When traditional sunscreens are caught up in the \"high SPF value competition\" and sunscreen sprays are trapped by inhalation risks, an unremarkable solid formulation - sunscreen sticks - are moving from the periphery to the center stage at an astonishing speed.

According to third-party data, in the past year (from July 2025 to June 2026), the sales of sunscreen sticks on mainstream e-commerce platforms (Taobao + Tmall + Douyin + JD.com) reached 51 million yuan, increasing by 79.9% year-on-year and also by 79.9% month-on-month. During the same period, the sales of sunscreen decreased by 3.6% year-on-year. Between a rise and a fall, a once overlooked niche category has managed to break through against the trend in just three years.

This is not merely a digital story of the growth rate of a category. Against the backdrop of the overall market in the sunscreen industry entering a stage of saturation and the growth rate turning negative in 2026, the explosive growth of sunscreen sticks reveals a deeper change in the industry\'s logic: the competition in the sunscreen field is shifting from \"who has stronger protection\" to \"who makes users more willing to use them\".

The sunscreen market is experiencing new growth

A market size of 51 million yuan might seem insignificant in the context of the entire sunscreen market. By 2025, the scale of China\'s sunscreen cosmetics market had exceeded 10 billion yuan, reaching 17.9 billion yuan. However, the growth logic of sunscreen sticks is far more worth observing than the numbers themselves.

According to the \"2026 E-commerce Consumption Trend of Sunscreen Category\" (the statistics are based on the online transaction volume of Tmall and Douyin), the data from 2024 to January to May 2026 shows that the overall online sunscreen market has entered a mature stage. In 2025, it achieved a moderate year-on-year growth of 7.3%, but in 2026, the growth rate turned negative, with sales revenue and volume slightly decreasing by 0.2% and 0.5% respectively year-on-year. The growth curve is turning downward, and the category ceiling is approaching.

Sun protection cosmetics have generally entered a period of high inventory (screenshot from \"E-commerce Consumption Trends of Sun Protection Category in 2026\")

According to third-party data, in the past year (from July 2025 to June 2026), the sales of sunscreen cosmetics on mainstream e-commerce platforms (Taobao + Tmall + Douyin + JD.com) reached 14.46 billion yuan, increasing slightly by 5.9% year-on-year.

The overall market is shrinking in volume, but sunscreen sticks are booming. The year-on-year growth rate of 79.9% stands out particularly against the backdrop of overall pressure on the sunscreen category - not only did it outperform the sunscreen market (+5.9%), but it also achieved a breakthrough against the trend in the context of the overall market growth turning negative.

The supply side is accelerating its response to this signal. According to the big data from Meixiu, only 5 new sunscreen sticks were registered in 2021, but this number will soar to 25 in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 108%. Since 2026, 25 new products have been registered, and the number of new products for the whole year may far exceed that of last year. Over the past four years, the number of new product registrations has jumped from single digits to over 30. The growth rate of the market and the speed at which new products enter the market form a positive feedback loop - the cake is getting bigger and more people are cutting it.

The global market is also on an upward trend. According to Research and Markets, the global sunscreen stick market was approximately $2.12 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $3.75 billion in 2032, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.4%. This growth rate outperformed the overall growth rate of the sunscreen market.

But the crux of the matter is not how fast the growth rate is, but rather: Why sunscreen sticks?

Sunscreen sticks are more than just for sun protection

The explosion of sunscreen sticks is no accident. It precisely hits three long-neglected structural pain points in the sunscreen market:

Pain point one: The dilemma of touch-up painting.

Why do consumers get tanned even after applying high-SPF sunscreen? The problem does not lie in the SPF value, but in the reapplication.

The \"2026 E-commerce Consumption Trends in the Sunscreen Category\" uses a set of data to reveal the most profound contradiction in sunscreen consumption: only 43% of consumers will reapply sunscreen every two hours during outdoor activities, while the reapplication behavior of nearly 60% of consumers is scattered, passive, and triggered by conditions - even the proportion of people who \"basically do not reapply sunscreen\" is 13%.

Consumer Research and Analysis of Sunscreen (Screenshot from \"E-commerce Consumption Trends of Sunscreen Category in 2026\")

Where is the problem? Applying sunscreen requires hands, a mirror and a relatively private space - for high-frequency usage scenarios, the cost of this action is prohibitively high.

