VietNamNet Bridge - After many years of using only French makeup, My Ha, 40, from Phu Nhuan district in HCM City has begun using natural products made by Vietnamese enterprises. 

Vietnamese youth, who account for 60 percent of the total population, are a promising market for health and beauty products. The industry has an average growth rate of 30 percent per annum. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese spend an average of $4 a year per capita on beauty products and services, while women spend VND140,000 (nearly $6) a month. 

A 2017 survey by Kantar WorldPanel in four large cities and several rural areas found that multinational brands such as Unilever and P&G have been dominant in the personal and home sectors over the last three years. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Avoiding the crowded industrial cosmetics market segment, Vietnamese manufacturers are developing organic products. However, the path to success has not been smooth.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam is a large cosmetics market with turnover of $1.1 billion last year, but there is now little room for Vietnamese manufacturers.

Many South Korean beauty service brands are seeking ways to penetrate the Vietnamese market through franchise models after the elimination of seven tariff lines on cosmetics.

Reports from the Trade Map of ITC and the World Bank show that Vietnam imported $500 million worth of cosmetics in 2011 and $1.1 billion in 2016, while the figure is expected to double by 2020 to $2.2 billion.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese manufacturers have found it difficult getting a foothold in the cosmetics market, valued at VND15 trillion (nearly $700 million) with a high growth rate of 20 percent per annum.  

VietNamNet Bridge - With tax reductions for beauty industry products included in free trade agreements (FTAs), Vietnam is seen as a promising market for cosmetics firms and foreign suppliers of beauty-care machines and equipment.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam is set to ban about 22,000 types of cosmetics containing five derivatives of Paraben that are suspected of causing breast cancer and male infertility.

Cosmetics manufacturers are expected to import products to sell in the domestic market instead of producing goods in factories in Vietnam, as import tariff barriers will be removed next year.

 Skin grown in the laboratory can replace animals in drug and cosmetics testing, UK scientists say.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The number of Vietnamese cosmetics brands in the home market remains very modest. But the situation may get different in the future, as more investors plan to pour money into the sector.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Despite economic woes, sales via multilevel marketing in Vietnam have steadily increased with over one million people involved in network marketing.