INTERVIEW Tim Probert – Editor, Personal Care Global


Tanya Rajani is Mintel’s associate director for beauty and personal care for India. Here, in conversation with editor Tim Probert, Tanya discusses the current and coming beauty trends in India and worldwide for 2025 and beyond


Tim Probert (TP) You are based in Mumbai so you will see Indian trends with your own eyes. Why has India seemingly suddenly become so hot? Tanya Rajani (TR): The key drivers include the rising middle class population and the booming GDP growth rate. This, of course, is well known. Another very significant change


is e-commerce, it’s really opening up the market and changing the game in India. Brands are able to reach every nook and corner of the country, not just the metro cities. Also the Indian consumer has


evolved. While India is still very traditional, with people still relying on home remedies like yogurt face packs and using beauty products with Ayurvedic ingredients, with social media and the internet, people today are also exposed to global beauty trends. That was where it was at for


years and years and years. But with social media, the Internet, smartphones and so on, consumers are looking at global trends. It’s that which has evolved the beauty consumer to aspire to use new products and follow new trends in India.


The usage is still quite niche and the challenge is to educate consumers. When I talk to brands, I’m constantly talking about providing education, support or guidance to build a long-lasting relationship with the consumer.


TP: Educate? TR: There’s a lot happening in the market, but the consumer doesn’t always know what they can trust. They’re used to trusting natural ingredients, so the key is to make them look beyond those to be like, okay, it’s fine for me to use a cream containing niacinamide. They then need to understand what niacinamide does. What does it not do? That’s where we are in India today. It’s all still kind of new.


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TP: Is skin whitening still a big thing for cosmetics in India? TR: Yes. It’s very deeply rooted. Growing up, our grandmothers would say ‘apply this face pack to make you fairer’. That face pack would be based on natural home remedies, basically using yogurt with lemon and chickpea powder. However, since Black Lives


Matter, international brands in particular have changed their narrative. The focus is now on glowing skin, brightening skin and so on. In 2020, Hindustan Unilever changed the name of the number one selling cream in India - Fair & Lovely – to Glow & Lovely. But if you ask an Indian


consumer why they are using Glow & Lovely, they would probably still tell you it’s for fairness, because it’s still very much deeply rooted. This is especially true with


the young mass consumer, they are going to always want that whitening, fairness benefit.


TP: What does the Indian consumer look for in terms in formulation ingredients? TR: I have data that shows Indian consumers are definitely able to associate vitamin C as an ingredient that helps them with skin brightening. There’s been a lot of education on vitamin C giving you brightened, glowing skin.


There’s shelves and shelves


of products, from prestige brands to mass market brands, which have vitamin C. It’s a somewhat overcrowded space, to be honest. So now I’m seeing some


brands trying to differentiate by offering, say 5% pure vitamin C, or looking at newer ingredients, like kojic acid. Our data clearly tells us that


consumers in India are always going to believe in natural ingredients, they are never going to do away with it.


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INTERVIEW


Jewel in the crown


A lot of brands are very smartly


playing with the combination of modern and traditional. So, you’ll have a vitamin C and turmeric serum, for example. Turmeric, again, is very deeply


rooted in the Indian culture to help with brightening, glowing skin.


TP: So the message is to adapt to the Indian market, which has a very deep culture with centuries of tradition? TR: Yes, adapting to the market. I see direct-to-consumer (DTC) players taking the home remedy concept and adapting it in the packaging. Take the chickpea-and-yogurt


base I was telling you about earlier. They’re now packaging it in


a product formulation where the consumer just needs to open it, paste it out, put the paste on the face and wash it off. In other words, it’s making


home remedies available in very convenient packages, which is interesting. A lot of the successful Indian DTC brands are offering home remedy products, that have natural ingredients like turmeric, saffron, sandalwood that consumers already believe in, combined with a more modern, active ingredient.


TP: Like kojic acid? TR: That’s still very niche. The popular one, as I mentioned is vitamin C, but we’re also seeing a lot of niacinamide.


January 2025 PERSONAL CARE


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