Premium Beauty and Personal Care in Costa Rica

PROSPECTS

Aspirational products and high-end shopping experiences continue characterising the offer within premium beauty and personal care

Having the capacity of targeting upper-end local consumers for whom price does not tend to be the most relevant purchase driver, the offer of premium beauty and personal care in Costa Rica remained relatively stable during 2017. The focus was on the small but affluent base of the population, who have access to significantly higher levels of disposable income and tend to establish loyal purchasing habits for recognised premium global brands, such as Chanel, Estée Lauder and Lancôme.

Skin care, fragrances and colour cosmetics continue to lead premium beauty and personal care sales in Costa Rica

Even though there are emerging opportunities for the further growth of premium beauty and personal care categories in Costa Rica (such as for baby care, bath and shower, deodorants and men’s grooming), the main focus areas for premium brands remained fragrances, skin care and colour cosmetics. With the exception of premium fragrances, where the offer of both men and women’s alternatives have similar levels of development, colour cosmetics and skin care continued to be clearly focused on local females, mostly due to the intrinsic nature of these proposals.

Premium products will continue to leverage on botanical breakthroughs and more-sustainable manufacturing practices over the forecast period

In order to reach a wider audience of potential buyers across the globe, premium beauty and personal care players are anticipated to continue focusing on the use of more-exotic botanical ingredients coming from different global locations, including Latin American rainforests. In this context, major brands are anticipated to adopt deeper levels of commitment in relation to their environmental impact and the carbon footprint of their brands, requiring them to respond to ongoing sustainability demands from both local and regional millennials.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Well-known global brands continue to set the standard

Traditional global premium beauty brands such as Chanel, Estée Lauder and Clinique remained the leaders within premium beauty and personal care in 2017, achieving clear dominance in categories such as colour cosmetics and skin care. Such brands were also complemented by their participation in premium fragrances, including Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Carolina Herrera and other super-premium products, such as Hermes.

New product launches focus on brand tradition, innovation and millennials’ values

A good assortment of new product launches was observed across the most-relevant premium beauty and personal care categories in 2017, particularly in the case of fragrances and skin care. In this context, worthy of mention is the global brand Chanel and its new line of Blue Serum, based on the use of green coffee extracts from the local Blue Zone located in the city of Nicoya Guanacaste.

Additional levels of innovation anticipated within premium beauty and personal care over the forecast period

As the offer of “masstige” brands continued to gain additional sales momentum across a broader base of economically advantaged millennials, premium-orientated brands are expected to provide even deeper levels of innovation and specialisation, with most being based on new technological breakthroughs and research and development. Most such research will continue to take place in relation to different types of botanical extracts with high therapeutic potential.

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