How Beauty and Fragrance Brands Can Win 618 on Xiaohongshu in 2026

China’s 618 Shopping Festival is no longer just a discount moment. For beauty and fragrance brands, it has become a full-funnel battleground where discovery, desire, search and conversion happen almost simultaneously. On Xiaohongshu, also known internationally as RedNote, consumers are not simply looking for products; they are looking for proof, inspiration and a reason to believe.

The 2026 Xiaohongshu beauty and fragrance playbook points to a clear shift: winning 618 now depends on building demand before the sale, capturing high-intent search during the campaign, and keeping reputation alive after the peak. The platform frames the opportunity around three areas: traffic and trends, upgraded product seeding, and full-domain business operations that connect seeding with conversion.

Beauty consumers are becoming more specific

The biggest change in colour cosmetics is precision. Xiaohongshu highlights that consumers are moving towards more advanced make-up needs, more varied usage occasions and more emotional decision-making. This means a generic “best foundation” or “must-buy lipstick” message is no longer enough.

Users are searching for exact products, exact techniques and exact scenarios. The deck points to rising interest in make-up brushes, aegyo-sal brushes, lip brushes and dry/wet-use powder puffs, showing how granular beauty discovery has become. Occasion-led demand is also expanding, with gifting up 23%, outdoor beauty up 39% and wedding-related beauty up 99%.

Xiaohongshu highlights that shoppers are responding to lifestyle quality, aesthetic appeal and moments of surprise, with appreciation-led content generating 13 million clicks and surprise-led content generating 3.5 million clicks. For brands, this means packaging, gifting rituals and visual storytelling are no longer decorative extras — they are part of what moves consumers from interest to intent.

Search is becoming a mood board

Xiaohongshu search is not only functional; it is increasingly emotional. The report describes search as an “expression window”, where users type in anxieties, aspirations, beauty problems and lifestyle desires. Long search queries of more than eight characters are growing across emotional territories including healing +34% YoY, expectation +25% YoY, anxiety +66% YoY and urgency +31% YoY. 

This matters because beauty search is now closer to a mood board than a product catalogue. Users are not simply asking for “foundation”; they are asking how to stop make-up caking, how to look polished in photos, how to feel calmer, fresher, prettier or more put together. Brands should therefore build content around the language of mood, style and occasion, not just product type.

Style-led keywords are the new 618 shortcut

The strongest 618 search strategy follows the consumer journey. Xiaohongshu recommends using category words before the sale, brand words around the decision stage, and post-purchase tutorials after the campaign. The report also highlights keyword territories including ingredients, sensory words, skin type, scenarios, people, price, occasions, colour, celebrity, efficacy needs, style words and tutorial terms. 

That is where trend-led beauty content becomes commercially useful. The report’s keyword pack examples include spring/summer photo make-up, cherry blossom photo make-up, travel photo make-up, commuter make-up, early-morning work make-up, sports make-up, wedding-prep scenarios and gifting terms. These phrases are not just search terms; they are style codes. A brand that can own “outdoor touch-up kit”, “wedding guest glow” or “commute-proof base” is more likely to appear when the shopper is actively narrowing her shortlist.

Fragrance is moving from notes to identity

Fragrance is also becoming more personal, more situational and more style-led. Xiaohongshu’s report shows a shift from professional note-led storytelling towards user-led solutions, with demand organised around daily scent, occasion scent and spatial scent. The strongest fragrance message is not only “what it smells like”, but “who it helps me become” and “where it belongs in my life”.

The user comments make this even clearer. Behind 66,000+ comments, Xiaohongshu identifies diverse recommendation needs tied to “scent identity”, including school or work-friendly light scents, holiday-feel scents, “big beauty” scents, mature charm scents and MBTI-style fragrance matching. Consumers are not only buying perfume; they are building a personal atmosphere.

Fragrance decisions are also research-heavy. The report shows an average of 43 searches and 102 notes read, with decision cycles split across 1–7 days 26%, 7–30 days 18%, 30–60 days 16% and over 60 days 40%. This journey moves from product validation to note exploration, persona-led discovery and lifestyle fit, with examples such as date fragrance, interview fragrance, old-money style, Clean Girl, bedroom fragrance and sleep-aid fragrance.

Search is the new 618 conversion engine

During 618, Xiaohongshu search becomes especially competitive. The deck notes that search investment rose by 118% for colour cosmetics and 77% for perfume and home fragrance during the 618 period.

The best 618 search strategy should include three layers. First, defend brand terms so competitors do not intercept demand you have already paid to create. Second, attack category and scenario terms such as “618 make-up set”, “gift fragrance”, “summer base make-up” or “wedding guest make-up”. Third, build tutorial content that keeps products visible after purchase, supporting reviews, repeat use and reputation.

The winning playbook starts before 618

The report also makes one planning point clear: 618 performance is built before the peak. For colour cosmetics, Xiaohongshu recommends early search positioning, content preparation, content testing, stronger exposure during the peak and reputation maintenance after the sale. For fragrance, the deck similarly points to early content release, search demand capture, strong exposure during the peak and longer-term seeding after the campaign.

This is why brands should not treat 618 as a two-week promotion. The stronger approach is to seed early, test which content resonates, amplify the best notes, and then use search to capture high-intent shoppers. In practical terms, that means planning content in waves: inspiration first, comparison second, conversion third, and reputation last.

Full-funnel marketing is now non-negotiable

Xiaohongshu’s 2026 approach connects product seeding directly to conversion. The deck describes video notes, image-text notes and search as open fields, with long-term attribution, real-time feedback and closer links with transaction platforms. The report describes a four-level seeding model: natural content distribution, KFS paid tactics, refined full-chain conversion and product portfolio strategy. It also references creators and content sources including KOLs, KOCs, KOS and UGC, alongside information feed and search.

This is the bigger strategic shift. Xiaohongshu should not be treated only as an awareness channel. For 618, it is a demand creation, demand capture and conversion support platform. A strong campaign needs emotional content, practical buying guides, search coverage, creator proof, product-page consistency and post-sale reputation management.

Trust still decides the final click

The final decision is not only about style or price. Xiaohongshu highlights the importance of reputation before and after the campaign, noting that brand reputation directly affects store visits and transaction conversion. Users often conduct “validation” behaviour on Xiaohongshu after their interest is triggered, while negative or “avoid this” notes can also appear in brand-related search results. 

For beauty and fragrance brands, this makes user-generated content, honest reviews, comment management and post-purchase tutorials commercially important. The goal is not only to look desirable; it is to look credible when the shopper checks again before buying.

The takeaway for 2026

For beauty and fragrance brands, the 2026 618 opportunity on Xiaohongshu is not about shouting louder. It is about being more relevant, more searchable and more trusted.

The brands most likely to win will translate product benefits into real-life use cases, connect colour cosmetics and fragrance to identity, and plan content across the full decision journey. In a marketplace where consumers search deeply before they buy, product seeding is not just a branding activity. It is the starting point of conversion.

Contact our team to identify the right search territories, content angles and product seeding opportunities for your brand before the next campaign peak.