Welcome to Shanghai 护肤, a skincare blog with a focus on China. This blog will feature product reviews, guides on how to buy skincare products in China, and general posts.
护肤 (hù fū) means 'skincare' in Chinese, and its literal meaning is 'protect skin'. This hints at the traditional Chinese skincare philosophy of working with skin and catering to its specific needs, much like the more well known skincare traditions of nearby Korea and Japan. In recent years, the Chinese population have been spending more money on skincare, and general acceptance of domestic brands has never been higher.
China is a country that has unfortunately been plagued by product quality issues in recent years, causing its domestic products and brands to be less favored by locals and dismissed by foreigners. However, many local brands are gaining the trust of consumers, causing fewer and fewer people to feel a need to buy foreign products. Quality control in China is improving, and locals are slowly but surely turning back to domestic brands. China's quality management and regulations still have cracks, but the actual situation is much better than what the media is saying. It is unfair to judge an entire country and its manufacturing based solely on sporadic, isolated, mostly unrelated incidents from many years ago.
Nevertheless, Chinese skincare has been doubted and shunned by many due to a perceived lack in quality. Foreign residents in China generally do not use Chinese skincare, and are unable to do much research because resources and information pertaining to skincare are almost absent in any language other than Chinese. People living in other countries don't buy Chinese skincare for the same reasons. Shanghai 护肤 has a aim to solve these two major issues by writing up ingredients, instructions and reviews in English about Chinese skincare products to close the language barrier and dispel misconceptions.
