India’s market for personal care ingredients has experienced an abundance of changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with swings in demand at the top of the list.
According to Kunal Mahajan, Project Manager in our Chemicals sector, demand for ethanol, SLS, and SLES increased significantly; meanwhile, demand for ingredients such as color cosmetic ingredients declined drastically.
What other changes occurred in the market? Read on…
Rise of direct-to-customer companies
The pandemic also accelerated the shift of the personal care market toward direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies such as Nykaa, Forest Essentials, Purplle, Mama Earth, and MyGlamm. This shift is leading to the growth of private-label brands; while companies such as Nykaa and Purplle are e-commerce businesses that offer several brands, they also offer their own private-label brands. For example, Nykaa sells products under its own brand name of Nykaa Naturals; Purplle offers them under the brand name of Stay Quirky.
The shift is also leading to the strengthening of trends such as natural, cruelty-free, paraben-free and vegan personal care products. Forest Essentials and Mama Earth offer personal care products based on natural ingredients; MyGlamm’s personal care products are inclusive, cruelty-free, vegan, and environmentally friendly.
Another trend: customized personal care products, which are now being offered by Forest Essentials, SkinKraft, and Vedix. While customized personal care products, which are mainly focused on skin care products in India, is a niche segment, it is expected to grow in the future.
How the internet will affect personal care ingredients
“India is a young country with access to inexpensive internet; this means most of the people, especially those in the younger generation, are active on social media,” says Mahajan, who notes that D2C companies stay active on social media to reach consumers easily. “As a result, the aforementioned trends are expected to grow rapidly and, hence, drive demand for natural, safer ingredients.”
In addition, says Mahajan, D2C companies are expected to develop new personal care products more frequently to cater to the emerging trends. “This provides ingredient suppliers a chance to offer new ingredients as well as formulation services to these companies,” he says. “At the same time, contract manufacturers could become important in ingredient selection, as D2C companies are likely to use contract manufacturers to produce personal care products and may need their help in finalizing the formulation, given the know-how contract manufacturers have.”
For more information, check out our now-published Personal Care Ingredients: Global Market Analysis. The 11th edition of our flagship program, it analyzes the consumption, supply, and pricing of ingredients used in personal care formulations, evaluates drivers and restraints affecting the market, and builds a five-year forecast model. In addition to India, the program covers Africa, China, Japan, Brazil, Europe, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Rest of World.
