The ever- growing demand for cosmetics and personal care products also drives sales growth of ingredients used in these products. The market value for specialty personal care ingredients in the key regions (including Europe, the United States, Brazil, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India) covered in Kline’s recently published Personal Care Ingredients Database reaches USD 9.0 billion in 2015. Based on our research findings, we identified several important trends from the end user’s experience, which in turn affect the personal care ingredients market going into 2016.
1. Multifunctional products are on the rise
With increasingly busy lifestyles, consumers tend to simplify their daily beauty routines. Multifunctional products are therefore growing in popularity as they offer several benefits at once, such as anti-aging, cleansing, moisturization, anti-oxidant, UV protection, etc. Consequently, this trend is leading to growth in the consumption of multifunctional ingredients. For example, consumers are expecting their skin care products and makeup to have sun care protection features, as they are aware about the harmful effects of UV radiation. This drives the demand for UV absorbers, making it the fastest growing ingredient group.
2. Efficient and mild – the winning recipe
Consumers are in search of efficient, but also gentle products. In hair care, they prefer to buy water-based products rather than solvent-based ones, since they are easy to use and less damaging for the hair over time. This pushes formulators towards the use of milder ingredients, and now sulfate-free anionic surfactants are preferred over traditional surfactants, such as sodium lauryl ether sulfates. This trend is also prominent within antimicrobials, where the usage of ingredients like parabens, triclosan, and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives is expected to decline in the future. As a result, alternative ingredients, such as organic acids (benzoic acids/benzoates or sorbic acids/sorbates) and preservative boosters, are being used more often.
3. The natural challenge
This desire for mild products, along with the growing consumer awareness of synthetic chemicals in cosmetics and toiletries, continue to propel the global natural personal care industry.This trend is also leading to the growing consumption of natural ingredients. For instance, the natural origins and SPF-boosting properties of cinnamon bark oil, oat extract, and soy bean oil allows formulators to market sun care products as containing natural ingredients to attract consumers. However, products with natural ingredients are more prone to microbial attacks and also face compatibility issues with other ingredients in various formulations. This creates challenges for manufacturers of surfactant-based systems, such as shampoos, as they are not compatible with other natural ingredient.
4. Yes to plants, no to animals
While natural and plant-derived ingredients are on the rise, animal-derived ingredients are losing their popularity due to the growing negative attitude towards the production process of these products. Consumers are leaning towards the products manufactured by more eco-friendly, sustainable, ethical, and socially responsible brands, and products containing animal-derived ingredients fall into forbidden lists due to the ethical consolidations. As a result, consumption of lanolin and derivatives is expected to decline particularly in Europe and India.
5. Regional discrepancies for ingredients under scrutiny
Consumption of potentially harmful ingredients that are under scrutiny is expected to decline in the developed markets, but this varies from one region to another. For instance, the usage of parabens is expected to decline in the United States, but not in other regions even though growth will be slower. Ingredients like BNPD or triclosan are expected to decline in most of the regions, but will show some growth in a few developing regions, including India. The dividing line lays on the fact that the awareness about the adverse effects of these ingredients is very high in advanced economies, where the product composition is under constant surveillance of governmental and independent organizations. In these markets industry regulations play a great role in determining the future market structure. For example, the EU Commission has set a maximum concentration of 0.0015% of CIT/MIT and MIT in rinse-off skin care products and has banned its usage in leave-on products, such as body lotions and creams.
To learn more about the market for personal care ingredients, register for our complimentary and informative webinar, which will be based on Kline’s soon-to-be-published study Personal Care Ingredients: Global Market Analysis.