Fans x AI x MAOGEPING | When Beauty Content Is Homogenized by AIGC, Brand DNA Is the Only Anchor

Beauty content is undergoing a strange dilemma: as tools become easier to use, content increasingly looks identical.

According to Sinolink Securities' 2026 618 Beauty & Personal Care Review Report, AIGC has been deeply integrated into the entire e-commerce beauty chain—AI adoption exceeds 80% on the image side and over 70% in short video production. Alimama's AI capabilities helped AIGC image-to-video tools deliver a significant 65% click-through rate boost for merchants. Meanwhile, Estée Lauder Companies partnered deeply with Adobe to redefine digital marketing publishing workflows using AIGC. Both international beauty giants and domestic brands are leveraging the same set of tools to generate content.

Efficiency has increased, but new problems have emerged.

When every brand can quickly produce exquisite beauty content with AI, gains in production efficiency are no longer a competitive advantage, but rather the baseline of the industry. A deeper issue lies in the fact that AIGC training data and aesthetic preferences carry inherent homogenization. A vast amount of AI-generated beauty content is converging toward the same visual language—overly intense lighting, flawless skin, and excessively polished scenes. This "AI filter aesthetic" works for traffic-driven content, but dilutes tone for premium brands.

According to the "2026 Kuaishou Beauty Industry Marketing Report" jointly published by Kuaishou and Miaozhen Systems, social media discussions related to "authentic aesthetics" grew over 20% year-on-year in 2025, with nearly half of consumers no longer pursuing absolute perfection. Consumer aesthetics are returning to authenticity, whereas AIGC naturally leans toward hyper-refinement.

Reported by Jiemian News in May 2026, the prevalent sentiment among beauty practitioners is "chilly"—fierce competition, sluggish sales, skyrocketing traffic costs, and vanishing profit margins. The old playbook of relying on traffic dividends, concept marketing, and channel flooding to build brands has completely stopped working.

The question is not whether AI is used, but what is produced with AI.

Three Hidden Costs of Beauty Content in the AIGC Era

Cost 1: The overall baseline shifts upward—speed is no longer an advantage.

Adobe's report shows that nearly two-thirds of marketers believe content demand will quadruple between 2024 and 2026. When all brands use the same tools to satisfy this demand, higher content output merely amplifies industry noise rather than clarifying any single brand's voice.

Cost 2: "AI scent" is becoming a silent killer of premium brand tone.

The primary requirement for premium beauty content has never been "generating things exquisitely enough," but "generating things accurately enough"—accurately conveying the brand's aesthetic standards, cultural foundation, and consumer emotional expectations. Default AIGC outputs yield "generic refinement" rather than "brand exclusivity." Unimportant for mass-market brands, this ambiguity is fatal for luxury positioning.

Cost 3: Content volume surges while brand distinctiveness declines.

According to the Sinolink Securities report, overall industry competition is "returning to brand equity itself." Channel traffic dividends have peaked, product homogenization has intensified, and brand power has become the core variable shaping long-term competition. Building brand power requires every piece of content to serve a singular brand premise—the hardest thing to guarantee when mass-producing content with AI.

Brand DNA Is the Only Thing That Cannot Be Averaged Out in the AIGC Era

Against this backdrop, the two collaborations between MAOGEPING and FansAI offer a valuable reference point.

Not because of huge production scale—both videos were short social media assets running 26 and 30 seconds. What deserves attention is the starting point: not "what can AI generate," but "what is this brand's DNA, and what narrative enables consumers to reach their own conclusion?"

MAOGEPING's brand logic has always been: beauty is not merely about making someone look better, but an aesthetic perception and cultural identity. Traditional Eastern culture serves as the foundation—not a decoration—for the brand's premium positioning. Behind the product promise of "Effortlessly Flawless, Naturally Textured" lies a consumer psychology: great makeup should not look applied, but rather like innate, natural beauty.

Bringing these two together reveals the creative starting point: not "how effectively does this conceal," but "what narrative allows the brand's cultural backing and product promise to hold true in a single video?"

This strategic judgment does not rely on AI tools, but requires AI tools for precise execution.

Two Paths, One Starting Point

Dunhuang Chapter: Ascending—Using Cultural Symbols as Functional Metaphors

The breakthrough originated from Dunhuang murals. Over millennia, weathering caused colors to peel and line-art to crack—representing time's erosion of beauty. A flying Apsara transformed after using foundation reflects the restoration of beauty, serving as a visual metaphor for "naturally born texture."

This narrative anchor fulfills two goals simultaneously: providing a vehicle for the brand's ongoing cultural narrative, while giving emotional depth to product functionality. Concealer ceases to be a functional term and becomes visual proof of "restoring inherent beauty."

Technical execution focused not on "generating pretty Dunhuang imagery," but on "recovering Dunhuang's spirit rather than just its look." Deconstructing the murals' style systematically, the team extracted mineral color palettes, warm gray brightness distributions, and linework tension, converting these into actionable parameters for color temperature, saturation, and contrast depth. Transitioning visually from ancient murals to modern makeup connects two distinct visual languages; the rhythm and method of this transition determine whether the metaphor succeeds visually. Nano Banana anchored character essence, ensuring consistent brand tone across both mural style and real makeup states.

Snowman Chapter: Inward—Replacing Functional Displays with Emotional Personification

If the Dunhuang chapter ascends by leveraging cultural symbols to elevate product stature, the Snowman chapter journeys inward—using emotional resonance to make the product relatable and authentic.

The snowman acts as a proxy for consumers with skin concerns—its mottled facial texture expresses real emotional frustration, its deliberate touch-ups reflect usage scenarios, and its post-makeup delight offers an emotional solution. A sequence showing product sprinting across snow fields transforms "fast concealing" into a dynamic visual symbol.

While technically lighter than Dunhuang, this video required equal creative judgment—replacing function with emotion demands precise empathy for consumer mindsets. While "efficacy claims + ingredient lists + before/after comparisons" remain the standard beauty marketing routine, the Snowman chapter bypasses this framework entirely, letting functionality resonate naturally within emotional framing.

Two films, two distinct creative paths, yet originating from one source: understand the brand first, then discover narratives that empower consumers to draw conclusions themselves.

Perspective on Premium Beauty Brand Content

AIGC tools boost content production efficiency, but do not automatically elevate content judgment.

When tools become industry standard, editorial judgment becomes the true scarce resource—knowing what content aligns with brand tone, understanding emotional triggers that prompt consumer purchase intent, and identifying where AI amplifies judgment versus where it dilutes the brand.

FansAI's Content Science Framework provides value by systemizing this judgment process: "Identify Brand DNA → Locate Consumer Emotional Entry → Select Narrative to Unify Both." This ensures every content asset builds brand equity rather than diluting it in the traffic pool.

The boundary of premium beauty content depends not on what AI can achieve, but on how clearly a brand understands itself. Brand DNA is the only element that cannot be averaged out by tools in the AIGC era—but it must be uncovered before it can serve as an anchor.