Janine Huizeling

Brands and distributors that wait for emerging markets to look established may lose time building relationships there. They distinguish growth rate from market share, so a fast-growing channel isn’t mistaken for a large market.

Discussing a McKinsey report, they cite annual ecommerce beauty growth through 2030 of 33.5% in Africa, 16.3% in the Middle East, and 11.3% in South and Southeast Asia. They clarify that the Africa figure is a growth rate, not its share of global beauty sales.

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The risk is that new brands can scale quickly through channels the traditional industry may not track closely.

They point to Skintific, which they describe as founded in Indonesia and built largely through TikTok Shop livestreaming. They say it grew rapidly in the US without distributor relationships or department-store listings.

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They pair company results with observations from time spent in Asia to challenge distribution conversations centred on established European markets. Their posts make a case for looking beyond Europe without treating every Asian market as the same.

In a post written from Indonesia, they compare Q2 2026 results: several major groups grew in APAC, while some reported weaker results in EMEA. They name Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia as markets where they see strong consumer interest.

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Drawing on earlier K-beauty growth patterns, they frame emerging names as candidates to watch, not guaranteed successes.

Citing a Spate ranking of Korean online popularity, they note that only three of its ten fastest-rising Korean skincare brands were already in the US top 100. They name Abib, Mary and May, Hanmi, Eqqualberry, and Arencia among the brands to watch, and ask which will break through and how quickly.

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They see pressure on prestige fragrance when higher sales value doesn’t come with more units, while mass-market growth and online channels offer alternatives to traditional models. They credit licensing houses for building retail and distribution infrastructure, and argue those strengths now need to coexist with digital capabilities.

They read Circana’s H1 2026 figures as showing US mass fragrance up 15%, while prestige fragrance rose 6% in value but was flat in units. In a separate post, they describe how TikTok Shop, Amazon, and direct-to-consumer sales are changing the landscape for designer fragrance licensing.

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It distinguishes a high growth rate from a large market: the 33.5% figure cited for Africa is annual ecommerce beauty growth through 2030, not Africa’s share of global sales.

Huizeling contrasts the cited growth rates for Africa (33.5%), the Middle East (16.3%), Latin America (15.8%) and South and Southeast Asia (11.3%) with slower rates in North America and Europe.

• They argue that brands and distributors risk arriving late if they wait for fast-growing markets to become large.
• They also note the decline of department stores.
• The figures come from a McKinsey report shared by Alexis Amann.

For brands planning a campaign

For a sourcing or distribution brief, use this post to compare market size, growth, channel access and local operating requirements. It points to emerging markets but does not identify the right country or route to market for a specific brand.

It offers newcomers a concrete APAC example and shows how Huizeling connects reported results with their observations while in Indonesia.

Using company results for calendar Q2 2026, Huizeling compares APAC growth with weaker results in EMEA for several major groups.

• They argue that European distribution conversations may give too little attention to Southeast Asian markets, naming Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.
• The post combines reported figures with their own observations of local consumer interest; these are distinct kinds of information.

For brands planning a campaign

A brand considering regional expansion can use this post to frame a country-by-country discovery brief, comparing company performance with local demand, retail conditions and distribution access. Treat it as a starting hypothesis, not a substitute for current market research.

It offers a practical entry point for readers interested in how they spot possible next-wave brands.

Huizeling uses a Spate chart of Korean online popularity increases to name brands including Abib, Mary and May, Hanmi, Tosowoong, Eqqualberry and Arencia.

• They compare Korean popularity with US recognition and draw a parallel with earlier K-beauty growth.
• The watchlist is a forecast based on a pattern they see, not proof that every named brand will succeed internationally.

For brands planning a campaign

For a sourcing team, the post can seed a screening list. Before approaching a brand, check current sales, product and regulatory fit, supply capacity and market-specific demand; online attention alone does not guarantee distribution success.

It shows newcomers why Huizeling focuses on the speed and visibility of digital-first growth.

Huizeling discusses a YipitData ranking of fast-growing US beauty brands and singles out Skintific, which they say was founded in Indonesia and grew through TikTok Shop livestreaming. They contrast that route with distributor relationships and department-store listings, arguing that brands can become significant before traditional industry networks notice them.

For brands planning a campaign

For a distributor assessing an emerging brand, use this post as a prompt to examine its direct-sales channels, content-led demand and ability to serve new markets. Fast-growing social-commerce brands are not necessarily ready for wholesale distribution.

It offers a starting point for readers weighing traditional distribution against direct-to-consumer and creator-led commerce.

Huizeling describes the retailer relationships, distribution networks, sampling and travel-retail reach built by licensing houses, then considers how TikTok Shop, Amazon and direct-to-consumer sales are changing the competitive landscape. Their point is not that existing infrastructure has lost value, but that companies need digital capabilities alongside it.

