Makeup in Chinese (68 Must Know Words) || The Complete Guide

Your Complete Guide to Different Types of Makeup in Chinese

Whether you are interested in makeup and cosmetics or just want to learn how to say different types of makeup in Chinese, then this the perfect guide for you.

Makeup in Chinese is 化妆 (huàzhuāng) and you add 品 (pǐn) at the end for cosmetics 化妆品 (huàzhuāngpǐn).

Makeup in Chinese – Facial Features

Makeup in Chinese – Foundation

Makeup in Chinese – Face Makeup

Makeup in Chinese – Eye Makeup

Makeup in Chinese – Lip Makeup

Makeup in Chinese – Makeup Tools

Makeup in Chinese – Makeup Remover

Makeup in Chinese – Skin Types

Makeup in Chinese – Skin Care

Makeup in Chinese – Quiz

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Makeup in Chinese || Facial Features

Before getting to the makeup vocab in Chinese, it would be helpful to get familiar with the Chinese for different facial features:

• Face – 脸 liǎn
• Forehead – 额头 é’tóu
• Eyebrows – 眉毛 méimáo
• Eye – 眼睛 yǎnjīng
• Eyelashes – 睫毛 jiémáo
• Nose – 鼻子 bízi
• Cheek – 脸颊 liǎnjiá
• Lips – 唇 chún
• Chin – 下巴 xiàba

Make sure to check out out blog about body parts in Chinese if you want to learn more!

Makeup in Chinese || Foundation

Firstly, let’s have a look at foundation in Chinese. Anyone familiar with makeup knows that there are lots of different types of foundation so let’s see how they are translated in Chinese.

Foundation – 粉底 (fěndǐ), 粉 means “powder” and 底 means “base” to literally make “powder base”. You’ll see that 粉 is used quite a lot in Chinese words for makeup.

• Liquid foundation – 液狀粉底 (yè zhuàng fěndǐ) or 粉底液 (fěndǐ yè), 液means “liquid” and 狀 means “form” together making “liquid form”.

• Mineral foundation – 矿物粉底 (kuàngwù fěndǐ), or 矿物狀粉底 (kuàngwù zhuàng fěndǐ), 矿物 means “mineral”, and 狀 can also be added, but isn’t essential.

• Cream foundation – 膏狀粉底 (gāo zhuàng fěndǐ) or 粉底霜 (fěndǐ shuāng) 膏 and 霜 both mean cream.

• Powder foundation- 粉狀粉底 (fěn zhuàng fěndǐ), which is then split into two different categories:
  • Pressed powder – 粉饼 (fěn bǐng), 饼 means “cake”, so together this literally means “powder cake”.
  • Loose powder – 散粉 (sǎn fěn) or 蜜粉(mì fěn), 散 means “to break up” and 蜜 means honey.

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Makeup in Chinese || Face Makeup

Next we have other face makeup apart from foundation. Let’s start with a couple that both use the character for powder (粉 fěn):

• Shimmering powder/glitter – 闪粉 (shǎn fěn), this is pretty straight forward, here 闪 means to “sparkle” or “shine”.

• Bronzing powder – 古铜粉 (gǔ tóng fěn), 古铜 is the colour bronze. However, you’re unlikely to see many Chinese people wearing bronzing powder as a pale complexion is sought after in China.

Some other common types of face makeup:

• Highlighter – 高光 (gāoguāng), this is a literal translation of 高 “high” and 光 “light”.

• Contour – 修容 (xiū róng) – here 修 means “trim” and 容 means “appearance”, so contour is literally “trim appearance”. This word is only used to refer to contour makeup, the actual word for contour in Chinese is 轮廓 (lúnkuò), but this isn’t used when talking about makeup.
  • Contour pencil – 修容笔 (xiū róng bǐ) simply add 笔 for pen or pencil.
  • Contour palette – 修容盘 (xiū róng pán), 盘 here means “tray” and is used as the word for palette when talking about makeup. This can be added to lots of makeup words.

• Concealer – 遮瑕膏 (zhēxiá gāo), 遮 means “hide” or “cover”, 瑕 means “flaw” and 膏, as we saw earlier, means “cream”, literally translating as “hide flaw cream”, makes sense doesn’t it!

• Blush – 腮红 (sāihóng), 腮 is another word for “cheek” and 红 is “red”. Anyone who has lived in China may have noticed that it’s very popular to wear blush there.
  • Blush palette – 腮红盘 (sāihóng pán)

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Makeup in Chinese || Eye Makeup

Now that we’ve had a look at the vocab for face makeup, let’s move onto eye and eyebrow makeup.

• Eye shadow – 眼影 (yǎnyǐng), this is a straightforward translation, 眼 “eye” and 影 “shadow”.
  • Eye shadow palette 眼影盘 (yǎnyǐng pán)
  • You’ll also often see eye shadow which has a number and then 色 (sè) “colour” written before 眼影 such as 五色眼影 (wǔsè yǎnyǐng) “five-colour eye shadow”.

• Eyeliner- 眼线 (yǎnxiàn), another easy translation with 线 meaning line.
  • Liquid eyeliner – 眼线液 (yǎnxiàn yè) just add 液 for liquid.
  • Eyeliner pencil – 眼线笔 (yǎnxiàn bǐ) add 笔 at the end for pencil.

