Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of all! Straight out of a fairytale the last few years have seen the rise of many skincare brands. From Minimalist to Chemist at Play, you name it and suddenly we have. Market research firm Statista predicts that the beauty and personal care market is expected to reach the $27.23 billion mark in 2023. The market’s largest segment is expected to be personal care with a volume of $12.59 billion in 2023. Within this, 12.7% of total revenue will be generated through online sales by 2023.
Hence, this leaves no room for any confusion as to why all of these brands sell products online and only a a handful have presence across retail outlets. However, what is of concern here is that at a time when traditional brands Fair & Lovely by Hindustan Unilever after years of campaigning changed its name to Glow & Lovely, we seem to have gone back in time. Perhaps the only difference here is that the positioning is on skincare as opposed to whitening. The other side of the story is that India may soon play catch up with the South Korean market. Just to give a perspective, in 2019 as per a survey conducted by Rakuten Insight, about 35% of Indian women stated that their skincare routine consists of 25% K-beauty products. About four percent said that all their skincare products were from Korean brands. And here it is! The reason India is turning into its own version of South Korea.
Each of these brands claim to be scientifically designed and in some cases, the brands on its portal ask users to fill in skin-related issues to suggest the best concoction. Women have often complained of not being given a fair chance and have blamed societal prejudice on beauty than brains. While it’s everyone’s right to look good, this mass rise of skin care products once again may dilute the campaign. It takes us back to the point that people are often not comfortable in their skin and constantly try to find ways to change their looks. While it’s always good to have many players, the impact of the adverse impact on society cannot be negated.
Perhaps it’s about time to evaluate these brands once again, before jumping on the bandwagon.