According to Euromonitor the skin care segment has 23 percent of the global beauty market share, pinpointing the Asia Pacific region in particular, as having some of the highest numbers of new product launches, especially in the anti-aging category.
Industry analyst Irina Barbalova notes strong potential for growth in the aforementioned category, revealing that; “Asia Pacific has set the trend from creams to skin lightening, and premium anti-agers are to be one of the strongest performing categories with a 7.7 percent global value growth.”
State of play
In 2009, the market researcher says that 10 percent of China's US$2 billion anti-aging market was comprised of products with added whitening features, and it is this segment in particular that is forecasted as having the potential to bring an additional US$1.3 billion to the size of its anti-ager industry by 2014.
“In China, skin whitening facial care grew by almost 17 percent in value during 2011 and skin whitening anti-agers - its strongest category, by 22 percent.”
Furthermore Barbalova says that skin lightening ingredients from Asian countries are pervasive in anti-agers and are helping to drive global sales.
"Premium skin care is also still set to see the biggest increase in value size with US$2.6 billion set to be added by 2014, equating to 40 percent of absolute growth in the entire premium beauty industry," she adds.
Potential
Meanwhile, the up-and-coming Thai market is set to draw big for players, with 48 percent of all anti-agers sold in the country in 2011 offering additional whitening properties, Hong Kong is also considered to be an ideal testing ground for international products trying to enter the Asian market.
Next up, the market expert points to the emergence of the ‘beauty pill’, an alternative way to stimulate cell renewal to turn back the clock, as a fast growing segment on the region, noting the Chlorella brand from Japan as most popular in the category.
Demand for BB creams are also said to be strong on the region, particularly in Hong Kong, where it’s used to conceal blemishes and hide pores creams, while also offering sun care protection and skin whitening properties.
“Growth here has even convinced multinational comapny, Garnier to enter the BB cream market, perhaps much to the detriment of the smaller regional cosmetics companies from Hong Kong, Japan and Korea whose products currently dominate this market.”
Future focus
According to Euromonitor, future growth in the skin care category will continue to be driven by anti-agers, and is set to gain more than US$5 billion by 2014, far outstripping the performance of other skin care categories such as facial cleansing wipes, predicted to rise by a more modest US$115 million, and toners by just US$110 million.
In light of this, the market researcher's parting advice is for skin care manufacturers "to focus their product developments on producing high-quality, scientifically-proven anti-aging ranges rather than products in those categories which are set to be affected by consumer cutbacks."