• Mascara – 睫毛膏 (jiémáo gāo), 膏 “cream” is added to 睫毛 “eyelashes” to make the word for mascara “eyelashes cream”.

• False (eye)lashes – 假睫毛 (jiǎ jiémáo) this is an exact translation again, with 假 “fake” being added before eyelashes.

• Eyebrow pencil – 眉笔 (méi bǐ), you guessed it, add 笔 after eyebrow for eyebrow pencil.

• Eyebrow gel – 眉膏 (méi gāo), add 膏 for eyebrow gel.

Makeup in Chinese || Lip Makeup

Next lets look at the different lip makeup in Chinese.

Lipstick – 口红 (kǒu hóng), 口 is a word for “mouth” and 红 means “red” so it’s literally “mouth red”.

Lip liner – 唇笔 (chún bǐ), here 笔 is added after 唇 to make “lip pencil”.

Lip balm/chapstick – 润唇膏 (rùn chún gāo), 润 means “moisten”, 唇 is “lip” and together with 膏 it makes “moisten lip cream”.

唇膏 (chún gāo) on its own can also be used as another word for lipstick.

Lip gloss – 唇蜜 (chún mì), again you have 唇 and this time it is combined with 蜜 which means “honey”, so lip gloss is literally “lip honey”.

Makeup in Chinese || Makeup Tools

Now we’ve gone over the Chinese for the most common makeup products we can have a look at some of the tools used to apply them:

• Powder puff – 粉扑 (fěn pū), we already know what 粉 means and unsurprisingly 扑 here means “puff”.

To apply powder is 扑粉 (pū fěn) which are the exact same characters for powder puff but the other way round, which can be a little confusing.

• Sponge – 海绵 hǎi mián), in Chinese sponge is literally “sea” 海 “cotton” 绵.
  • Makeup sponge – 化妆海绵 (huàzhuāng hǎimián)
  • Foundation sponge – 粉底海绵 (fěn dǐ hǎi mián)

• Beauty blender – 美妆蛋 (měi zhuāng dàn), another great literal translation here: “beauty makeup egg”. Anyone who has seen a beauty blender will definitely understand why egg is in the Chinese name for this tool.

• Makeup brush – 化妆刷 (huàzhuāng shuā) 刷 means brush and is added on to the end of makeup products for the specific kind of brush such as:
  • Eye shadow brush – 眼影刷 (yǎnyǐng shuā)
  • Powder brush – 蜜粉刷 (mì fěnshuā) or 散粉刷 (sǎn fěn shuā)
  • Blusher brush – 腮红刷 (sāi hóng shuā)

• Eyelash curler – 睫毛夹 (jié máo jiá) 夹 here means to “clamp” or “press in between”

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Makeup in Chinese || Makeup Remover

Along with vocab for makeup it can also be helpful to know words for makeup remover as well:

• Remove makeup – 卸妆 (xiè zhuāng), this is combined with other characters for more specific vocab:
  • Makeup remover – 卸妆水 (xiè zhuāng shuǐ)
  • Eye makeup remover – 眼部卸妆水 (yǎnbù xièzhuāng shuǐ)
  • Makeup remover wipes – 卸妆巾 (xièzhuāng jīn)

Here are a couple of words for cleansing too:

• Cleansing lotion – 洁面乳 (jiémiàn rǔ)
• Face wash – 洗面奶 (xǐmiànnǎi)
• Pore cleanser – 去黑头 (qù hēi tóu)

Makeup in Chinese || Skin Types

If you really want to up your Chinese skills and be able to ask for some advice about makeup it’ll be useful to know about what different skin types are in Chinese:

• Skin – 皮肤 (pífū) or 肌肤 (jīfū)
  • Dry – 干性 (gān xìng)
  • Oily – 油性 (yóu xìng)
  • Sensitive – 敏感性 (mǐn gǎn xìng)
  • Combination – 混合性 (hùn hé xìng)

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Makeup in Chinese || Skin Care

Lastly we have some vocabulary for skin care because it’s really important to look after your skin as well as your health and know what products you’re actually using.

• Cream – 霜 (shuāng), we already saw this character for cream foundation, and it is added to a number of words for skin care products:
  • Face cream – 面霜 (miàn shuāng)
  • Eye cream – 眼霜 (yǎn shuāng)
  • Hand cream – 护手霜 (hù shǒu shuāng)
  • Sun cream – 防晒霜 (fáng shàishuāng), a must for anyone in Beijing during summer.

• Face mask – 面膜 (miàn mó), 膜 means “film” or “thin coating”, so it literally translates to “face film”.

• Lotion – 乳液 (rǔ yè) 乳 is used to describe any milk like liquid.

• Moisturiser – 润肤露 (rùnfūlù), this is another pretty much literal translation, 润 means “moisten”, 肤 means “skin” and 露 means “lotion”.

Makeup in Chinese || Quiz

Think you’re an expert in makeup in Chinese now, put yourself to the test with our quick quiz!

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Related Articles:

If you’re interested in how Chinese beauty trends differ to American ones why not have a look at our Chinese Makeup VS American Makeup blog or our Chinese beauty standards blog.

We’ve also gone further and written about Makeup trends in Japan and some popular beauty standards in Russia also.

Aside from those articles, there is plenty more related content to enjoy from LTL also including:

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Makeup in Chinese || FAQs

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