Zhuben Beauty: The Moat of the Slow Build

01 / Editorial Thesis & The Moat of the Slow Build

During the hyper-accelerated peak of direct-to-consumer cosmetics, the industry ran on a relentless playbook: white-label OEM manufacturing, algorithmic ad spending, and launching dozens of SKUs per quarter to capture fleeting traffic trends. Taking nearly a year and burning through personal life savings just to formulate a single cleansing oil was widely viewed by investors and peers as commercially irrational.

Interviewing Zhuben founder Liu Qianfei on a midnight video call for Vogue China revealed an opposing founder psychology. By obsessively controlling emulsification kinetics, custom packaging molds, and botanical actives before chasing mass distribution, Qianfei turned extreme formulation rigor into a defensive moat. When top livestreamers catalyzed explosive category demand, Zhuben did not collapse under customer churn—it converted transient broadcast traffic into an enduring, high-repurchase brand institution.

02 / Feature Story：深度特写与文案原件

很多人说，逐本是国内少有的带着浓厚创始人 DNA 的品牌。倩菲也说，逐本就是她的自我探寻和重塑。然而，就像童话中的主角，通往自己彼岸的路从来都不是坦途。

在逐本相关的记录中，有一组数字被频繁提及：284 天自主研发，1008 次打样，100 名测试者盲测，6 个月全球供应链优化，只出了一款卸妆油。这些看起来与时下“快”的主旋律格格不入的慢和坚持，不仅让同行和投资人质疑，也一度让她产生过自我怀疑——当和已经谈婚论嫁的男友分手；当同行因为做了更实际的选择而更快风生水起；

当离成功遥遥无期，全部 200 万的积蓄几乎消耗殆尽时，却要决定是否选择单价比普通扣高出一块钱的八字扣设计。这个八字扣有真空回气技术，避免漏油，携带方便安心。为了追求体验的同时节省成本，倩菲在还不知道逐本一年能否售出 100 万瓶卸妆油的时候，冒险下了 100 万个八字扣的订单。

“这只是所有艰难抉择的一个缩影。正是一个个这样的时刻，有了今日的逐本和倩菲。‘越是艰难时刻的选择，越能让你接近自己的真相。你只要做好自己的事，等风来。’”

Credits: Long-form Profile Writing · Founder Genesis & Supply Chain Analysis · Vogue China Print Edition by Lin Yin