BANGKOK: Thai actress and model Chanana Nutakom is used to putting on copious amounts of make-up for work.
After four decades in the business and countless Thai drama series, the 62-year-old celebrity knows better than most the importance of taking care of her skin – and is increasingly mindful of what she puts on her face.
Chanana, better known as Dee, doesn’t just rely on pricey foreign skincare products to maintain her youthful appearance. She also uses Thai beauty products, or T-Beauty.
“Expensive doesn’t always mean better and affordable doesn’t mean bad. What matters is the quality,” she stressed.
T-Beauty brands – ranging from fast-growing labels like INGU Skin to established household names like Srichand – are increasingly looking beyond their home market. They are betting that products developed with the South-East Asian climate and skin types in mind will give them an edge as they take on established Japanese and South Korean beauty brands and increasingly competitive Chinese rivals.
INGU founder Chayadhorn Kitiyadisai noted: “We don’t have seasons. We only have the sun, the heat and the humidity. So there’s definitely a reason to believe in the skincare products that’re made around this region.”
The 29-year-old started manufacturing his own beauty products about four years ago. Drawing on three generations of his family’s experience in cosmetics, he has expanded his brand beyond Thailand through savvy and engaging social media posts.
“The transparency, honesty, showing people the behind-the-scenes of how skincare is made, I think social media has given more opportunities to newer brands that may not have the budget of large beauty corporations from the West,” he said.
And Singapore offered an early test of whether INGU’s online following could translate into demand overseas. When the brand launched here earlier this year, 8,000 people signed up within 24 hours for a fan event, far exceeding Chayadhorn’s expectation of a few hundred.
Only 1,000 could be accommodated, with some fans flying in from Malaysia and the Philippines. At the event, two containers of products sold out in two hours, he said.
At its first Singapore pop-up, the brand also sold out three times after restocking, according to Chayadhorn.
INGU’s revenue has grown from US$2 million in 2022 to US$16.5 million in 2025, he noted.
T-Beauty has also gained traction in the Singapore media, with veteran make-up artist Larry Yeo among local beauty industry names championing the trend. Brands such as 4U2, La Glace and Cathy Doll have built a following beyond their home market with budget-friendly and high-performance formulas.
Thai beauty products have attracted international attention, with reality-TV star Kris Jenner and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo’s wife Georgina Rodriguez among celebrities seen using Thai sunscreen brand Cathy Doll.
Western cosmetics legacy brands aside, J- and K-Beauty exports have long held a firm grip on Asian markets. Now, T-Beauty brands are proving they are not to be underestimated as regional consumers become increasingly familiar with Thai products.
“When products are made by people in the region, for people in the region,” that catches consumers’ attention, said INGU’s Chayadhorn.
To ride on the T-Beauty appeal, he plans to expand his product distribution to regional countries like Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines by the end of 2026.
T-Beauty brands want to be cool too
Another T-Beauty brand eyeing the roughly 700 million-strong Asean market is Srichand, one of Thailand’s oldest cosmetics manufacturers.
After 78 years in business, Srichand United Dispensary’s chief marketing officer Rabil Sirimanakul said expanding overseas was once difficult for local T-Beauty brands.
Brand awareness was the biggest challenge, with conventional trade exhibitions the main promotional platform then.
“But now we have social media. We have the rise of the Thai entertainment, T-Wave. We have some of the Thai culture expanding abroad, we have food and travel and T-Pop. That’s why people know more about Thai brands,” Rabil claimed.
Now managed by the third generation of owners, Srichand underwent a rebranding exercise in 2014 but insisted on staying true to its Thai origins.
“People ask why don’t you change the brand name to be more modern, to be more international, because Srichand is very Thai and a very traditional name – it’s like a grandma name. But we insist on (keeping the name) because we want (it) to represent the Thai brand and Thai-ness,” Rabil said.
“(But) we try to prove that being Thai can be cool, can be modern, and can appeal to the new generation of consumers as well,” he added.
“With our know-how, technology and research and development, we can come up with products that are suitable not just for Thai people but most people in Asean can use our product as well,” he explained.
INGU’s Chayadhorn sees a similar balance between global know-how and local innovation.
“We tap into Western technology but we also balance it out with Thai innovation.”
To further set themselves apart from foreign brands, the two companies are increasingly using local ingredients such as green tea and Damask rose grown in northern Thailand in their products.
From Thailand to the region and beyond
Thailand’s Commerce Ministry forecasts the country’s cosmetics market value will exceed US$10 billion by 2030, while exports of cosmetics, soaps, sunscreens and acne-treatment products are projected to reach US$4.6 billion in 2027 from US$3.3 billion in 2022.
The ministry says Asean, Japan, Australia and China are key markets for T-Beauty products.
But the speed of production and low prices of Chinese beauty products pose a major challenge to T-Beauty.
Yet Thai brands have shown they can also succeed in China. Mistine was among the country’s best-selling sunscreen brands, according to a 2023 China Daily report.
The report noted that the cosmetics label – which began in 1988 as a domestic direct-selling business – had held the top position in sunscreen sales volume for three consecutive years from 2021. Mistine had also expanded its presence to more than 30,000 offline stores in China by then.
Some T-beauty brands have floated the idea of banding together to market and export their products as a collective; another approach is to leverage Thailand’s soft power, mirroring South Korea’s playbook.
But replicating that success will require more than exceptional products.
“K-Beauty, K-Drama, K-Pop, it all came together as a wave. So you would see K-Beauty products being advertised in K-drama, you would see K-Pop artists using K-Beauty. They built a whole ecosystem where everything goes together in one picture,” said INGU’s Chayadhorn.
According to KResearch, a subsidiary of Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank, the T-beauty industry currently accounts for around 2 per cent of the country’s GDP, generating about US$4 billion in annual export revenues.
Though the current numbers are relatively modest, the research unit’s deputy managing director Kevalin Wangpichayasuk believes the T-Beauty industry has strong growth potential, driven by rising global health and wellness trends.
She added that T-Beauty’s growth could also benefit other Thai sectors, including agriculture, as farmers turn local crops into high-value active ingredients like turmeric, gotu kola and lotus flower for beauty products. This value-adding process results in higher incomes for local farmers.
As for Thai actress Dee, her belief in the potential of T-Beauty is more than just a line to be recited.
“I believe Thai products have the potential to become world class brands and be exported globally.” - The Straits Times/ANN
