Amateur fans increased by 40,000, and the "explosive reform" gameplay became the traffic code of Xiaohongshu

1. When in doubt, listen to advice and change your makeup

After listening to advice for more than half a year, Shaqima’s account was finally successfully “developed”.

In the notes of her debut, she appeared without makeup, holding an A4 paper with the words "listen to advice" written on it, exposing almost all her shortcomings to the public. Now, this "careless" initial image has been replaced by a cool, confident and relaxed trendy girl.

Xiaohongshu blogger @沙七玛

When she first started learning makeup, she only bought eyebrow pencils and lipsticks, and her foundation was given to her by a friend. Later, under the advice of users, she began to learn basic makeup techniques, gradually equipped herself with makeup supplies, and began to do full makeup with beauty bloggers. In her notes, she would post her makeup for today, and users would sincerely offer various ideas to improve her makeup, such as suggesting that she "change to a brown lipstick" and "strengthen her blush". As her makeup skills gradually matured, she also tried Hong Kong-style makeup, Thai makeup, new Chinese makeup, etc., and her techniques gradually became more proficient.

In the early days, she showed the entire process of her makeup in front of the camera, and users joked that "the way you apply foundation shocked me" and "It was as if I saw myself when you drew the eyeliner." But now, she can even provide dressing templates and makeup tips for fans in the comment section, and has received a lot of business orders for monetization.

Although bloggers like @沙七玛 who work for a long time and have a strong sense of development are still a minority, users who are familiar with Xiaohongshu have probably seen similar posts: amateur bloggers post a photo of themselves without makeup or with inconsistent makeup, and in the title, they target specific makeup pain points, such as "yellow and dark skin", "delicate and earthy", or simply "I feel something is weird", and ask users who have seen the notes to give suggestions.

Regarding "makeup changes", Xiaohongshu has an unspoken principle, which is to avoid criticizing facial flaws as much as possible, but to magnify the advantages and then give corresponding makeup change plans, such as "pay attention to creating a three-dimensional effect when applying makeup", "foundation can be lightly applied with a powder puff or beauty egg, and eye shadow can be applied in small amounts and multiple times". Technical users will also directly photoshop the corresponding makeup onto the face of the person seeking help. This kind of practical and "many-to-one" makeup change can sometimes open up makeup ideas for other users.

Xiaohongshu blogger @魏什呀, @人禾刀刀makeup change notes

In 2023, the content of "makeup change" on Xiaohongshu has been booming. According to official statistics, the number of notes related to "listen to advice and change makeup" increased by more than 370% year-on-year. In the "2023 Beauty Inspiration Inventory" released by Xiaohongshu Beauty, "online beauty mutual assistance" was also listed as one of the annual beauty trends.

In addition to ordinary people seeking makeovers, makeup enthusiasts, makeup experts who are riding on the popularity of makeovers, and professional makeup artists are also attracted by the topic of "makeup makeovers". The top makeup experts active on Xiaohongshu, such as @一个在Ｂａｎａ的妆师兔子 and celebrity makeup artist @春楠, have all become popular with their "explosive makeover" content.

Xiaohongshu blogger @A makeup artist rabbit in Banna, @Chunnan

As for amateur bloggers, @小单, a beauty blogger with 11,000 followers on Xiaohongshu, not only likes to share all kinds of novel makeup, but also posted a note at the end of December last year, "Looking at the clumsy people in the comment section, I really want to change their makeup." Unexpectedly, it received a lot of traffic and received tens of thousands of likes. Many sisters posted their photos asking for a makeup change, and with the replies from other users, the comment section was filled with nearly 10,000 floors.

@妆师冬冬呀 is a makeup artist at the Mixc in Chengdu. In her popular makeup change notes on her homepage, she changed her old-fashioned makeup into a more stylish one by perfecting her base makeup, shaping her eyebrows softer, brightening her eyes, changing her lipstick, and other techniques. This attracted a large number of users and received more than 4,400 likes. Some fans even entered the influencer's private domain under her patient guidance. Currently, the number of people in her Xiaohongshu group chat exceeds 500.

Another example is @妆师郑贝贝, who shares various makeup tutorials on “from ineffective to effective makeup” on Xiaohongshu, and inserts product links under her works, providing options for purchasing the same products.

Xiaohongshu blogger @makeup artist Zheng Beibei

At the same time, "makeup change" also provides a hot topic for beauty bloggers to expand their circle . Many beauty bloggers have published "one-on-one makeup change" notes, which are pushed into a larger traffic pool and gain attention. For example, @秋鱼奈橙菜, a beauty blogger with over 1.55 million followers, has published a makeup change note. Based on her own makeup ideas, she randomly helped 30 users in the comment area to change their makeup "one-on-one"; some beauty bloggers will also specially publish topics with the mark "follow me to answer questions."

