Are Chinese-made skincare brands downplaying their origins to appeal to Southeast Asians?

“It is quite a big phenomenon here,” the Kuala Lumpur resident told This Week in Asia. “It is widely marketed here, using celebrity ambassadors, and is already sold in Malaysian drug stores.”

Skintific, which was launched in Indonesia in 2021, is one of several Chinese-made skincare brands that have been making rapid inroads in Muslim dominated markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia in recent years due to their low prices and perceived high quality.

Yet many of these brands appear to downplay the fact they are manufactured in China in favour of presenting themselves as local products made specifically for the Indonesian and Malaysian markets, an analyst says. Such positioning would allow them to sidestep concerns about safety and halal certification that other Chinese-made products might face.

While other Western and Korean skincare products have also flooded the Malaysian and Indonesian markets in recent years, these brands do not obscure their “foreign” origins, meaning consumers are able to make a more informed decision.

Visitors to the Skintific website are greeted by a smiling picture of its brand ambassador Nicholas Saputra, a famous Indonesian film star. But nowhere on the site, including on its “About Us” page, does it mention the brand’s origins or where its products are manufactured.

Fitr, a salesperson at a pharmacy in Medan who declined to give her last name, said the Skintific skincare range had been flying off the store’s shelves in recent months.

But the use of Indonesian brand ambassadors and unclear marketing has led to misunderstandings among shoppers, she said.

“People think that Skintific is an Indonesian brand, but actually it is made in China,” she said, turning over a box to show the words “Made in the