Looking for the newest active ingredient or treatment? A strict daily regimen could be enough for healthy skin
Last month, singer Selena Gomez’s long-awaited Rare Beauty arrived in India. With its light, everyday makeup that claims to include skin-nourishing ingredients, it was a much-talked-about brand in the beauty community. But the conversations highlighted one thing: All makeup—eyeshadows, blushes, bronzers—should come second to skincare. Proactive skin care is becoming the priority for all age groups.
A 2022 report from the Kantar Worldpanel, a service that provides insights into shopper behavior around the world, found that makeup use was down 28% and lipstick use was down 40%, compared to 2019. Today, every self-respecting celebrity has a skincare line, be it Deepika Padukone (82E), Scarlett Johansson (The Outset) or Brad Pitt (Le Domaine Skincare), indicating that the trend of ensuring healthy skin, which began during the pandemic, is going from strength to strength.
The true magic of skin care lies in the consistency. In other words, it’s essential to follow a strict and regular regimen that includes different serums, cleansers, moisturizers, lotions (and of course, a good balanced diet), depending on your skin type and your dermatologist’s suggestions. This reduces the need to go to the doctor for skin treatments or research the newest active ingredients.
The classics still hold their own in skincare: Moisturizer continues to hold close to 50% of the global beauty market share, according to market research platform Industry Research.
“People who are consistent (with skin care) don’t require a lot of procedures,” says dermatologist Meghna Gupta, founder of the Delhi Skin Center. “For example, if you build your skin barrier (the outermost protective layer) well, you don’t need moisturizing treatments; if you’re taking AHAs and retinoids, you don’t need exfoliating treatments.”
THE NEW CONSUMER
“Skincare that is simple and easy is what I like,” says Santu Misra, co-founder of Fetch Consulting, a PR and influencer agency in Delhi. Are you comfortable spending $15,000-20,000 a couple of times a year on everyday essentials like Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm, Beauty of Joseon Serum and Sunscreen, and Caudalie Face Mist.
Skincare isn’t just for those with social media credibility. Chetan Panwar, an IT manager at Expedia Group in Gurugram, Haryana, has an extensive regimen.
“Monday through Friday I use a light cleanser, followed by a mist, moisturizer and light sunscreen, plus my usual shower and body oil,” she says, explaining that her nightly routine is similar, with a night cream added. . “At weekends I apply a hair oil or pre-shampoo mask, body scrub or ubtan, and in the evening, a facial massage with a ghee-based emulsion.”
Then there are those like Sushant Arora, marketing director of outsourcing and offshoring consultancy firm Firstsource Solutions Ltd in Bangalore, who likes to keep things simple with a daytime routine of “three drops of Klairs Vitamin C Serum mixed with Neutrogena Hydroboost.” Gel and d’you In My Defense when I don’t have time”. His day and night cleanser is Cetaphil and he uses Cetaphil Night Comfort before bed.
In India, the beauty revolution is just beginning. Apart from legacy beauty and Ayurvedic brands, the market is divided into three main categories.
The first category comprises local brands that harness the power of actives, such as d’you, Minimalist and Chemist At Play. “When we developed Hustle, we wanted to address the critical point of confusion about how to layer or pair different active ingredients in a routine, so we created a formula that combined 11+ actives in one bottle,” says Shamika Haldipurkar, founder of d ‘ you, talking about his serum.
Similarly, In My Defense, the moisturizer that went viral as actress Alia Bhatt’s favourite, was created to offer a formula with a high percentage of ceramides and barrier lipids but in an ultra-light formula given our hot temperatures and wet.
Then there are brands like Juicy Chemistry, Aminu, and Ras Luxury Oils that create essentials using natural ingredients, but without the obvious Ayurvedic connection.
“The initial goal was to design products without water and keep them stable without preservatives,” says Megha Asher, who created the Juicy Chemistry brand after her own struggles with hypersensitive skin caused by PCOS. PCOD or Polycystic Ovarian Disease can also have an impact on the skin. “Natural products (sold on the shelves) had a lot of ingredients that shouldn’t be in a (truly) natural product. That was the initial idea behind Juicy Chemistry,” she says.
The third category is the newer entrants: Indians who source their internationally formulated and manufactured products and import them into India. An example of this is Elizabeth Isaac’s Gunam Beauty, which brings together local and international expertise, with some Ayurvedic ingredients and PO3 (an innovative new ingredient from a biotech company in Singapore). The entire range is made in France, inspired by her understanding of the beauty industry when she worked for an ingredient supplier in Paris.
Another example is Ilem Japan, founded by Ishvani Patel, an Indian woman who has lived in Japan for almost a decade. Their lotions, scrubs, and cleansers highlight Japanese ingredients like yuzu and sakura. All products are formulated and made in Japan.
What do the three categories of beauty products have in common? Their best sellers are products like cleansers, toners, and moisturizers that are part of the daily routine.
Tira Beauty, the newest online beauty retailer, also wants to create a space where beauty is ambitious yet accessible. They want to “empower and embed skincare into the fabric of everyday life,” says a Tira source.
Consistent, everyday skincare, while transformative, isn’t talked about enough because it’s not a fad or gimmick. You need daily work, perseverance, repetition, a routine. But in the beauty space, where a moisturizer can make your skin feel like velvet and a good cleanser can turn a nightly routine into an event, repetition is far from boring.
Vasudha Rai is a beauty journalist and author of Radiance: Indian foods, recipes and beauty rituals, inside and out and Ritual: daily practices for well-being, beauty and happiness.
