Ukrainian beauty brands looking to expand into the European Union have been warned that simply being from Ukraine will not be enough to build lasting success there, according to microbiologist and LIGA.net columnist Nadiia Dilai.
Writing in an opinion column for LIGA.net's Economy section, Dilai said the European cosmetics retail market was worth 110 billion euros in 2025, according to data from the industry body Cosmetics Europe. She said the figure is one of the reasons the market has become increasingly attractive to Ukrainian businesses, offering a chance to scale up, reach a far wider audience and tap new sales opportunities.
But Dilai said that once Ukrainian brands decide to make the move into Europe, they tend to fall into the same trap. She said they fail to account for the fact that positioning which works well for consumers inside Ukraine is often not clear or meaningful to shoppers in the European Union.
Questions facing Ukrainian brands
The column poses two central questions for any Ukrainian brand considering the move: why translating a company website or redesigning packaging is not sufficient on its own to enter the EU market, and what steps a brand actually needs to take for its expansion to succeed.
Dilai framed these as the questions Ukrainian entrepreneurs need to confront before committing money and resources to the European market, rather than assumptions to be made lightly.
EU regulatory hurdles
Any cosmetics brand selling in the European Union also has to work within the bloc's cosmetics regulation, which requires products to be registered on a central EU database, undergo a safety assessment and carry ingredient lists and usage instructions in the language of whichever country they are sold in. That regulatory layer sits on top of the branding and positioning challenges Dilai's column focuses on, and is one reason a straight translation of an existing Ukrainian website or label is unlikely to be sufficient.
What Cosmetics Europe represents
Cosmetics Europe is the trade association representing the personal care and cosmetics industry across the European Union, and its annual market figures are widely used as a benchmark for the size of the sector. The European Union itself is made up of 27 member states, each with its own language, retail rules and consumer habits, a patchwork that makes a single, uniform approach to branding difficult for companies entering from outside the bloc.
An opinion piece, not editorial policy
The column was published in LIGA.net's opinion section, which carries the views of outside contributors. The outlet states that articles in that section reflect the opinion of their author and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of LIGA.net.
LIGA.net said readers interested in contributing their own columns can contact the outlet directly, subject to its published submission requirements for columnists.
