Interface journalist | Zhou Fangying

Interface News Editor | Lou Qinqin

In mid-May, the 27th China CBE Beauty Expo, which was postponed for one year, was held in Shanghai New International Expo Center. Over 220,000 square meters of the venue, the memorable lively scenes reappeared shoulder to shoulder. It is not difficult to see the enthusiasm of people in the beauty industry and their confidence in boosting the industry.

During the epidemic period, the demand for beauty products as non-essential products was cold, and the offline circulation links such as warehousing, logistics and retail stores were stagnant, and the upstream and downstream enterprises in the whole industry chain all encountered "dark moments". Fortunately, after entering 2023, these enterprises have seen hope again.

The total retail sales of cosmetics from January to April was 129.9 billion yuan, up 9.3% year-on-year, which exceeded the level of the same period in 2019 before the epidemic. This is also reflected in the financial reports of various local listed beauty companies-Marubi shares and Shuiyang shares all returned to growth in the first quarter of 2023, getting rid of the "most difficult 2022".

But all this has just begun. Many people in the industry who participated in the Expo admitted that the sales rebound in January and February was less than expected, and the response of e-commerce promotion on Women’s Day on March 8 was flat. Enterprises need to speed up the solution of those problems that are not obvious in the period of rapid development, so as to seize new growth opportunities.

As a partner of many international brands such as L ‘Oré al, Lancome and Sisley when they first entered the e-commerce channel in China, Liren Lizhuang successfully landed in the capital market in 2020 and became a cosmetics online retail service provider with comprehensive data insight, online operation and brand marketing. After listing, Liren Lizhuang began to develop its own brand based on its original experience in the cosmetics industry. At present, it has effective skin care brand Meiyitang, China characteristic plant brand Yurongchu and so on.

Qiao Xiaoling, director of the research and development department of Liren Beauty Cosmetics, who is leading the research and development of new products, told the interface fashion that from the data of e-commerce market, the current consumer preferences are polarized. Consumers with strong economic ability are still loyal to high-end cosmetics, while some consumers whose mentality has changed from excitement to conservatism pursue products with higher cost performance.

This means that the mid-range beauty products are cold.

Cosme Meishi, the head foundry behind famous beauty brands at home and abroad, such as L ‘Oreal, Estee Lauder, Perfect Diary and Hua Xizi, also found the same rule from the needs of cooperative customers.

Cosmis is a Korean cosmetics ODM company, but China has already become its second largest market. Liu Yuanli, deputy general manager of Cosme Meishi’s production headquarters in China, told Interface Fashion that some brand customers are focusing on products with high performance-to-price ratio and strong efficacy, that is, "increasing the quantity without increasing the price", and improving the added quantity and efficacy of ingredients to the critical value as much as possible under the same pricing.

Qiao Xiaoling also mentioned the same development idea. In addition to maximizing the efficacy of products, they will also make precise development according to consumer demand and provide consumers with combined products to cover all their needs. For example, sensitive muscle consumers may need to spray in the sun environment in addition to daily water emulsion, so they will develop it based on the needs of the scene.

In cooperation with local beauty brands, Liu Yuanli also found that some brands that were originally priced by the public began to try to pursue high-end. For example, a brand originally sold lipstick for one or two hundred yuan, and now it will consider launching products with a price of four or five hundred yuan. Some local skin care brands have also begun to put on shelves skin care products with a retail price of thousands of yuan, and they have the courage to fight with international brands.

In the past three years, due to the epidemic, the traffic and logistics were not smooth, and the influence of online and offline sales was a common problem disclosed by many beauty brands in financial reports and external information, and this problem was solved with the liberalization of the epidemic. However, the "stuck neck" problem that the main raw materials depend on overseas markets has become more prominent after this epidemic.

A cosmetics researcher told the interface fashion that during the epidemic period, the problems of overseas raw material procurement interruption and price increase caused many brands to rush to the local market to find alternative raw materials. However, it is very complicated and time-consuming to replace raw materials by re-debugging the formula, filing and registering. Therefore, the delay in launching new products and the increase in development costs have been more problems in the past three years.

The reason why substitute materials are hard to find is that there are not many local manufacturers of daily cosmetics raw materials in China cosmetics industry chain.

