Cosmetics including lipstick and eyeshadow initially launched by the Palace Museum on December 11, 2018, have been pulled from sale. The announcement was made by the museum's official sales account on China's social platform Weibo, known as Palace Museum Taobao, on January 5.

Previously, multiple products across the cosmetics range had been taken down one day after being publicized due to limited production capacity. People who ordered these products will not receive their package until the end of the Spring Festival holiday in early February.

In spite of the wide variety of cosmetics products available, customers have chosen those from the Palace Museum owing to their affiliation with Chinese culture and history. If the museum fails to learn from the incident, it will face deeper problems in the future.

It is far from enough to simply incorporate traditional culture elements in the design of cosmetics. The Palace Museum needs to improve the quality of their products in order to succeed in a competitive market. Substandard products will not only harm its economic interests but also its brand.

Problems regarding quality have resulted from the rapid expansion of its cultural and creative industry in recent years. The museum has encountered a number of difficulties since starting to develop these products in 2008.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Qianjiang Evening News on January 8)