The sunscreen stick precisely hit this gap. Portability, no dirt on hands, one-handed operation, and no makeup smudge after touch-ups - these seemingly minor experience upgrades precisely form the most solid growth foundation for sunscreen sticks.

Pain point Two: Skin sensation anxiety.

In the past, consumers were willing to endure heavy, greasy, pale or even muddy skin for a stronger sun protection effect. But nowadays, when SPF50+ and PA++++ have almost become the standard configuration of mainstream brands, the dimension of competition has begun to shift - the weight of skin feel has significantly increased, and 70% of consumers pay attention to \"texture and skin feel\" in the purchasing process.

The sunscreen stick, in a solid form, naturally avoids the greasy feeling and skin discomfort caused by the fluidity of liquid sunscreens. For children and people with sensitive skin, sun protection is never as simple as \"choosing the one with high protection\" - liquid sunscreens have the risk of getting into the eyes, and sprays have the hidden danger of inhalation. The emergence of sunscreen sticks has, for the first time, made it no longer necessary to choose between \"high-intensity protection\" and \"ultimate experience\".

Pain point three: Scene segmentation.

The sunscreen stick is precisely adapted to various scenarios such as post-makeup touch-up, outdoor portability, and eye protection for children, achieving an experience upgrade from \"usable\" to \"effective\". Sun protection sticks, with their flexible shape and wide range of application scenarios, have become one of the fastest-growing products nowadays, whether on the way to work, during lunch breaks, or outdoors on weekends.

When the sun protection industry finds it hard to tell a story with \"new ingredients\", competition is forced towards form and experience: whoever can enable users to protect themselves from the sun painlessly will win. Sunscreen sticks are precisely the first answer to emerge in this competition of forms.

Competitive landscape: Korean brands dominate the list

Cosmetics Watch has sorted out the best-selling sunscreen bars on mainstream e-commerce platforms in the past year. From this, the following trends can be observed:

Korean brands are dominant

If the sunscreen stick market is compared to a card game, the current situation is that Korean brands have almost taken away all the big names.

Specifically, among the TOP20 best-selling sunscreen sticks in the past year, 15 were from South Korean brands, accounting for as high as 75%. Among them, Abib (AbIB) is the brand with the highest frequency of being listed, with four product links making the cut. By segmenting users of different skin types through various colors (black/gray) and functions (oil control/moisturizing), Abib has built a competitive barrier with multiple SKUs - this is not the victory of a single hit product, but the victory of a complete product matrix.

This forms a sharp contrast with the overall landscape of the sun protection market - by 2025, domestic brands\' share in the sun protection cosmetics market had reached 49.6%, achieving a leapfrog development. However, in the niche market of sunscreen sticks, the presence of domestic products is almost non-existent.

The pricing of 100 yuan is the mainstream

Among the TOP20 products, only 7 are priced under 100 yuan. The price range of 100 to 200 yuan features 12 models, making it the most fiercely competitive price range. There is only one product priced at over 200 yuan, \"【 Recommended by Chao Ran 】Topicrem High-Power Sunscreen Invisible Stick SPF50 Refreshing Oil Control UV\", priced at 218 yuan.

Overall, the sunscreen stick market still takes the mass market at the hundred-yuan level as its core battlefield, precisely positioning itself in the psychological range of \"consumption upgrade but not excessive luxury\". This also validates a judgment in reverse: when consumers purchase sunscreen sticks, they are not buying \"cheaper sunscreen\", but \"more convenient sunscreen\".

\"Sun protection Plus\" has drawn attention

A word frequency analysis of the top 20 product titles shows that their high-frequency selling points precisely correspond to the pain points of the explosive growth of sunscreen sticks:

The words \"refreshing/non-greasy/non-sticky\" appeared 12 times, directly verifying the industry judgment of \"skin feel anxiety\" - the first demand of consumers when purchasing sunscreen sticks is to get rid of the greasy feeling of liquid sunscreen. Abib\'s \"refreshing and non-greasy\" and Obge\'s emphasis on \"refreshing and oil control\" are both precise responses to this demand.

The phrase \"portable/hand-free/portable\" appeared eight times, verifying the pain point of the \"touch-up dilemma\" - the core value of the sunscreen stick lies in reducing the cost of user behavior friction.

