Organic Personal Care Market - Taking The World By Storm

Consumers are moving away from products with synthetic and chemical ingredients, and embracing the organic personal care product revolution. What is the market scenario, and how are competitors measuring up to the challenge?

The current decade, due to end soon, is expected to be remembered for the global attention towards climate change, as well as the introduction of sustainable products in our lives. Every industry has had to make process and ingredient changes so that they can be considered as environmentally conscious. Use of chemicals in production is now becoming a strict no-no for many industries, and they have brought out their own range of eco-friendly products. An industry that perhaps has undergone some of the most radical changes in its processes is the personal care segment, with the introduction of organic products.

In the beauty and personal care industry, a mantra being followed strongly has been ‘Less is More’, signifying a shift towards the use of organic ingredients and shunning the use of any possible chemical. This trend has not only been seen in up-and-coming brands, but older and established ones too, as people tend to be loyal to their favorite brands. According to a recent study among U.S. consumers, two-thirds of the people surveyed expressed interest in trying another brand, provided they are natural, while around 55% said that they were attracted to new, sustainable brands. Its no wonder then, that there has been such an explosion of organic personal care products in the market.

The global organic personal care market is expected to witness significant growth over the coming years. Majority of these products are composed of the plant-derived ingredients such as roots, essential oils, herbs and flowers. Few of them are also composed of the animal-derived ingredients such as minerals and beeswax. Post extraction, they are combined with several naturally occurring carrier agents, preservatives, humectants, emulsifiers and surfactants. As opposed to synthetically manufactured ones, these organic products specifically do not use chemicals during manufacturing, in order to preserve the organic content of the products.

These ingredients are most commonly used in the manufacturing of personal care products. Nearly 70% of the personal care products are organically made. Personal care products include hair care, cosmetics, skin care and oral care. The organic personal care market is being dominated by the skin care products over the past few years, followed by hair care and oral care.

Why the world has put its weight behind them?

The rapid advances that organic personal care has seen owes itself to the shift in consumer awareness regarding wellness and health, with health blogs and social media also playing a critical role in marking their global presence. And it’s not just lip service, as there are numerous benefits of using these organically made products. They work efficiently with the body’s system, and repairs, rejuvenates and enhances it. These products are also eco-friendly and help promote a greener planet.

The organic personal care industry is projected to see a rapid growth over the forecast period, owing to the following factors:

• Consumers across the globe have become increasingly aware about the harmful effects of the synthetic products. Hence, a considerable shift in consumer preference has been observed from synthetic to organic personal care products.

• There has been a rapid shift towards healthy living and a greener environment, which has caused heightened demand for these products.

• Growing consumption of environmentally sustainable products and changing customer insight towards the naturally made products has considerably contributed to the growth of the industry.

• Manufacturing of organic personal care products has been a major contributor in reducing the environmental pollution and the dependence on petroleum-based products.

• Human health & safety regulatory bodies, for instance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and FDA’s approval for using naturally derived products has been projected to augment the demand for these products.

• Rising disposable income of consumers has also been a major factor in the growth of organic personal care market across various emerging nations.

• Technological advancements like improvement of the product lines by firms such as Estee Lauder, Aveda Corporation, The Body Shop and Amway are anticipated to augment the growth over the forecast period.

North America led the global organic personal care market in 2018, and is expected to continue to be an attractive market in the coming years. The increased cosmetic consumption and new product launches by FMCG manufacturers in Mexico provided lucrative prospects for the organic personal care market growth. Due to rise in disposable income and improved living standards, there has been an increase in the use of cosmetic products in the emerging regions of Asia Pacific such as China, South East Asian countries and India. Europe has a robust cosmetic manufacturing base in UK, France and Germany, which has further strengthened the organic personal care market.

Competitive Scenario

Some of the major companies that constitute the sector include Aveda Corporation; Eminence Organic Skin Care; Burt’s Bees; Praan Naturals; The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.; Pure and Natural Pet; The Hain Celestial Group; Amway Corporation; Bare Escentuals Beauty, Inc.; Arbonne International LLC; Neutrogena Corporation; The Body Shop International PLC; and Yves Rocher SA.

Organizations in the organic personal care space focus on acquisitions and increasing spending on research and development to steal a march over their competitors. For example, in 2018, L’Oréal launched ‘La Provençale Bio’, a completely new organic skin and body care brand, while it also bought ‘Logocos Naturkosmetik’, a Germany-based manufacturer of Vegan Beauty products, with an aim to expand further in the Western Europe market.

Some of the major developments that the organic personal care industry has seen include:

• In September 2019, Eminence Organic Skin Care launched a new Pure Forest Collection, inspired from the Japanese concept of ‘shinrin-yoku’ (forest bathing), which has ingredients sourced from forests, believed to bring their healing properties directly to the skin. The products feature ingredients such as birch water, snow mushroom, and reishi mushroom.

• In September 2019, Praan Naturals added Organic Soy Lecithin Liquid and Powder and Organic Sunflower Lecithin Liquid and Powder to its product range, with organic lecithin being very effective in skincare and hair care. Additionally, it has also introduced olive squalene and olive squalane into its product range, with the ingredient helpful in maintaining a youthful skin.

• In August 2019, ‘Pure and Natural Pet’, which provides organic personal care products for pets, launched 9 new products across Pure and Natural Pet (7 products), and Pro-Coat GROOMING (2 products) brands, including those for skin care and oral care.

  In-depth report on global organic personal care market by Grand View Research:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/organic-personal-care-market