Qiao Xiaoling said that this is because if the basic raw materials such as surfactants are only used in a single domestic market, the output may not cover the input, and the quantity efficiency is not high; On the other hand, head chemical enterprises such as BASF and Dow started from large chemical industry, and then gradually entered the fine chemical industry in the fields of daily cosmetics. These international manufacturers basically monopolize the global market share, and it is difficult for domestic small manufacturers to start from scratch.

For the present cosmetic manufacturers, the development of functional active ingredients, a subdivision of raw materials, is a new starting point for competition.

In 2018, Kosmet Group established a raw material company in China, aiming at developing exclusive raw materials with China characteristics. Its newly introduced X-fine ultra-fine powder treatment technology claims to make the base makeup lighter and lighter. Liu Yuanli said that these exclusive technical raw materials can not only help Cosme to expand its own quantity, but also feed back the upstream raw materials companies that provide basic raw materials.

In China, similar manufacturers of raw materials focusing on active ingredients have begun to show their edge.

Qiao Xiaoling takes ergothionine, a popular ingredient in the skin care market, as an example. When ergothionine was first synthesized abroad, its cost price was very high, reaching 200,000 yuan per kilogram. However, after using biosynthetic technology to increase the output of ergothionine in China, the price reduction is immediate, and its current market cost price is basically 60,000 yuan to 70,000 yuan per kilogram.

The technical realizability and broad application market prospect of these functional active ingredients undoubtedly bring new opportunities to local brands. Oriental plant components, peptides, oligopeptides and other peptide compounds are the hot research directions in the domestic cosmetic market at present.

In the past, there were many local skin care brands featuring herbs in China, such as Yiyibucao and Baique Ling. However, compared with the efficacy memory of nicotinamide, boson and other compounds, the efficacy of herbal skin care products always has a sense of distance.

Liren Lizhuang’s own brand Yurongchu has listed a series of products with saffron extract as the main functional ingredient since the beginning. In Qiao Xiaoling’s view, there is still a lot of room for development of oriental herbs. The key is to thoroughly study how to better extract and retain their active ingredients, how to make them work with other ingredients in the formula, scientifically present their mechanism of action, and further verify their safety.

Since L ‘Oré al, Revlon and other international brands entered China for a century, the cosmetics market in China has only developed for more than 20 years. However, local cosmetics enterprises have begun to ponder how to surpass these international competitors by admiring, learning from and learning from them. Everyone reached a consensus that independent research and development is the way to build core competitiveness and barriers.

Local listed cosmetics companies such as Polaiya, Shuiyang, Marubi and Betani all invested in heavy assets projects such as production R&D bases after raising funds. For some brands that get goods from foundries and start with online marketing, in-depth cooperation with foundries is a path to overtake in corners.

In 2020, Yixian (Guangzhou) R&D and production base jointly established by Perfect Diary parent company Yixian E-commerce will be officially put into production this year. In 2022, Kosmet also established a joint venture with Pellet Group, the parent company of new brands such as UNNY, RNW and Aiyu, in Fengxian, Shanghai. Eye-catching shows that the equity ratio of Zhongke Simesi and Pellet in the joint venture company "Pellet Cosmetics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd." is 82%.

Liu Yuanli said that this is a two-way win-win model. The brand side can gain the inclination of the R&D and production capacity of Cosme Meishi, shorten the development cycle, reduce the production cost and so on, and stabilize its own supply chain. Cosme poetry can cultivate more long-term and stable customers, maximize its own production capacity and ensure sales.

In the past three years, the pain felt by downstream brands has also been transmitted to upstream manufacturers, which is reflected in problems such as reduced orders and vacant production capacity. To stand out from the fierce competition in the supply chain, upstream manufacturers must also change the previous thinking of "waiting for customers to come" and actively increase service to stabilize old customers and expand new customers.

In order to recover quickly after the epidemic, Kosmet reconfigured the personnel structure, reduced the number of front-line production personnel by upgrading automation equipment, and increased the recruitment of R&D personnel.

In the past, Cosme Poetry Research Department was only divided into two sections: skin care and make-up, and the increase of researchers also made it refined into the special development of specific product categories such as cream and tissue substances. In addition, Cosme has set up a testing service center to shorten the time and cost of sending products to a third-party testing company for efficacy evaluation.

Because OEM manufacturers often receive orders from brands one to two months in advance to stock up, they are more sensitive to the recovery of the cosmetics market.