For brands planning a campaign

For a fragrance expansion plan, compare the reach and capabilities of licensing or distribution partners with the brand’s ability to sell directly and build digital demand. The post supports assessing both routes rather than treating them as interchangeable.

One standout is Skintific, founded in Indonesia in 2022 and built largely through TikTok Shop livestreaming, without distributor relationships or department-store listings. The point is not simply that new brands can win, but how quickly and quietly they can grow: brands go from nothing to tens of millions in revenue through channels that bypass traditional retail, often escaping the notice of people closest to distribution.

Starts with a third-party consumer dataset covering 50,000 brands, then checks the ranking against their daily sourcing and network knowledge.

For brands planning a campaign

For brands and sourcing companies, creator-led and livestream commerce offer a route to market that can bypass distribution deals. Evaluate ecommerce-native brands early, before they appear in conventional retail data.

Examples: Source 1

Africa's absolute market remains small, while attention and distribution resources still concentrate on the largest, slowest-growing markets. Department stores are also declining, by roughly 3.7% a year in North America and 1.4% in Europe, as ecommerce absorbs the difference.

Interprets the regional chart as a compound annual growth rate, not a share of global sales, and considers who is forming buyer relationships early from the supply side.

The Africa figure measures growth in the ecommerce channel, not Africa's share of global beauty sales.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for prioritising expansion markets by momentum rather than current revenue, and for making the case that early supplier and buyer relationships in emerging regions are scarce assets.

Examples: Source 1

In EMEA, the same groups tell a different story: Coty fell around 10% amid weakness in the Middle East, Germany and Central and Eastern Europe; Shiseido fell 7.6%; and Estée Lauder rose just 1%. Huizeling sees beauty demand on the ground in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, while European distribution conversations remain centred on markets growing at low single digits.

Combines published corporate financial reports with firsthand observations from travel in the region, comparing the same companies across geographies.

For brands planning a campaign

Supports a case for APAC-facing sourcing, distribution and creator activity, and gives brands focused on mature European markets a concrete reason to broaden their attention.

Examples: Source 1

These houses built global retail, sampling and travel-retail infrastructure that fashion houses could not have built alone.

• But the 2026 market is different from the one that model was designed for.
• TikTok Shop, Amazon, direct-to-consumer and creator-led marketing require far less infrastructure, while brands with direct consumer relationships are growing at speeds traditional retail could not deliver.

Uses licence-count data to size the incumbent model, then assesses it against newer sales channels and licensing houses' digital and ecommerce investments.

For brands planning a campaign

Shows where licensing incumbents may need outside ecommerce and creator capabilities, and where independent fragrance brands can compete without traditional retail doors.

Examples: Source 1

Huizeling reads this as price-driven rather than demand-driven prestige growth: the same volume at higher prices.

• Mass fragrance is growing in both value and volume, helped by affordable Middle Eastern brands, drugstore lines and credible dupes of iconic scents.
• Consumers have not lost interest in fragrance; they are deciding where a premium feels justified.

Separates value growth from unit growth to distinguish demand expansion from price inflation, then interprets the results through supply-chain experience across price points.

For brands planning a campaign

Relevant to pricing, portfolio and sourcing decisions in fragrance, and to brands weighing whether to extend into more accessible tiers or defend prestige pricing.

Examples: Source 1

Emerging candidates include Abib, known for minimalist sensitive-skin formulas; Mary and May, for high-concentration actives and ingredient transparency; Hanmi, with a pharmaceutical background; Tosowoong; Eqqualberry's viral Swimming Pool Toner; and Arencia's fermentation-led Rice Mochi textures. Huizeling points to the pattern that took Medicube, Skin1004 and now Centellian24 into the US through TikTok and Amazon within about eighteen months, and says appetite is accelerating beyond the first K-Beauty wave.

Tracks the gap between Korean popularity data and US recognition, checking the numbers against what Huizeling sees locally during time spent in Asia.

A watchlist based on current momentum, not a forecast: Huizeling asks which brands will break through, and how quickly, rather than suggesting they all will.

For brands planning a campaign

An early-warning list for brands and distributors weighing Korean skincare sourcing, and a case for acting on popularity signals in Korea before US retail listings appear.

Examples: Source 1

New Day Brands is presented as the trading operation behind Huizeling's stated work buying and selling branded beauty products, including derma care, skincare, hair care and fragrance, across Europe and beyond. Ask whether they own the company or work for it.

Original disclosure

New Day Brands — buying and selling branded beauty worldwide

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The posts show repeated sourcing and commentary on that outlet's material; none indicates sponsorship or a paid partnership.

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Son's ranking of the fastest-rising K-beauty brands covers the breakout pattern Huizeling describes. Both single out hero-product launches, micro-influencer marketing and online-first retail as routes into global markets.

Son's evidence is brand by brand: a ranked K-beauty list and a company profile of the licensing house behind Coach, Jimmy Choo and Montblanc fragrances. Huizeling draws on regional demand data and price-tier shifts from a buying and selling position, so the two overlap in subject but differ in standpoint and format.

