Liese is part of Kao’s long-standing hair-care and beauty business. Kao itself traces its origins to 1887, when founder Tomiro Nagase established Nagase Shoten, a Western sundries dealer that eventually developed into Kao.

Kao has been involved in hair care for more than a century. One important milestone was the launch of Kao Shampoo in 1932, which Kao says helped make the word “shampoo” part of everyday Japanese life. The company’s experience in hair science and consumer hair care subsequently provided the foundation for its later hair-colour and styling businesses.

Development of Liese

Liese became particularly notable for making hair colouring accessible for home use rather than positioning colouring exclusively as a salon service. Kao’s historical materials describe consumers embracing the ability to colour their hair easily and evenly, helping the product become popular in Japan.[2]

The concept fits an important Japanese beauty-market trend: consumers wanted greater control over their appearance while being able to perform beauty routines conveniently at home. Over time, Liese expanded beyond basic hair colour into products covering different aspects of the hair-colour and styling experience.

While the exact lineup varies by country, Liese’s portfolio broadly falls into several categories.

Hair colour

Hair colouring is arguably the category most strongly associated with Liese. In the Philippines, for example, the current portfolio includes Liese Creamy Bubble Color, with shades such as:

• Rose Tea Brown
• Milk Tea Brown
• Marshmallow Brown
• Chestnut Brown
• Dark Chocolat
• Soft Brown
• Midnight Ash

The brand also offers Liese Blauné Creamy Foam Color, including shades designed around brown, black-brown and other colour families. The Japanese market has a broader assortment, including hair colour, bleach, bleach-on-colour products and colour shampoos.[2]

Bubble and foam hair colour

One of Liese’s most recognizable concepts is bubble or foam hair colour. Instead of applying a conventional cream dye strand by strand, the consumer distributes the foaming product through the hair. The concept is designed around making at-home colouring easier and more uniform. This is an important part of Liese’s consumer proposition: reducing the perceived difficulty of colouring one’s own hair.

Fashion colours

Liese has increasingly emphasized fashionable colours rather than treating hair dye merely as a way to cover grey hair. Depending on the market, the brand offers colours in families such as:

• Brown
• Ash
• Pink
• Rose
• Mauve
• Grey/ash
• Other lighter or more expressive fashion shades

For example, the Philippine lineup includes Natural Ash Brown, Natural Matt Ash, Mauve Pink and Rose Brown within its Creamy Foam Color range.

Hair styling

Liese is not exclusively a hair-dye brand. Its Japanese portfolio also includes styling products such as styling oils, waxes, hair oil mists, smoothing milks and products for controlling individual sections of hair.[2] This makes Liese closer to a complete consumer hair-beauty brand than simply a hair-colour manufacturer.

Colour maintenance and post-colour care

More recently, Kao has been moving Liese toward a broader “colour + care” proposition. In 2026, Kao announced new Liese hair-colour products incorporating its H-Linx TECH technology. The company says its research found that hair damage can continue to progress during the seven days following colouring, particularly in black hair, and developed the technology to address post-colour damage.[1]

This represents a significant evolution in the brand, as Liese moves from simply helping consumers change their hair colour toward helping them colour, maintain and care for their hair as one integrated experience.

Liese’s current positioning is strongly connected to self-expression. Kao describes the brand with the message “Let your colour flourish.” The idea is that hair colour should allow consumers to express their personality rather than simply alter their appearance.

Kao specifically says Liese aims to help people with black hair—a common hair characteristic in Asia—enjoy their ideal hair colour without stress.[1] This is particularly relevant to Liese’s Asian strategy because naturally dark hair can make achieving certain fashionable colours more difficult. Consequently, the brand tries to balance three elements: Fashion → Convenience → Hair care, rather than competing purely on colour selection.

Asia has become increasingly important to Liese’s strategy. According to Kao’s July 2026 announcement, the company intends to strengthen Liese as a strategic hair-colour brand across Asia. Kao reported that the Asian at-home hair-colour market, including Japan, had grown to 114% of its 2019 level, according to Euromonitor International.[1]

Kao announced that its new Liese hair-colour series would roll out across seven Asian countries and regions beginning in August 2026:

• Hong Kong
• Thailand
• Taiwan
• Malaysia
• China
• Japan
• Singapore

This is an important strategic shift. Liese is no longer being treated simply as a Japanese domestic hair-colour brand; Kao is explicitly using it as one of the brands intended to drive growth in its Asian Hair Care business.[1]

Liese is marketed in the Philippines, where Kao maintains a dedicated Liese website and product portfolio. The Philippine range prominently features Creamy Bubble Color and Liese Blauné Creamy Foam Color.

The Philippines is also part of Kao’s broader Asian presence. Kao established Pilipinas Kao in the Philippines in 1977, and the company’s Philippine operations include manufacturing and distribution activities connected with Kao’s wider business.[1] It is worth distinguishing the two: Pilipinas Kao is a Kao corporate operation, while Liese is a consumer brand within Kao’s portfolio.

Liese’s positioning makes it particularly relevant to consumers who:

• Want to change their hair colour at home
• Prefer fashionable rather than purely functional colours
• Want a relatively simple colouring process
• Like experimenting with different looks
• Want to express individuality through hair
• Are concerned about dryness or damage after colouring
• Have naturally dark or black hair and want more visible colour

Its positioning therefore sits between mass-market convenience beauty and fashion-oriented hair cosmetics.

One of Liese’s strongest brand associations is its Japanese origin. The brand benefits from Kao’s extensive history in hair science, consumer research and product development. Kao says its Hair Care business has more than 100 years of accumulated hair-care research knowledge.[2]

Rather than presenting Japanese beauty purely as luxury or traditional cosmetics, Liese represents a more contemporary interpretation: Japanese beauty = practical technology + ease of use + controlled results + fashionable appearance. That combination is particularly suitable for at-home beauty products.

Liese can broadly be understood as having evolved through several stages:

1. Home hair colouring: Make hair colouring easier for ordinary consumers.
2. Fashion hair colour: Give consumers more opportunities to experiment with colours and express individuality.
3. Hair styling: Expand from colouring into everyday hair appearance and styling.
4. Colour care: Address the condition and appearance of hair after colouring.
5. Asian strategic brand: Kao is now attempting to scale Liese across Asia as a major fashion hair-colour brand.[1]

This last stage is especially significant because it shows that Kao sees Liese as more than an individual product line—it is becoming a strategic growth brand within the company’s Asian Hair Care business.

The most important recent development is Kao’s announcement in July 2026 that it wants Liese to become Asia’s No. 1 fashion hair-colour brand.[1] The strategy combines:

• Fashion-oriented hair colours
• At-home convenience
• Products designed for Asian hair characteristics
• Post-colour damage care
• New hair-care technology
• Expansion across Asian markets

Kao’s new H-Linx TECH is particularly important because it gives Liese a technological story beyond simply “easy hair dye.” The technology is incorporated into treatments, shampoos and conditioners intended to care for hair after colouring.[1]

The hierarchy is essentially:

• Kao Corporation
• Hair Care business
• Liese
• Hair colour + styling + colour-care products

Kao remains the owner and developer of the brand. The company’s current strategy specifically identifies Liese as one of its strategic brands for growing the Hair Care business in Asia.[1]

1. Kao | Kao Aims to Make Liese Asia’s No. 1 Fashion Hair Color Brand and Accelerate Hair Care Business Growth
2. リーゼカラー | 花王株式会社