Demand for Natural Beauty Products Causes Companies to Reformulate

The trend toward all-natural products stretches far beyond the grocery store. Consumers today are realizing everything they breathe, intake or apply can and does affect their health, which may cause them to re-assess their personal care products.

Though products containing synthetic ingredients still dominate the personal care market (representing nearly 75 percent of the market share in 2014), consumers in mature markets—the United State and Europe, for example—are increasingly purchasing beauty products containing natural ingredients. This rising popularly of natural beauty products has caused marketers to reformulate with a higher proportion of “truly natural" ingredients, according to a new report by the research firm Kline & Company.

Kline’s rating system, which analyzes brands’ naturalness on a scale of one to 10 (with 10 meaning completely natural), shows several U.S. and European cosmetic brands received higher ratings in 2014 compared to previous years. Agnieszka Saintemarie, project manager, consumer products, Kline & Company, said companies’ reformulations of beauty products make up the next step toward gaining acceptance from a larger consumer base.

Sales within the global natural personal care market increased by almost 10 percent in 2014, according to Kline’s research, with Brazil and Asia-Pacific regions growing the fastest last year. Due to increasing consumer awareness of synthetic materials in cosmetics, the segment’s growth is predicted to reach a CAGR of just below 10 percent through 2019.

In INSIDER’s 2014 Digital Issue “A New Standard of Beauty," Karen Grant, global industry analyst, beauty, NPD Group, stressed that consumers are craving research-backed products that actually work, and she said it’s not just about ‘natural,’ but also about efficacy.

“Consumers are hearing ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ in all aspects, whether it’s in their deodorant they use or the food they eat," Grant told INSIDER. “It makes sense that these concerns would be part of their consciousness when they look at beauty."