However, when a topic becomes a hot topic, traffic-seeking operations will follow. Many users complained, "Many bloggers who seek transformation just use people's kindness to operate their accounts" and "After a few days, the photo angles, outfits and makeup are all upgraded." @炸毛小太阳, who takes the development route, was questioned by users for "being too skilled in applying foundation" and "this technique is definitely for someone who knows how to put on makeup." The blogger responded, "I am an all-round talent."

On the other hand, compared to dressing, there is actually not much content that can be expanded upon by changing makeup, and in terms of visual effects, it is not as eye-catching as dressing. This also leads to the fact that many bloggers cannot follow the "cultivation system" path, and their traffic will decline. Bloggers like @沙七玛 who have found the monetization path are still scarce.

2. Behind the popularity of makeup changes, Xiaohongshu’s ambition to make it more life-like

There is a reason why “makeup change” content can become popular on Xiaohongshu.

As a platform where women gather, beauty and cosmetics have always been a strong category on Xiaohongshu. In 2022, beauty and cosmetics has become one of the most searched vertical categories by Xiaohongshu users. Content including skin care tutorials, makeup sharing, lipstick swatches, etc. are all popular on the platform.

In a sense, Xiaohongshu may be the platform that is most difficult to reconcile with bare face, but also the easiest to reconcile with. The former stems from the refined atmosphere of the platform, while the latter is attributed to the trend of "bare face freedom" and the oriental "head-changing" technique of beauty bloggers.

According to Qiangua data, at the beginning of 2023, Xiaohongshu had less than 2,000 new "makeup change" notes per month. Since July, "makeup change" has become a hot word in the beauty circle, and by the end of the year, there were almost 8,000 new notes per month. When searching for keywords on the platform, the topics of "makeup change" and "I listen to advice on makeup change" received 480 million and 400 million views respectively. This type of content with a low creation threshold and eye-catching topics has contributed huge interaction to Xiaohongshu.

Xiaohongshu "makeup change" topic

The sudden rise of makeup notes in July was not entirely due to the hot topic, but the strong promotion of Xiaohongshu. In July this year, Xiaohongshu launched the "Listen to Advice" beauty summer event and launched the "True, Good and Beautiful Helping Group", of which beauty bloggers @Winnie文, @秋鱼奈橙菜, and @勇仔leo are all members.

The reason behind the promotion of such topics with a large number of amateurs is Xiaohongshu's ambition to make it part of daily life. In essence, Xiaohongshu is still a UGC content production platform, which still focuses on sharing users' individual experiences and lifestyles.

In 2018, when Xiaohongshu was still in its growth stage, someone asked a question on Zhihu, "Can Xiaohongshu compete with Weibo in the future?" Looking back six years later, Xiaohongshu's product form was not to be the next Weibo from the beginning.

The big difference is that Xiaohongshu has been intentionally strengthening its "life" gene, which can be seen from the changes in the platform's slogan:

When it was launched in early 2014, it emphasized shopping sharing, and its slogan was "Find good things from abroad" and "Good things from all over the world"; in 2016, its keyword was reset to "life", and in 2018, "Mark my life" itself encouraged young people to record on the platform. Now when you open Xiaohongshu, its slogan has changed to "Your Life Guide". Although the keyword "life" remains unchanged, the focus has shifted from recording to "useful".

After the number of monthly active users exceeded 260 million, the platform also worked hard to strengthen its practicality. "Xiaohongshu is a lifestyle APP" and "Xiaohongshu hopes to become a useful APP, not an entertainment APP."

Take the topic of "makeup change" as an example. This type of content is popular on Xiaohongshu. Part of it is due to Xiaohongshu's non-acquaintance social logic. The real and sincere sharing of content reduces the trust cost between users and makes it easier to discover users' desire to express and consume. On the other hand, it is practical and applicable. Only when users feel "useful" will they actively search and interact . At present, the platform's average daily search query volume is close to 300 million times, and 60% of users will actively search for information.

Looking back at the fashion trends that were born on Xiaohongshu in the past, such as outdoor camping, mountaineering and skiing, cycling, travel photography, and all kinds of beauty and clothing, most of them were born out of user needs, and then the platform provided solutions to lifestyles. Based on this type of content, Xiaohongshu has also created a natural content field for itself, showing its public role and creating opportunities for content seeding and monetization.

Of course, growth is an eternal problem for the Internet. When the growth rate slows down, it is even more necessary to dig deeper into the subdivided fields to expand demand. At last year's 10th anniversary conference, Xiaohongshu extended more similar themes such as "connecting people" and "enabling ordinary people to express themselves better", but how to "connect" a wider range of people (including male users) and balance the proportion of business and content in the community still needs to be explored by Xiaohongshu.

Author: Lin Wu

WeChat public account: caasdata (ID: caasdata6)