Face masks boom
At the in-cosmetic Asia tradeshow, which was held in Bangkok last month, global market intelligence company Euromonitor International revealed that the Asia Pacific (APAC) beauty market has achieved a 6% growth rate over the past years (Compound Annual Growth Rate - CAGR) and 51% of global sales come from the region.
While face moisturisers continue to command the biggest share of the Asian beauty products market, with a value of almost US$19bn, face masks have been the source of much of the growth, achieving CAGR of over 13% (2012-2017) - accounting for US$5bn of sales.
In Asia, mass skincare grew at 6% CAGR over the same time period, eroding the premium skincare category’s market share. “South Korean brands, such as The Face Shop, Etude House and Innisfree, fuelled the mass cosmetics boom by fulfilling Asian consumers’ need for self-indulgence and affordability through creative brand storytelling, eye-catching packaging, diverse product ranges and low-price points,” said Sunny Um, Beauty & Fashion Analyst at Euromonitor International.
However, contrary to this trend, in China, demand for mass products has been less than that of premium, despite mass skincare generating value sales 250% larger than premium skincare.
BB and CC creams boost colour cosmetics
Touching on the rapid growth of the colour cosmetics segment, Euromonitor revealed that Asia is also leading the global market with a value of US$15bn last year. In the APAC region, foundations and concealers are the largest category in the segment, with a worth of almost US$5bn, but BB and CC achieved a CAGR of 25% (2011-2016) despite modest sales of US$1bn - showing the huge potential in this area.
Genderless beauty
The global market intelligence company also unveiled a number of growing trends from ‘genderless’ beauty. Across Asia, more men experiment with products that have traditionally been used exclusively by females, while there is a growing number of consumers looking to ‘personalise’ products to their individual tastes.
Eventually, in the context of an ageing population in Asia, in particular in Japan, South Korea and China, Euromonitor also shared insights into the use of cosmetics by the over-50s global population. It noted that half of women aged over 60 used foundation at least once a week, while 59% of the same demographic used lipstick and 52% wore eye make-up to the same frequency.
