Advancing Outlook for Active Ingredients for Personal Care in Asia
The demand of personal care products has risen significantly over the past few years in Asia, which is evident from the fact that more than half of the world’s personal care revenue is generated from Asian markets. Skin care applications have the highest popularity among all personal care products. With coming of age innovation in skin care segments in Asia, it has given a definite boost for various functional and active ingredients. The trend is quite prevalent in most of the prominent countries including Korea, Japan, India and China, as they are the major contributors of skin care market in Asia.
Anti-Pollution Actives: These actives have huge demand in Asia, specifically in China and India, to increase the skin’s resistance to the pollution-related damages such as premature aging and inflammation. Pollutant exposed skin triggers premature skin aging, inflammation, oxidative stress, protein and DNA damage, skin irritation or allergies and dry, wrinkled and dull skin. Also, the precautionary trend is increasing in urban areas of Japan and South Korea. Brands such as Olay (P&G), Yue-Sai Cosmetics, Henkel are increasingly marketing anti-pollution skin care products with the support of ingredient suppliers including Ashland, Evonik, Lipotec, etc. who are witnessing a great opportunity in anti-pollution actives due to higher levels of air contamination.
Skin Lightening Actives: These actives form an integral part of skin care products for Asian population to achieve an even skin tone, giving rise to market for skin lightening actives. Along with global ingredient manufacturing companies, there are few prominent regional companies active in skin lightening actives such as Bio-Chempro, Bio FD&C, ActivOn, Durae Corporation, etc. The expected CAGR of ~11% for skin care market through 2020 will lead the growth for skin lightening actives.
Anti-aging/ Anti-wrinkle Actives: These actives stimulate skin’s natural collagen production which makes the face look younger by reducing, masking or preventing signs of skin aging such as wrinkles, skin sagging, poor texture, etc. It is believed that 40% of the Asian population falls within the 25-50 years’ age bracket, which mainly drives the demand and it is expected to grow further in the coming years. The anti-aging products market in Asia is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~9% by 2020. Ingredient manufacturers including DSM, ActivOn, Luca Meyer, Caregen etc. are highly active in Asia.
Sun Care Actives/ UV Filters: These actives have doubled in Japan in the last five years due to rising consumer awareness with respect to skin health benefits after using sunscreen lotions and creams. India is also a growing market due to more sunlight exposure in this region, which prompts consumers to use sunscreens to avoid tanning. Other Asian countries including China and South Korea do not use sunscreen on a regular basis, hence the demand for its actives remain moderate.
Active ingredients in personal care have moved from moisturizing and sun protection to provide advanced benefits such as anti-pollutant, anti-oxidant and sun-protection. High awareness among consumers, rapid increase in population and changing weather conditions in Asia have created a huge demand for the skin care products which in turn have created ocean of opportunities among the personal care active ingredient manufacturers.