an example, its facial towels have also become best-selling products with sales exceeding 400,000 units. Now, AMORTALS has extended its product line to color cosmetics, launching products such as loose powder, concealer, and eyeshadow. Similarly, MAOJIJI announced in June this year that it would launch a new MAOJIJI makeup line, with products like pressed powder and under-eye brightening pens already available.

At the same time, channel strategies are deepening. AMORTALS has entered new beauty retail stores such as THE COLORIST, Wow Colour, and HARMAY and has expanded overseas, achieving rapid growth in the Vietnamese market. Brands like MAOJIJI and YAOZHI continue to deepen their presence in online content platforms and e-commerce platforms, consolidating their advantages in traffic conversion.

Undeniably, the polarization in the current beauty tool market is becoming increasingly apparent. On one end, leading brands are building moats through category matrices, IP collaborations, and channel penetration. On the other end, numerous small and medium-sized brands are caught in intense competition within segmented tracks, facing challenges such as thin profits, innovation difficulties, and expensive traffic.

As Gen Z consumers gradually become the main force, their pursuit of makeup precision, application convenience, and overall satisfaction with the makeup experience has deepened. The beauty tool market is no longer just a competition of "materials and cost-effectiveness" but has evolved into a comprehensive war centered on brand mindset, emotional connection, and systematic innovation.
The market will not eliminate all players but will filter out brands that truly embrace long-term thinking. The reshuffle continues, and the true path to building enduring brands may have only just begun.