Liu Yuanli said that with reference to the data in 2021, Kosmet will achieve year-on-year growth in the second quarter of this year, and the company has begun to feel the atmosphere of 618 e-commerce promotion this year. In addition, from the communication with many brands, the third quarter, which was sandwiched between 618 and double 11 in the past, was a low point in sales, but this year may become a "turnaround" moment in the beauty industry. And the fourth quarter, which includes double 11’s big promotion node, is the expected opportunity for the big outbreak.

At the time of the outbreak of local beauty brands two years ago, it was a hot topic to seize the opportunity and eat up the bonus. However, in the period of fading traffic and low industry, introspection and self-cultivation are the starting points of the brand’s long March from 1 to 100.

Beauty companies based on a single main brand began to exert their brand matrix, such as the make-up brand Caitang to Polaiya, and the high-end anti-aging brand Jieke to Betani; New subdivided blank areas have begun to attract attention. For example, Nature Hall launched the efficacy brand "Own Out" focusing on baby’s fragile muscles at the US Expo; Starting from the cutting-edge brands who have made a fortune online, we are beginning to pay attention to the importance of offline channels. For example, Hua Xizi opened its first flagship store in Hangzhou, and tested the water in pop-up shop in Japan.

These new attempts are new opportunities for local cosmetics enterprises to explore and create for themselves, and they are also important signs of industry recovery and future development.

"I witnessed greatness in baseball."

-Walt Walt Whitman.

In "Time and the River", Thomas Wolfe once described in poetic language the grand occasion of people in southern towns watching the scoreboard outside the newspaper during the 1912 World Series.

They imagined the wonderful scene of the game thousands of miles away by changing the numbers on the scoreboard. In another masterpiece, You Can’t Go Home Again, Wolff also portrayed the literary image of an old baseball player whose baseball career is coming to an end.

In his masterpiece Bang the Drum Slowly, Mark Harris tells the story of how a baseball player who was doomed to fail faced death. This acclaimed baseball novel was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1973, which was also a great success and made Robert De Niro, the leading actor, well known.

baseballIt is an element of competitive animation classics.

Whether you are born after 80, 90 or 00, as long as you are interested in sports animation, you will have seen at least one baseball animation.From Baseball Hero to Major League Baseball, to Diamond Ace, of course, there are many fans who know a lot about more baseball cartoons. Those incredible reversals and the superb performance of the protagonist’s aura have made your blood boil. Compared with Nobuo’s "magic ball", I’m afraid baseball fans prefer the spirit of self-burning and the growing story of Sawamura Eijun’s frustration and courage!

• of course，The success of baseball animation works is not accidental, but formed by choosing the best among the best on the basis of a huge base.. When you open a list of competitive cartoons, you will find that there are a lot of baseball cartoons that can’t be named at all. Whether it’s hot-blooded or girlish, everything is available. Of course, the environment in which these authors grew up is an extremely popular environment for baseball, but baseball itself doesUnique.
• Why is baseball favored by so many cartoons and comics?One reason is that it’sReversal property is stronger.! Because the end of the game is not measured by time, but by the number of outs, there is a famous saying in the field of baseball-"The game is not over until the last exit.". In reality, there is a good show of reversing 7 points in the second half of 9 innings, let alone animation.
• The charm of baseball is also reflected in another unique attribute. Compared with other team sports, baseball and related sports (softball, cricket, etc.) areThe defender has the initiative.Yes! Generally, we are familiar with sports in which the player who needs to score has the ball, but baseball is the player who is responsible for keeping the score. This will make the game between the offensive and defensive ends more exciting and fair, rather than the defensive side needs to try its best to destroy the initiative of the offensive end. These two points have made baseball attractive enough.

Baseball

It is a ball game that combines intelligence and physical strength.

Known as "The combination of competition and wisdom"

For our country, baseball has been introduced for more than 100 years.

But its development speed is very slow.

There is a big gap with some other ball games.

butbaseballIs a

Exercise that is very beneficial to people’s intelligence and physical health.

Baseball is different from other ball games.

haveInteresting, playful, military, competitive and intelligent.Features,

For athletesLogical thinking abilityandin good condition

Have a good exercise effect,

It is very suitable for college students.

Therefore, many colleges and universities in China are actively advocating the development of baseball.

The shape of the stadium

Stadium presentationFan shape

Most of the activities of the competition are based onhome baseAs a starting point.Infieldbehome base、first base、second base、third basecircumambientdiamond. After hitting a hit, the batter will try to get on the base in a counter-clockwise direction.

