From the brink of bankruptcy to a market value of tens of billions, the "high-end" journey of the northeastern internet celebrity family

Author | Li Xiaoxia

Editor | Qiao Qian

Recently, Lin Qingxuan caught the last bus of the wave of consumer companies going public in 2025 and rang the bell at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "first stock of high - end domestic skincare brands" in the Hong Kong stock market.

After the opening, Lin Qingxuan's intraday increase once approached 18%, and finally closed at HK$85 per share, with a first - day increase of 9.3%, corresponding to a total market value of approximately HK$11.9 billion.

Lin Qingxuan is a skincare brand founded during the SARS period in 2003. It initially started with handmade soaps priced at 25 yuan each. After launching the camellia essential oil in 2014, it began its transformation towards high - end products. Its shareholders include Youngor Fashion, Wu Xiaobo, and global beauty giant L'Oréal.

With Lin Qingxuan's listing, it's easy to think of Mao Geping, a makeup brand that also went public in Hong Kong and was named one of the "F4 in the Hong Kong stock market" this year along with Pop Mart, Laopu Gold, and Mixue Ice Cream & Tea.

Both brands use the founders' names as the core brand assets for naming strategies, except that Lin Qingxuan is the pen - name of founder Sun Laichun from his student days.

In addition, both Lin Qingxuan and Mao Geping target the market with high - end pricing, paving two paths in the high - end transformation of domestic beauty brands.

Two Life - and - Death Situations

The story begins with a camellia flower.

In 2012, Sun Laichun, a native of Northeast China, discovered the skincare value of red camellias and launched the first - generation camellia essential oil two years later, becoming an early domestic brand to enter the "skincare with oil" track.

At that time, domestic consumers had limited knowledge of skincare oils. The turning point came after 2020 when "skincare with oil" became the mainstream trend in skincare, with over one million related notes on Xiaohongshu. Lin Qingxuan should have been a beneficiary of this trend but suffered a fatal blow at a critical moment.

In the years when the slogan "All consumer products are worth reinventing" was at its peak, brands like Perfect Diary swept the market with Internet - based strategies, giving the industry an open lesson on "traffic - driven growth."

Lin Qingxuan, however, was an outlier. Through the "front - store, back - factory" model, it opened more than 300 stores across the country (as of early 2020).

However, due to the impact of the pandemic, Lin Qingxuan's advantage in offline stores disappeared. Within less than 16 days, 157 stores across the country closed one after another. Starting from the first day of the Lunar New Year, the brand's overall performance plummeted by 90% in just six days.

Sun Laichun faced another life - and - death situation in his career.

The first one occurred in 2003 when the cosmetics company he represented "disappeared" along with SARS. A few months later, Lin Qingxuan was established.

Unexpectedly, the boomerang of fate came back again after 17 years. At that time, there was approximately 60 - 70 million yuan in the bank account. Sun Laichun calculated that Lin Qingxuan was only 62 days away from "death."

At a critical moment, Sun Laichun issued "A Letter in the Darkest Hour" and started his first live - stream on February 14, 2020, Valentine's Day.

"Before it started, I went to the bathroom three or four times because I was nervous. I didn't know what to say in the first five minutes. Later, when I gradually got into the state, I actually sold so many goods," Sun Laichun recalled later.

The prospectus shows that from 2022 to the first half of 2025, Lin Qingxuan's revenues were 691 million yuan, 805 million yuan, 1.21 billion yuan, and 1.052 billion yuan respectively. The online revenues were 312 million yuan, 394 million yuan, 714 million yuan, and 688 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 51.2% from 2022 - 2024, which is higher than that of offline revenues. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, the proportion of online revenues gradually increased from 45.2%, 49%, 59.1% to 65.4%.

Lin Qingxuan's prospectus

Sun Laichun had previously thought about expanding online channels and had cooperated with Li Jiaqi and Viya for live - streaming sales. However, the smooth operation of offline stores made many things seem less urgent. As he later said, "Some of the existing things won't change without a certain external force," and the pandemic just provided such an external force to help Lin Qingxuan drive these changes.

Lin Qingxuan's online growth is inseparable from its unique family - based traffic operation model. Different from traditional beauty brands that rely on KOLs for sales, Lin Qingxuan has built an IP matrix of "founder + family members + employees," with all members creating content to attract traffic.

Sun Laichun currently has 579,000 followers on Douyin. The famous scene of him drinking a whole bottle of camellia essence water during a live - stream sparked heated discussions, which not only strengthened consumers' perception of the product's natural attributes but also attracted a large amount of attention. His elder brother and co - founder, Sun Fuchun, quickly opened an account and attracted 587,000 followers. Both brothers' accounts are directly used for live - streaming sales.

The second - generation of the family has become a new force in traffic: "Young Master Sun" (the son of Sun Fuchun), born in 1997, has 124,000 followers on Douyin with the label of "funny daily life of a second - generation entrepreneur." Sun Ning, Sun Fuchun's niece, has 118,000 followers on her Douyin account "Sister Ning, a mom from Lin Qingxuan" and also serves as the general manager of its new brand, Red Camellia Sparrow. Even the president's assistant and brand partners have opened accounts, forming a comprehensive traffic matrix.

Looking back, it seemed to be a desperate situation in the past, but now it feels more like a narrow escape.

High Gross Margin and High Marketing

In the early years, the high - end skincare market in China was long monopolized by international brands, and domestic brands were mostly trapped in the mid - to - low - end price range. Lin Qingxuan broke this pattern.

The prospectus shows that according to Frost & Sullivan data, based on the retail sales in 2024, Lin Qingxuan ranks first among high - end domestic skincare brands in China and first among domestic anti - wrinkle and firming skincare brands. It is also the only domestic representative among the top 15 high - end skincare brands (including international brands) in China.

The high gross margin of over 80% may be an important reference for Lin Qingxuan's successful high - end transformation.

The prospectus shows that from 2023 to the first half of 2025, Lin Qingxuan's gross margin has been maintained above 81%. The gross margin of its core product, the essential oil, is as high as 86.2%.

For comparison, the gross margins of Shangmei Group, Proya, and Estée Lauder are 75.2%, 71.39%, and 71.7% respectively. If we expand the scope, the overall gross margin of Maotai is about 91%.

Offline stores are an indispensable support for its high - end positioning. According to the prospectus, the number of its stores increased from 366 in 2022 to 554 by the end of June 2025, with over 95% located in shopping malls. As of June 30, 2025, there are 61 stores in first - tier cities, 171 in new first - tier cities, 86 in second - tier cities, 146 in third - tier cities, and 90 in other lower - tier cities.

Source: Prospectus

For a domestic brand to compete with international giants, it is also necessary to increase its brand awareness through marketing.

The prospectus shows that from 2022 to the first half of 2025, Lin Qingxuan's cumulative sales and distribution expenses reached 2.263 billion yuan. In the first half of 2025, these expenses were 581 million yuan, accounting for 55.2% of the current revenue.

Source: Prospectus

In sharp contrast to the high marketing investment, from 2022 to 2024, Lin Qingxuan's cumulative R & D investment was less than 100 million yuan. In 2024, the R & D expenses were only 30.4 million yuan, accounting for 2.51% of the revenue. In the first half of 2025, this proportion further dropped to 1.71%.

This seems to be a pain that all domestic brands will face, and Lin Qingxuan is no exception.

Fortunately, on the other side of the coin, after being alternately baptized by the frenzy of new consumption and the cold winter of capital, finally, a domestic skincare brand taking the high - end route has reached the threshold of going public.