Most of the products available in the market are imports

My Ha, a ‘follower’ of the ‘live green’ movement, found a showroom that sells skin-care products made by Vietnamese enterprises on Mac Thi Buoi street in district 1. 

“Vietnamese enterprises have great advantages in making natural products because of the material sources in Vietnam,” she explained. 

“Made-in-Vietnam cosmetics no longer means low-cost products,” she said.

The number of customers, mostly women, has been increasing rapidly in large cities. The market segment has become large enough for domestic cosmetics companies to display products at luxury showrooms in the central business districts of Hanoi and HCM City.

Since mid-October 2018, natural makeup fans in Vietnam can easily buy products at labambivalley.com, a website set up by six cosmetics companies. 

Designed as a cosmetics supermarket, the website gathers products licensed by the Ministry of Health and made by prestigious brands, namely TheHerbalCup, Skinna, SheaGhana, Myin, Karose and Bambi green cosmetics.

Through the websites, six natural cosmetics companies can easily access customers throughout the country at the lowest possible costs.

With the attractive growth rate of 30 percent per annum, the Vietnamese cosmetics market brings great opportunities. Not having advantages in distribution networks and advertisement budgets, the companies still can sell well in niche markets.

The long-distance race

Nguyen Thu Lanh, the founder of Bambi Cosmetics, said it takes many years to find and select materials, experiment with formulas and follow procedures to get permission to circulate products.

“Clean materials are just one of many things manufacturers must have. Besides, they must have production conditions meeting standards set by the Ministry of Health,” she said.

To do this, enterprises need modern technology which has to be imported at high tax rates.

Nguyen Van Minh, chair of the Vietnam Association of Essential Oils, Flavors and Cosmetics, confirmed that expensive modern technologies and unstable material growing areas are the biggest problems for domestic manufacturers. 

However, the stories about Thorakao or Thai Duong are the typical examples proving that Vietnamese brands can also succeed if they follow the right path.

There are about 100 cosmetics brands making their presence in Vietnam, while 90 percent of the products available on the market are the imports.

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Kim Chi