Home runfirst basesidelinerightGo to home platethird basesidelineLeftare allOut of bounds area, and vice versa. The outfield is the out-of-bounds area outside the infield.

red lineThe area is still part of the stadium, but it does not belong to the boundary.

RunnercanWhen running to the base bagOut of bounds/out of bounds markings, but subject toNo more than three feet.The specification of.

(What do you mean, give me a chestnut:)

InfieldIt has a side length of 27.4 meters.square

Home plate is called in English.

“Home base”。

(base runner is from here.departRun run run run,

pass byFirst base, second base and third base,

againreturnHome base，

Kind of like going out.Walk aroundThe feeling of going home again)

Is used todecide

Did the pitcher pass the pitch?Strike zone、

Is base runner?Safe treadingHome plate comes back to score,

Does the batterSwing halfwayEqualImportant basis.

Made of pentagonal white rubber plate.

It is divided into three bases: first base, second base and third base, each of which has one.Garrison playerResponsible for defense.

In the gamebase runnerforscore, must pass through the location set by the three bases, and these three bases are first base, second base and third base in turn. base runner mustPass by in sequenceThese three bases can only beReturn to home platebutscore.

Base running instructor area

Baseball is located outside the first and third bases, and the area for the base running instructor to guide the team members to run and hit the ball is called ".Base running instructor area”。

(The base running instructor canguidehitterstrike a ball)

Pitcher boardIt’s located on the baseball fieldPitcher mound topA rectangular white rubber flat plate in a flat area,

providepitcherWhen pitching, the center of the ball is at the foot.For standing.

And just below the pitcher’s plate,

There is a cement base for fixing the pitcher’s board.

The function is to fix the position of the pitcher’s board,

Avoid changing the position because the pitcher’s axis foot is trampled.

Tips: (The distance from the pitcher’s plate to the top of home plate is 18.44 meters)

Comic book Baseball Hero

In baseball

For the players on the field and the substitutes who don’t play.

And other team members wearing sports clothes.

The prepared seat is called

“Player’s seat"

The players’ seats are set at the bases on both sides of the court.

At least 6~7 meters away.

Used by the host and guest teams.

• Unlike other sports, which require excellent athletic ability, baseball is a kind of sports.You can get started as long as you are willing to try.The movement. If you are a big fat man with outstanding hitting power, you can even be a key hitter as long as you improve your batting average; On the defensive side, he can be a left outfielder with little defensive pressure, and he can also take over if he is willing to practice squatting. If you are a small man, but you have excellent running ability, you can become a pioneer after you have a certain hitting ability, and even practice to steal some stunts to complete the promotion.Even if you are plain and nothing outstanding, as long as you are willing to practice hitting and can hit the ball out, you will have the opportunity to show yourself on the baseball field!

• Of course, the entry threshold of baseball is very low, and you can play tall, short and fat, but if you want to play well, you need it.Lots of practice.. At the very least, the three elements of "throwing and hitting" are passable, but as long as you are not as dull as Raimon Tarou in "The Mask of the Speed of Light", these three abilities can be gradually improved through acquired practice; If you can, add "run". However, after playing baseball for a long time,You will find that you already have the all-round sports skills of "throwing and running", and you will not be so unfamiliar when you engage in other sports.

So,If you want to change yourself through a sport, choose baseball.!

Climate change is the most urgent and complex global crisis facing mankind, and coping with climate change has become a top priority for mankind. What can education contribute to human response to climate change? How to play the role of education to slow down and adapt to climate change?

Recently, at the Sixth World Education Frontier Forum with the theme of "Climate Education and Learning: Turn the tide and Start with Me", experts and scholars from home and abroad discussed these issues in combination with the latest research results in climate change education.

What can education do for climate change?

Ma Fengqi, dean of the School of Education of Guangzhou University, believes that in the face of the increasingly severe challenge of climate change, what human beings can do is to start from me, from now on, from everyone’s daily life, and education is duty-bound.

Yin Houqing, vice-president of the 8th Council of China Education Association and president of Shanghai Education Association, conducted a survey on 236 primary and secondary schools in Shanghai. He found that the surveyed schools designed 400 scientific projects in project-based learning, and the environment-related projects accounted for about 20%, which was a high proportion in general. However, the projects related to climate change account for 2.5%, which is very low.

Yue Wei, a professor at the School of Education of Huazhong Normal University, believes that tackling climate change is not only a scientific and social issue, but also an educational issue, and education must take active action. The value orientation of education in coping with climate change lies in slowing down and adapting to climate change.

