2026.04.09
Entering 2026, Vietnam's beauty and skincare market is increasingly becoming a battleground where domestic and international players intersect. The market has reached a size of about 2.74 billion dollars (about 410 billion yen), continuing to grow at an annual CAGR of 3.26%, but what deserves more attention is the shifting strategy of "who" is capturing consumers and "through which channel."
The February 2026 announcement that India's major FMCG company Marico would acquire Vietnamese D2C beauty company Skinetiq's 75% stake is one event that symbolizes this market shift. In this deal, Marico CEO Saugata Gupta stated clearly that "Vietnam is our top-priority market for premium beauty and D2C strategy," showing just how seriously foreign brands are looking at the Vietnamese market.
Skinetiq was co-founded in 2020 by Bui Ngoc Anh and Hannah Nguyen as Vietnam's first online-scale D2C beauty company. Its core lies in the "ability to scale beauty brands on digital platforms in a data-driven way."
The brands and channels it holds are as follows.
This two-axis structure is powerful. It captures digitally native younger consumers through Candid, while reaching high-income consumers through Murad. It is designed so that a single company can cover different price points, purchasing channels, and consumer segments.
In its disclosure materials, Marico stated Skinetiq's company valuation as about 3.5 billion rupees (₹350 crore (1 crore = 10 million rupees) / about 40 million dollars, about 5.8 billion yen), and the consideration for the 75% stake will be up to VND 750 billion (₹261.6 crore). This level represents an unusually high valuation for a Vietnamese D2C beauty startup.
This is not just Marico acting alone. As of 2026, Korean, Indian, Japanese, and Western brands are all simultaneously raising their presence in Vietnam's beauty market. Several structural factors lie behind this.
(1) A High Proportion of Young People and Digital Literacy
Over 72.5% of Vietnam's online shoppers are made up of Gen Z (27 and under) and Millennials (28-44). This demographic combines strong beauty spending with high sensitivity to social media and livestream commerce.
(2) Rapid Growth of the Skincare Market
The skincare category alone has grown to over 1.2 billion dollars, with especially high demand for brands that emphasize "scientific evidence for ingredients" and "transparency of active ingredients." The "ingredient literacy" culture that K-Beauty helped establish has raised the sophistication of Vietnamese consumers' beauty purchasing criteria.
(3) The "Lower Entry Barrier" Created by TikTok Shop
As of 2026, TikTok Shop holds about more than 40% share of Vietnam's e-commerce market, with GMV growth showing a remarkable +148% year-over-year increase. The spread of TikTok Shop has made purchases via livestream commerce and KOLs commonplace, drastically shortening the distance from brand awareness to purchase. For Vietnamese beauty brands, "creating products that sell on TikTok Shop" has become the top strategic priority.
The decision-making process Vietnamese beauty consumers use when buying skincare products has changed dramatically in just a few years. The shift is accelerating away from the traditional "web search → check product page → purchase" flow toward a highly impulsive purchase flow of "watch a TikTok video/livestream → buy immediately."
In TikTok Shop livestream commerce sessions, the mainstream format has popular KOLs, dermatologists, or estheticians apply the product to their skin live while explaining it in real time. Viewers ask questions in chat, claim limited-time discount coupons, and complete their purchase before the livestream ends. This process compresses "see the product → trust it → buy it" into 10 to 20 minutes.
Even luxury brands such as Estée Lauder, Lancôme, Kiehl's, and Sulwhasoo find it harder to reach younger consumers unless they adapt to this livestream commerce culture. How to design "the rawness of livestreaming" while maintaining brand prestige has become a challenge for marketers at every company.
In 2026, Vietnamese beauty consumers have significantly improved their ingredient literacy under the influence of K-Beauty and social media. Consumers, especially younger ones, are increasingly making purchase decisions based on an understanding of active ingredient names such as "niacinamide," "retinol," "hyaluronic acid," and "AHA/BHA," which is boosting demand for the "science-based skincare" category.
This is also where the competitive advantage of Skinetiq's Candid brand lies. Its appeal of "clinically proven active ingredient formulation" resonates with Vietnam's information-savvy consumers. Should R&D resources and global raw material sourcing capability be added under the Marico umbrella, Candid's position could be strengthened even further.
As the influx of foreign brands continues, how is the position of local Vietnamese brands changing? Currently, the market is broadly divided into three tiers.
The top high-price tier is dominated by global premium brands such as Estée Lauder, SK-II, and Sulwhasoo, with department stores and Sephora as the main distribution channels. The middle mid-premium tier (about 1,000-3,000 yen per item) sees K-Beauty brands competing with rapidly growing D2C startups. And in the mass tier, localized Chinese-brand products and homegrown Vietnamese brands are fiercely competing.
Candid has grown in this mid-premium zone centered on D2C × e-commerce sales. Across Vietnam's D2C beauty market as a whole, purchases via TikTok Shop are rapidly expanding, and Candid is riding exactly this wave. On the other hand, the TikTok Shop fee increase starting in April 2026 could also become a cost pressure for D2C brands with thin profit margins.
By 2026, the conditions for success in Vietnam's beauty market have become clear.
First, TikTok Shop optimization is an unavoidable requirement. Adapting to the livestream commerce format, building relationships with KOLs, and visually striking product design are all prerequisites.
Second, scientific messaging around ingredients is effective. The brand value of "Made in Japan" remains strong, but by additionally clearly stating exactly which active ingredients act on the skin and how, brands can craft messaging that resonates with ingredient-literate younger consumers.
Third, mid-premium price positioning is important to keep in mind. If the price is too high, the impulsiveness of e-commerce purchasing is lost; if too low, the "Japanese quality" brand image is undermined. A price range equivalent to 2,000-4,000 yen per item is seen as the point where purchase intent and brand stature can coexist.
Marico's acquisition of Skinetiq is just the tip of the iceberg. Vietnam's beauty market is set to see more foreign players enter over the next three to five years, and consumer selection criteria will keep becoming more sophisticated. A vague purchase motive of "seems okay somehow" no longer works; the market now favors brands that can explain "why this ingredient works."
TikTok Shop accelerates real-time purchase decisions, Gen Z scrutinizes ingredients, and D2C infrastructure lowers the cost of entry — where these three forces intersect, Vietnam's beauty market is, for Japanese skincare and cosmetics brands, at a moment that is at once "the easiest time to enter and the time when competition is intensifying fastest."
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