In addition, a notable trend signal is that sunscreen sticks are evolving from \"sun protection\" to \"substitutes for base makeup\". Mistine\'s \"No-makeup Sunscreen Stick\", which has ranked first, has put forward the concept of \"six in one\", explicitly stating that \"applying makeup = applying sunscreen\". When sunscreen sticks simultaneously replace multiple steps such as sunscreen, foundation, cushion and essence, they are no longer seasonal items but a year-round beauty necessity - this transformation has structural significance for the expansion of the market size.

Mistine \"No-Makeup Sunscreen Stick\" (Image source: Mistine Overseas Flagship Store)

The \"Lateness\" and \"Catch-up\" of Domestic products

In the past few years, the core efforts of domestic sunscreen brands have been focused on two directions: one is to compete with international brands for market share in the traditional sunscreen/lotion market, and the other is to seize the category dividend of sunscreen spray to rapidly increase sales. However, the golden period of the spray is rapidly narrowing. As the National Medical Products Administration continues to intensify its supervision over spray-type cosmetics, sunscreen sticks have quietly taken over the baton of \"convenient sun protection\".

However, this time Korean brands have taken the lead. When Korean brands have occupied more than 70% of the top positions, this battle has long transformed from a survival proposition of \"whether to do it or not\" to \"how to do it and how deep to do it\".

Some domestic brands have begun to take action. Turtle Dad and Runben have successively launched children\'s sun protection sticks - the former is positioned as \"gentle sun protection for children\", while the latter focuses on \"researching outdoor sun protection formulas for children\", both targeting the vertical group of children who are highly sensitive to the safety of the formulation and the risk of eye contact. Baijueling has registered the \"Cloud Breath Refreshing Sunscreen Stick\", highlighting its lightness, convenience, and breathability. Meifubao has launched the \"Airy Light Sunscreen Stick\", emphasizing \"simplifying complexity and applying it before makeup\". Camel Outdoor Beauty focuses on outdoor scenarios, with its sunscreen sticks highlighting \"light, thin, transparent, waterproof and sweat-proof\" features.

Runben\'s sunscreen stick specially designed for children (Image captured from the National Medical Products Administration\'s Cosmetics Filing website)

Where are the opportunities for domestic products?

A set of key figures is worth noting: According to public data, the share of sunscreen sticks in the South Korean sunscreen market has exceeded 6%, 3.64% in Indonesia, while only 0.34% in China. This six-fold or even nearly twenty-fold gap precisely constitutes the imagination space for domestic brands.

The penetration rate of sunscreen sticks in China is extremely low. Besides the fact that the category awareness is still in its early stage, the user experience bottleneck of the product itself cannot be ignored either - the stick-shaped design usually means that the amount applied once is far less than the recommended amount, and hygiene issues and high-temperature stability are also inherent shortcomings of solid formulations - and these bottlenecks are precisely the entry points that latecomers can break through.

But the more fundamental opportunity lies in crowd insight. The product logic of Korean brands centers on \"skin type segmentation\" - oil-control products for oily skin and hydrating products for dry skin. However, domestic brands have a local advantage in \"precise target audience operation\" : children\'s sun protection, sun protection for sensitive skin, and sun protection for commuting scenarios. These specific demands have not yet been fully met by Korean brands. The entry of Turtle Dad and Runben into the children\'s market is precisely the initial verification of this logic.

Overall, like many new product categories in their early stages, sunscreen sticks have not yet entered a period of rapid development. Before more players flood in, whoever can find a differentiated entry point in the combination of \"high-magnification sun protection + micro-innovation in skin feel + precise target audience\" will have the opportunity to define the next five years of this new 100-yuan track.

Domestic brands once achieved a leapfrog development over international brands in the overall sunscreen market - from a share of less than 30% in 2018 to 49.6% in 2025. This was precisely due to their in-depth understanding of local skin types, local demands, and local channels. Nowadays, in the new market of sunscreen sticks, can the same script be repeated?

The answer is being written, and the clock has already begun to count down.

Reference materials

\"Portable and Hand-Free - Sunscreen Sticks Prove with 48% Growth Rate that sun protection Can Be more convenient.\" Insight into the Magic Mirror

2. \"E-commerce Consumption Trends of Sunscreen Category in 2026\". Zhi Xing Yi He Consulting Service Group

3. Due to differences in statistical periods and sample scopes among various reports, some data may have inconsistent standards. Corresponding explanations have been provided in the text

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