Winona (薇诺娜), the flagship skincare brand of Yunnan Botanee Bio-Technology (贝泰妮, 300957.SZ), is China's best-selling domestic brand of sensitive-skin repair products. It grew on pharmacy and livestream channels, and by the mid-2020s its own social accounts and paid influencers were its main sales engine.
On 21 January 2026 the self-run 'Winona official flagship store' stream sold a special-care essence-and-cream set whose products were ordinary cosmetics — yet the host claimed the bundle would 'repair redness, itch and dryness, remove acne and acne scars, and 'completely improve within 28 days'. 'Acne removal' is a separate efficacy claim that must be backed by a human efficacy trial before it can be filed; none of the products had it.
Shanghai market regulators, who spotted the stream in ad monitoring in March, fined Botanee's unit Shanghai Botanee Biological Technology 10,000 yuan on 8 July 2026 under the anti-unfair-competition law and the new livestream-ecommerce supervision rules.
It was not Botanee's first such penalty. In 2024 influencer Guo Xiaopang (郭小胖, 7m+ followers) had sold a Winona lotion set saying it treated red, swollen, itchy, stinging and acne breakouts — wording that drifted into medicine. Hangzhou fined his company 175,540 yuan (confiscated ad fees plus an equal fine), a case the State Administration for Market Regulation later named among ten typical illegal ads.
Two fines (1万 and 17.55万) for medical claims on camera; the brand must police hosts' words, as 'acne removal' requires a filed human trial.
The brand leaned on livestream hosts to sell medical-sounding efficacy for ordinary cosmetics, letting 'remove acne and scars' and 'treat allergies' slip past the cosmetic filing.
Neither the self-run flagship stream nor the paid influencer was reviewed against the efficacy-claim filing before going live.
A DTC brand whose whole pitch is 'sensitive-skin repair' naturally reached for stronger claims at the point of sale, where the margin is made.
Efficacy claims like 'acne removal' demand a human trial to file; the hosts promised results the products were never registered to deliver.
A livestream beauty brand must police the efficacy words its hosts and paid influencers say: 'acne removal' needs a filing and a human trial — promising it on camera turns a pitch into evidence.
By July 2026 Winona's home stream had been fined 10,000 yuan and influencer Guo Xiaopang 175,540 yuan, with the latter named among the regulator's ten typical illegal-ad cases. Regulators framed both as a warning to beauty livestreaming, and the sector kept policing the 'medical effect' line in cosmetics ads.
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