Beauty consumers are becoming increasingly ingredient-conscious with a knock-on effect on trends such as upcycling, according to Euromonitor International.
In a blog post, Top Five Trends for Beauty and Personal Care in 2023, the market research firm said ample consumer free time during lockdowns drove interest in, and the performance of, personal care ingredients.
The result is greater consumer appetite for sustainability, biotech, international beauty concepts.
“Green chemistry, which focuses on eliminating hazardous substances and adding or replacing previous ingredients with biobased ones, has emerged as a major focus area among beauty and personal care players,” it said.
“Upcycling is the latest green chemistry innovation, which refers to the transformation of a by-product or waste stream to a usable ingredient, and is a segment that is expected to accelerate in 2023,” it added.
Euromonitor meanwhile sees inflation as having a profound impact on beauty and personal care that is resulting in changes in consumption.
According to its Voice of the Consumer: Beauty Survey, fielded June to July 2022 (n=20,320), more global respondents in 2022 sought out price-sensitive attributes (such as value for money, multi-functional benefits, low price), compared to 2021, when shopping for skin care; an increase of approximately 2.5 percentage points.
Findings suggest that more quality seekers and premium buyers sought lower prices, such as through promotions or price-accessible brands in 2022 year compared to 2021.
Low prices, however, became less influential to value buyers in 2022 compared to the previous year - which appears contradictory at first, but could suggest that value buyers accept the inevitability of rising prices and were more focused on finding multifunctional or multi-benefit skin care instead.
As 2023 progresses, the concept of ‘value’ is expected to evolve in dynamic ways as beauty consumers reconsider their spending habits, such as efficacy seekers being more price sensitive in 2022 versus 2021.
Other key trends identified by Euromonitor include increasing consumer demand for holistic health and prevention since the emergence of COVID-19, companies across consumer goods industries have rushed to merge traditional portfolios with emerging health needs.
The result is a two-way expansion that includes blurring categories and hybrid offerings across home care, nutritional foods, fashion and apparel, and supplements, to name a few.
While this is not a new phenomenon unique to 2023, beauty is expected to strengthen its overlap with other industries, especially consumer health.
Beauty as health was particularly important to baby boomers and Generation X, but millennials and Generation Z’s focus on preventative health underscores the need for brands to gain consumers' trust as a ‘holistic health enhancer’ in the coming years, said Euromonitor.
