On 27 May, Za Cosmetics announced that it had teamed up with the Chinese animated series Heaven Official’s Blessing (天官赐福, TGCF) to release several gift boxes. The 3 Za x Heaven Official’s Blessing gift boxes are for primers, face powder and sunscreen. Apart from the products, there is also official merch which will come with the gift boxes including handheld mirrors, powder puffs and themed cardholders for the 3 gift boxes respectively.
On Weibo, the topic “Za Heaven Official’s Blessing series collaboration” (#Za天官赐福动画联名#) accumulated a modest 2.59 million views since launch. It is understandable that a beauty collaboration cannot achieve the same traction as tea or ice cream collabs before, as food and beverage brands have a much bigger presence online and more universal appeal.
Za Cosmetics, originally an abbreviation of “Zotos Accent”, was founded in 1997 by Shiseido Tokyo, in partnership with Zotos New York. It was sold to Yuejiang Investment before Yuejiang itself was acquired by Botanee Group, the parent company of the C-beauty brand Winona.
Meanwhile, Heaven Official’s Blessing has just launched its cobranding with Cotti Coffee. A collection of 6 fruity cold drinks will now don the exclusive cups with cute chibi version graphics of Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, the two main characters of the series. There are also set menus which include stickers, magnets and badges. However, many online find this co-branding slightly perfunctory compared to the two Guming (Goodme) collabs with the series.
Heaven Official’s Blessing is based on Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX)’s novel series of the same name. It gained huge popularity in and outside of China. However, the second season of the animated series was not aired in China and many believe it to be due to its “BL” or “boy’s love” themes. However, the series’ official social accounts are still active and has had several high-profile co-brandings since last October when the second season streamed overseas, including a year-long collaboration with Cornetto and the aforementioned Guming co-brandings.
