Fiabila continues to stand out as a leader in the nail polish market. The company is the market leader by sales volume. Fiabila also received the COSMETECH Innovation and Research Award for the raw materials industry in China Beauty Expo’s COSMETECH Awards in November, 2017. The company also ranked among leading suppliers in China Beauty Expo’s Global Cosmetics C50 List.
Pierre Miasnick, CEO of Fiabila visited China in September, 2017 and shared his views on the China nail polish market with China Beauty Expo. He said, “During my visit to China, I noticed many delightful changes. Prices used to be many customers’ biggest concern. But, now there has been a strong shift toward quality.” Still, he was surprised to find that nail polish products were not available in many shopping malls or department stores in Tier-1 cities like Shanghai. “China is developing rapidly, but the development of the nail polish market is extremely slow.”
Competitiveness Based on Rigorous Selection of Raw Materials
Many Chinese consumers choose to purchase products from overseas through “Daigou” or overseas personal shoppers. The prices for many of these products is lower outside of China. In other cases, consumers notice lower quality of international brands purchased in China compared with the same products purchased overseas. Addressing this point, Miasnick assured, “Raw materials that we use in Kunshan are the same as those in France. We don’t and never will single out China for any differentiation of unfair treatment in this regard.”
Fiabila has its own rigorous criteria for the selection and purchase of raw materials. In France, has created a technical department that is responsible for the selection and purchase of raw materials. It requires compliance with EU, American, Japanese, and Belgian rules and regulations. Fiabila works with the world’s top 100 cosmetics brand, each with its own cosmetics list. Therefore, at least two criteria need to met during the selection of raw materials. Fiabila also tests all nail polish products before they are launched.
Although many cosmetics manufacturers in China purchase raw materials from Fiabila, their final products still vary greatly. Miasnick points out that the technological capabilities and equipment can lead to huge differences among products made from the same raw materials. Fiabila, itself, has a robust management system to monitor and control basic and secondary materials and to prevent undesired mixture or cross-contamination. Color instability also makes the ability to produce appropriate colors during the production process a critical step.
Finally, filling is also a vital step in the quality management process. In China, many manufacturers still use a manual filling process which can affect the evaporation of the solvent and viscosity. However, Fiabila’s Kunshan factory uses an automatic filling process. Normally, there is some fluctuation in the machine control over solvent volume. But, Fiabila has refined its system to maintain the solvent level. Fiabila can fill 40 bottles per minute or 2,400 per hour.
Fiabila Tackles Challenges in the Nail Polish Market
Fiabila has been in China since the 1990s. It opened its factory in Kunshan in 2013. This has helped make Fiabila a highly competitive player in the nail polish market. “For consumers and for Fiabilia, the greatest challenge is the fact that consumers have no idea what makes a good nail polish product,” Miasnick explains. He also sees three points that need to be addressed in the China market.
First, the Chinese nail polish market is still in its infancy. Before entering the market, it takes a long time for an international brand to register its colors with government authorities. The selection of colors available in the market is still very limited, while Fiabila is an expert at creating popular colors. Fiabila has produced over 180,000 different colors. In 2016 alone, it created some 35,000 colors. Unfortunately, Miasnick notes, “It’s difficult to exploit this strength in China, as the registration process is so hard.”
Second, the Chinese nail polish market is dominated by nail salons. Consumers like to go to salons and have their nails done with gel nail polish, which is more harmful to their nails and even their health. Miasnick said, “We are against any sale of any gel nail polish to any consumer by any retailer. It’s imperative to sell products that can achieved the desired results without causing any detriment to the users’ physical health.” Sweet color nail polish developed by Fiabila is the best substitute for gel nail polish. Unfortunately, it’s not widely available in China. Sweet color nail polish already represents 20% of the market in America. In EU member countries, gel nail polish is only allowed to be sold in professional channels and not through retailers. He added, “There are a very narrow range of nail polish categories in China. So, it’s impossible for consumers to choose a suitable one from a wide variety of nail polish products. That’s quite unreasonable to me.”
Third, in China many female consumers judge the quality of a nail polish product by its smell, and dismiss those with a strong smell as harmful to one’s health. However, traditional nail polish products do come with some smell, and are not harmful to one’s health. In other countries, when female consumers’ nails get thinner, cracked or discolored, doctors normally recommend that they apply a top coat to reduce the drying speed of the nail polish and maintain nail moisture. Miasnick said, “Nail polish is supposed to maintain beauty, like color cosmetics.”
Miasnick also mentioned, “In Brazil, the largest nail polish market in the world, two manufacturers are the best players, one of which is Fiabila. In addition, we are also the one and only company in Brazil that has succeeded in the raw material market and the finished product market. So, we want to learn from our experience in Brazil and introduce our French technologies and products to China to make a difference in the Chinese nail polish market.
Learn more about Fiabila and other nail product innovations at the China Beauty Expo 2018. Register today!
Nice article.
Posted by: Cynthia2415 | 06/21/2018 at 15:05