“Design in China” e28 – 东边野兽 Herbeast – An A-List Chinese Beauty Brand
The resurgence of traditional Chinese aesthetics has led to a new wave of health and beauty brands. Innovative Chinese beauty (C-beauty) companies are using China’s indigenous value systems to guide the concepts and constituents of their products, from skincare to supplements. The 2020-founded C-beauty company HerBeast has greatly influenced the current Chinese beauty industry. It is one of the only C-beauty businesses competing in the premium category with similarly priced Estée Lauder and Lancôme. Additionally, although employing TCM for beauty is not new, HerBeast is a pioneer in the current, GenZ-focused beauty sector because of its cutting-edge packaging and refillable, ecological design.



The brand promotes ‘long-term skincare’ by only using indigenous herbs and plants as product components and concentrates its storytelling on native ideas. The company’s key products are named after a local component, such as the wild mushroom from the southeast’s Meili Snow Mountains or the coffee extract from the Mekong River. Oriental herbs serve as the primary raw ingredients for the sustainable beauty brand. It adheres to the idea of sustainable development, combines biomedical science with beauty and skincare, and aims to unleash the complementary values of traditional eastern pharmacy and contemporary aesthetics. Currently, the sole offerings from the brand are a cleaning product, an essential oil, and a face cream, all of which contain the primary ingredient, Ganoderma lucidum. The jars of their products are fashioned in contemporary packaging. These methods are practically the same as the prevalent ways of brand creation that are now being used in the beauty sector. HerBeast aims to capture consumers’ attention on social media through packaging.


The firm creates magazines to promote new herbal skincare trends and aspires to create an ‘Oriental Herbal Beauty’ empire. HerBeast also publishes periodicals to highlight recent developments in plant trends as part of its attempt to create an ‘Eastern lifestyle’ empire. It opened an exhibition in Shanghai to highlight healthy practices among the ethnic minority living in the southeast Yunnan region. It also had a short-lived show titled “Travel to Tiger Mountain” in Shanghai, focusing on “Oriental Plants.” Its unique and untamed plant arrangement, vintage Republican building, and vibrant avant-garde displays all contributed to the brand impression. More recently, it introduced the “Nomadic Lab Labplus” project in 2022, focusing on the three key attributes of plants: energy, inspiration, and sustainability. Nomadism is the unfettered flow of life force and experimentation as sustained progress. Participants in the project included artists, scientists, cultural observers, designers, creatives, media professionals, and other partners. The project resulted in the creation of original content and a temporary exhibition. The brand is successfully tapping into the local market’s growing interest in homemade luxury beauty products. However, its name has yet to make a presence in the international market, which is predominantly filled with European names.

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