The women’s facial skincare market has proved resilient over the years with women expanding their routines and experimenting with new products. Penetration is very high and continues to increase, especially that of facial treatment products such as serum. Prestige brands and online business have delivered stronger growth, reflecting the continued consumption upgrade and changing retail landscape in this category.

Meanwhile, consumers are getting increasingly knowledgeable and prioritise product benefits and ingredients over brand and price. This in some ways makes women’s facial skincare a level playing field where small and new brands have a good chance of entry and gaining market share. Leading brands are challenged to keep not only renovating their classics but also bringing true innovations into the market, in order to consolidate leadership.

The COVID-19 outbreak had a minor negative impact on the category, as women’s facial skincare routines and strong demand for high-performance products were not disrupted by the outbreak. After a slowdown of value growth in 2020, mostly due to losses in the first quarter, Mintel predicts the women’s facial skincare market will regain its previous growth momentum for 2021 and continue till 2025, as women keep investing in appearance and health.

Key issues covered in this report

  • The impact of COVID-19 on women’s facial skincare market.

  • Competitive landscape and launch activities.

  • Skin issues that trouble women most and causes of these issues.

  • Trends in usage of facial skincare products over the past three years.

  • Purchase factors of facial skincare products and attitudes towards ingredients.

Definitions

Products included in this Report:

  • Facial cleanser

  • Facial toner/softener

  • Facial moisturiser/emulsion/lotion

  • Facial serum/essence/concentrate

  • Facial spray (eg mineral water)

  • Eye cream/essence

  • Facial oil (eg moisturising oil, facial massage oil)

  • Facial mask (including sheet mask, rinse-off and sleeping mask)

  • Suncare products (excluding colour cosmetics with suncare function eg BB cream)

  • Deep exfoliator/scrub products

  • Special treatment products (eg anti-acne, anti-blackhead)

Market size is based on sales through all retail channels including direct to consumers but excludes the professional sector (such as beauty salons and clinics) and C2C channels (eg WeChat business and Taobao). Products specifically designed for or targeted at men or babies, medicated products and suncare products are excluded from market sizing.

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