Looking outward in the inner beauty nutricosmetic market

Frost & Sullivan estimates the global nutricosmetics market in 2009 was valued at $2.1 billion. It anticipates the market will grow faster than the overall cosmetics marketplace, posting a compound annual growth rate of 17.8 percent to reach $5.6 billion by 2015. Although growth looks promising, the rate varies significantly from region to region and will depend on several key variables in the years to come.

The inner beauty market is affected by cultural acceptance of foods, beverages and supplements for skincare; the regulatory climate; and the availability of disposable income. But there's one constant: all people, regardless of birthplace, want to age as gracefully as possible – preferably later than sooner.

"The beauty-from-within trend has been affected by the contraction in worldwide economies. Fewer products are making generalized beauty-from-within claims," said Tom Vierhile, director of product launch analytics for Datamonitor. "We found that companies tend to focus more on specific parts of the body including the skin, hair and nails rather than make a generalized ‘beauty' claim."

Across the board, consumer attitudes about the origin of food and personal-care products are driving the nutricosmetics market. As concern grows over chemically derived skin- and hair-care ingredients, consumers are turning away from synthetic ingredients and toward naturally derived products. The beauty of this trend is that many of the same ingredients used by the food/feed industries as natural colorants, fortifiers and nutrients, are also in nutricosmetics brands.

At the In-Cosmetics conference in Paris last year, Nica Lewis, head consultant, Mintel Beauty Innovation for Mintel International Group, penned the terms "garden ingredients" and "in season" to describe botanical ingredients in many skincare products. She says superfruits are reaching a fatigue factor and that vegetarian/vegan ingredients such as pea starch, broccoli, brussels sprouts, dill, carrot and tomato extracts are showing up in products. Mintel calls this trend part of the "Nu Naturals," which focuses on the safety, efficacy and safety of ingredients that are eco-friendly and free from synthetics.

Talk about these trends and more at the NutriCosmetic Summit, June 22-23, 2011 in Las Vegas.

Global wrinkles in nutricosmetics

Emerging markets are believed to be the new ambassadors of growth for nutricosmetics, specifically among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). This sector is forecast to collectively generate some $43 billion of new consumption in the overall beauty and personal-care market, or three times as high as the total growth expected in Western Europe, according to Euromonitor International.

There are important distinctions to consider when entering the nutricosmetics market in these countries (and others), but the most important is to know the consumer by region. Here's a brief overview of consumer preferences across the globe. (See also: top ingredients in these markets.)

Japan
In the category's birthplace, the concept of consumable beauty is so strong that a substantial number of supplements, foods and beverages sport some kind of beauty-related claim. High consumer confidence may be attributed to trust in the FOSHU (Foods for Specified Health Uses) seal of approval instituted by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare.

China
Beauty supplements represent 13 percent, or $558 million, of the overall dietary-supplements sales, according to Datamonitor. Euromonitor estimates about 40 percent of the inside-beauty segment are skincare products. Other segments trail, such as hair care (19 percent), oral care (10 percent) and sun care (2 percent).

India
India has a promising nutricosmetics market despite a lack of regulations, largely because of deeply rooted Ayurvedic principles. Younger demographics, more disposable income, modernization and consequent changes in diet have shifted nutricosmetics from day-to-day foods to supplements. Euromonitor International projects the nutricosmetics segment in India will grow from 2009 through 2014 at 12 percent compound annual growth rate. 

Middle East
Scientific evidence shows that as far back as 4,000 B.C.E., Egyptians used an extensive array of cosmetics. The billion-dollar business today includes a multitude of quality products made in Egypt and imports from Europe and China. The new market has a few barriers: it lacks regulations and taxes are high. For example, Egypt has a 30 percent customs tax and a 25 percent sales tax on raw material imports.

Eurasia
This region is comprised of about 500 million people in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the Turkish, Balkan and Caucasian markets. According to event manager BeautyEurasia, in 2008 Turkey imported about $1 billion worth of cosmetics and personal care products, while imports across the Eurasia region reached approximately $5 billion.  And according to the Kline Group, growth in Russia has been spectacular as a result of gravitation toward natural products, such as Siberian earth minerals.

Europe
Kline estimates nutricosmetics in Europe reached a market value of $836 million in 2008.  Recent data show Europe constitutes about 55 percent of the global market for nutricosmetics and that the double-digit growth is largely concentrated in France, Italy, Germany, the UK and Spain.

North America
Growth potential in the United States and North America continues to be debated among market researchers. Nancy Mills, industry manager for consumer products at the Kline Group and author of the Nutricosmetics FlashPoint said that her report got more attention from the media than the industry itself. The Kline Group estimates that the United States has only a 3 percent market share. 

In 2007, Datamonitor estimated that the market value for U.S. oral beauty products would be $1.3 billion by 2011. Euromonitor forecasts that growth in the U.S. market (until 2014) will be less than a third of the gains forecast for Brazil. Nutricosmetics face a unique set of challenges with consumer skepticism and tight regulations.

Latin America
In Latin America supplements face fundamental regulatory barriers including regulatory stringency. Vitamin and mineral quantities per product are based on Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) levels rather than science-based risk assessment. Even so, consumers are enthusiastic.

It is likely that nutricosmetics will flourish in Brazil because they are piggybacking on the success of the country's large cosmetics industry: second largest in the world with $30 billion in sales in 2009. Brazilian women are typically willing to invest in nutricosmetics. Yet Brazilian beauty-supplements sales are negligible.