"For a long time, education has always followed the modern development paradigm centered on economic growth. This is undoubtedly aggravating the survival crisis of mankind and the earth. " Yue Wei said that in order to alleviate, adapt and even reverse climate change, education itself must be changed, and its important direction is its own ecologicalization.

In addition, an evaluation survey of international students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that young people generally have a good understanding of climate change. Among the students surveyed, nearly 80% said they knew or were very familiar with climate change and global warming.

Deborah Nusa, a senior analyst of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, believes that the education system plays an important role in climate change by influencing the way of thinking, behavior and life choices. At the same time, climate change provides an opportunity for education: to help young people improve their thinking skills and accept complexity better.

What challenges does climate change education face?

In East Asia, a region with a strong atmosphere of exam-oriented education, how can we carry out an education that seems to be not directly related to further studies and exams? Li Shengbing, dean of the School of Education Science of South China Normal University and executive director of the Hong Kong and Macao Research Center, pointed out that the implementation of climate change education is indeed a big problem.

Pei Qing, an associate professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has long been engaged in research on climate change education. In his teaching practice, he found that when talking to students about global climate change, students usually feel very far away from themselves. When studying climate change, it is difficult for students to feel the traces of climate change.

Pei Qing believes that how to close the distance between students and climate change education, effectively promote climate change education, and enhance young people’s scientific literacy and humanistic feelings are issues that need to be considered in climate change education.

"At present, in some countries, school science teaching has not changed much in the past ten years, becoming more and more outdated and out of touch with real scientific practice in the real world." Deborah Nusa believes that school science education plays a vital role in cultivating future scientists, so attracting and supporting students to further their studies in the STEM field is the key to strengthening green development.

Teachers are the key to the implementation of climate change education, but teachers around the world generally lack the necessary knowledge, resources and teaching training related to climate change education, and cannot effectively implement climate change education in the classroom. A recent survey conducted by UNESCO on 58,280 teachers in 144 countries shows that less than 40% teachers are confident to teach climate change knowledge.

How to carry out climate change education?

Gong Peng, vice president of the University of Hong Kong and professor of global sustainable development, pointed out that many climate change problems are not profound, and climate change education should start with dolls.

He believes that the relevant knowledge of climate change should be designed in the basic education system, from kindergarten to high school, giving priority to the knowledge of climate change on health threats, starting with the simple knowledge of coping with high temperature and heat waves, and gradually increasing the systematic knowledge of coping with climate change.

Climate change education involves meteorology, geography, physics, chemistry, sociology, economics, politics and other disciplines. Yue Wei pointed out that the implementation of climate education should move from a single discipline to a multi-disciplinary integration, and the unique advantages of different disciplines should be brought into play to achieve the effect of collaborative education.

Li Xingwei, president of Macau University of Science and Technology, an academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering, believes that the government can use the database to carry out popular science activities and cooperate with secondary schools and universities to improve students’ awareness of climate change. The development of climate change education needs interdisciplinary thinking. At the university level, tourism industry, environment, economy and other disciplines all intersect. He hopes that the construction of these related subjects in China can form an all-round talent training system from undergraduate to doctoral level.

Yue Wei believes that student-centered experiential teaching and inquiry learning are the most effective for climate change education. These teaching methods can make students connect with the real world, give full play to their creativity, and then find solutions to problems from different angles.

Yin Houqing also believes that climate education is not only to teach people the skills to cope with climate change in their lives, but also to enable students to form the values they need to adapt to climate change, thus driving behavioral changes. In the construction and implementation of the climate change education curriculum, the thematic learning mode promotes learners from knowledge learning to understanding learning, and then connects with life, so as to improve the quality of ecological civilization.

The "World Education Frontier Forum" is a cross-disciplinary international education exchange platform founded by the China Education Thirty Forum, with the aim of "leading the trend and creating the future". The forum aims to promote the international exchange of the latest educational ideas and models, promote the application of the latest educational technology, and realize the all-round development of education in the future. The forum was hosted by the China Education Thirty Forum, in cooperation with the Education Policy Research Center of the University of Hong Kong, and co-organized by Tian Jiabing Foundation, the National and Regional Research Base of the Ministry of Education, the Hong Kong and Macao Research Center of South China Normal University, and the School of Education of Guangzhou University.