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Creating fresh faced beauty
A stylist puts makeup on a model
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A stylist puts makeup on a model. JP/Tifa Asrianti
The legend of the fountain of youth has featured in many a tale, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment to the latest edition of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which is set for release next year.
In the world of fashion, the Fountain of Youth comes in the form of tubes filled with skincare cream. Ten years ago, skincare products were all about whitening. Five years ago, anti-aging products were a hit. Today’s market is concerned with products that brighten, illuminate and create an even skin tone.
Most women today can accept the fact that wrinkles and aging skin are part of a natural process. Now they want to have a glimmering facial tone, according to Michelle Delac, who works for Croda,
a manufacturer of natural specialty chemicals.
“Not only are consumers looking for anti-wrinkle products, they also want products that can create a fresh, bright and even facial tone. An uneven skin tone is the modern-day wrinkle,” Delac said.
She said that of the 10,823 beauty products launched around the world last year, 2,664 were brightening and illuminating agents, which accounted for the highest number of sales in Europe and
Asia Pacific.
Delac added that illuminating, brightening and anti-aging products were made up the top five best-selling products after moisturizers and herbal-based products.
It turned out that the global recession of the past few years has not deterred consumers from purchasing skincare products. The premium cosmetics market remains strong because consumers are willing to spend more money on cosmetics that really benefit them.
“In spite of the recession, France, for example, saw a 3 percent growth by value in cosmetics sales in 2009, up from 1 percent in 2008,” she said.
The perception between price and efficacy has remained strong in the market, and as a result there has been an increase in the sales of premium cosmetic products in the last three years, especially in the United States, England, France, China and Japan, she added.
She cited as an example L’Oreal’s Chromophore, an illuminating agent, which has been a best-seller worldwide, and Clinique’s New Radiance which is used to reduce spots as well as to create an even facial tone.
“Over the next five years, people will start to take care of their skin at an early age. Skincare products that have UV protection or SPF products for both UVA and UVB will be combined with active ingredients,” she said.
She estimated that sales of anti-aging products would bring in US$5 billion between 2009 and 2014.
“Consumers will look for the long-term effects of skin care products. Preference will be on cleansers, wipes and toners, while anti-aging products are seen as an investment. Prevention products will become a trend with the focus on consumers aged [around] 25, 30 and 40,” she said.
She said the Indonesian consumer trend in the skincare market largely reflected the global trend, because Indonesia now had an aging population that wanted to look young. She said that the US skincare market was driven by nourishers, or anti-aging products, and that it was a similar story in Indonesia.
“In Indonesia, the main trend is to have bright white skin and for the products to have active natural agents such as seaweed and goji berry,” she said.
Delac said that superfood vitamins that contained herbal extracts such as cinnamon, grapefruits, ginseng, and goji berry would become more common in anti-aging skincare products.
Daisy Utami, Indonesia’s team leader for the Japan-based cosmetics brand SK-II, said the company’s best-selling product was Facial Treatment Essence, which contained Pitera, a liquid produced from yeast fermentation, as its main element.
She said that since her cosmetics brand opened in 2004, it had seen double-digit growth every year. As a result, she added, her brand had been launching new products, including the latest SK II Skin Signature Melting Rich Cream that helps create a glimmering skin tone.
“We see that Indonesia is ready for new products. Indonesia has a big population, demand for quality and premium cosmetics products, and buying power also exists here,” she said.
Wong Lip Wih, a researcher from local cosmetics brand Martha Tilaar, said that in Indonesia consumers wanted to have a fair complexion and to look more youthful. Taking advantage of that trend, he added, his company recently launched Derma Bright, a product that contained collagen to maintain the skin’s elasticity.
“When people age, the fat can pile up in one place but diminish in another. As a result, the face may look sagged and pallid. This is where our product comes in handy,” Wong said.
Daisy said that compared to Japanese and South Korean consumers who could use 12 different kinds of product in one day, Indonesian consumers were still considered to have a low sense of outward beauty, since they only used five kinds.
However, she said she was optimistic that by educating consumers about skincare, she could encourage Indonesians to learn about how to take care of their skin and learn which products suited them best.