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Lou's Chinese Fragrance Friday series analyses brand moves, consumer trends and the competitive landscape. Lou also reports securing distributors in France and Spain and getting a brand onto Parisian shelves.

Lou focuses on Chinese fragrance houses entering European retail, drawing on a hands-on brand-representation role and a stated focus on building an independent brand's distinctiveness without paid media. Huizeling examines the licensing structure and price tiers of the global fragrance market from a trading and distribution viewpoint.

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La Sala's reporting on how AI is cutting website-build and software costs while acquisition costs rise addresses the same question Huizeling raises: how brands can reach consumers through new channels rather than inherited retail infrastructure.

La Sala reports for a publication and gathers named operators and experts for comment, as in the Everlane and SHEIN analysis. Huizeling writes first-person market reads grounded in their sourcing and buyer relationships.

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One post ranks the 20 fastest-rising K-beauty brands and explains its method: consumer demand signals, retail rankings, social virality, Amazon, Olive Young, TikTok and beauty market intelligence for 2025-2026.

• It then identifies five shared success patterns: entry through a single hero SKU, micro- and nano-influencers over celebrity marketing, online-first validation before offline retail, long-term creator relationships instead of short campaigns, and renewed offline discovery through pop-ups and events.
• A second post examines the licensing platform model in fragrance, showing how Interparfums supplies Coach, Jimmy Choo, Montblanc, Lacoste, Moncler and Van Cleef & Arpels rather than owning consumer brands itself.
• For the distributor deciding which brands and categories to test first, David Son offers a ranked list, pattern analysis and a clear comparison of partnership versus ownership.
• Choose David Son over Huizeling when the sourcing team needs names to approach this quarter, not the market-level argument behind them.

The ranking is momentum-based and self-described, with no regional growth figures, corporate results or channel economics behind it.

• A distributor cannot use it to rank or size markets, choose between Southeast Asia and the Gulf, or defend a market-selection choice in an investment paper.
• It also offers little reach or audience evidence, leaving the buyer without a clear picture of who it reaches.
• Commissioning David Son alongside Huizeling would duplicate the brand shortlist without adding the market case.
• Ask Huizeling for regional performance and audience data before using the ranking to support a market decision.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

One post describes leading international expansion for an independent Chinese fragrance house over four months with no extra marketing budget: Instagram followers rose by more than 350%, engagement increased 7,800%, distributors were secured in France and Spain, the brand reached Parisian shop shelves, and further distribution pipelines were still being built.

• Three lessons from the work speak directly to introducing an unknown brand into a new market: the category is physical and converts through in-person meetings and shop pitches; a small brand competes on distinctiveness rather than scale; and coherent content still performs without paid media.
• A second post shows the same China-market focus taking shape through a weekly #ChineseFragranceFriday series on brand moves and consumer trends, presenting a Chinese brand at the Paris-Shanghai Perfume Show, where inventory sold out, and earning an LVMH luxury-brand certificate.
• Pick Shiyue Lou for China-to-Europe route execution or a distributor-facing introduction for a niche fragrance brand in France or Spain.

The direction of travel is the reverse of a European distributor entering Asia and the Gulf: a Chinese brand entering Europe.

• Janine Huizeling's posts do not address Africa, the Middle East or Latin America.
• Two posts cover a single four-month role, with pipelines still under construction; the second is a job search, signaling interest and availability rather than an established commercial offering.
• Use the posts to assess hands-on distributor outreach, not as evidence of a market-entry service for the distributor's target regions.
• Before commissioning, ask for examples of sponsorship, consulting or paid-collaboration work.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

As a reporter for Beauty Independent, they revisited DTC beauty operations four years on with named practitioners Nikki Lindgren, Nik Sharma, Owen Loft, Kevin Gould and Jonathan Cohen, and detailed specific cost movements: premium website builds fell from roughly $150,000-$250,000 to nearer $50,000-$70,000; core operating costs rose an estimated 20-30% since early 2022; and customer acquisition costs climbed 40-50%.

• They also examine Everlane's sale to SHEIN at around $100 million, against a 2020 valuation near $550 million, and draw lessons from 13 named industry experts on how rising acquisition costs, debt and changing consumer habits cracked the DTC playbook.
• Pick La Sala when weighing a direct-to-consumer or ecommerce-native route and seeking reported cost benchmarks and quotable expert opinion, or when a credible account of how a well-funded direct brand failed would help.

This is US-centred generalist journalism published by a third party, not analysis of the distributor's target markets.

• It explains direct-to-consumer costs and where the model fails, but does not identify which markets in Asia, Africa or the Middle East to enter or which partner to use.
• For a Gulf or Southeast Asia entry recommendation, La Sala's work offers context on channel economics, not an actionable shortlist.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2