Middle East-born cosmetic brand, Huda Beauty, has closed its flagship store on the Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall, plotting its withdrawal from the country, according to local news sites.

The Tmall flagship store is also the brand’s only direct sales channel in China. The beauty brand is longer searchable on the e-commerce site. 

“The brand has stopped cooperating and is now in the stage of closing the store,” one of Huda Beauty’s staff told Chaileedo. 

Huda Beauty launched into Tmall Global in 2020, partnering with Chinese influencers including Li Jiaqi to increase its presence in the market. The store boasted more than 20 million browsers. 

Huda Beauty was founded by beauty guru Huda Kattan, who is known as the ‘Kardashian of the Middle East’, and her sister in 2013. As of 2020, the beauty label had an estimated net value of US$510 million. 

Huda Beauty joins a series of international cosmetic brands that have reduced or removed their presence in China during the past year. In July, L’Oreal-owned beauty brand Maybelline was reported to be planning to gradually close all of its physical stores in the market. South Korean brand Etude House shut its flagship store on Tmall in November, following the exit of its sister retail brand Hera’s physical presence in the country. 

Data and analytics company GlobalData estimates the Chinese make-up market will reach $11.7 billion by 2026, registering a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 per cent. 

“The Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and Beijing undermined demand for colour cosmetics in China in the first half of last year,” said Bobby Verghese, consumer analyst at GlobalData. “The strict lockdowns disrupted distribution and logistics of cosmetics products, and triggered a loss of income, thereby stifling overall consumer spending on beauty products.”