Beyond the ‘Sephora kids’: why Asia’s beauty boom might hit a wall

IF YOU want to understand the direction the global beauty industry is heading in, do not start at a luxury counter in Paris. 

Start with the social media feeds. The skincare tutorials on Douyin, the childlike aesthetics woven through Korean and Japanese influencer culture and increasingly, the tweens across Singapore, Seoul and Jakarta adopting rituals once reserved for adult consumers.

This is the leading edge of what we call the “cute economy”: a fast-expanding market in which softness, innocence and youthfulness are not just aesthetic choices, but also commercial engines.