Talk of an attractive beauty market. China’s spend on cosmetics, skincare and fragrance has quadrupled in the past decade to $12.5bn. Over the next four years, Bernstein Research reckons, the country will contribute a fifth of the sector’s global growth, giving it a bigger share of the $180bn or so pie.

This is partly predicated on a mushrooming middle-class, forecast by independent brokerage CLSA to nearly double to almost a billion people; the equivalent to three USAs, by the middle of the decade. Nor is it just the women: L’Oréal says China’s market for men’s skincare products rose 27 per cent last year and has been rising at a 40 per cent clip this – about five times as fast as women’s beauty potions.

L’Oréal is leading the charge to fill Chinese bathroom shelves. Procter & Gamble still owns the most popular skincare brand, Olay, but was overtaken in overall market share in 2008 by its French rival which boasts a more diverse portfolio of brands. L’Oréal also dominates the smaller market for cosmetics, taking a third of sales by value, five times the share of its nearest rival, Japan’s Shiseido.