This report highlights key innovation trends in Beauty and Personal Care, analysing new product launch activity on e-commerce along with insights into key attributes and claims. Set against the backdrop of wider global consumer trends, it provides actionable insights to inform NPD strategies and maintain a competitive edge.
Delivery
This report comes in PPT.
Key Findings
Fewer launches are raising the bar for innovation returns
Beauty and personal care innovation is becoming more selective, with NPD declining in 2025 and new products accounting for a smaller share of the online assortment. At the same time, innovation is increasingly concentrated around established brand equity, with greater reliance on brand extensions.
Innovation is broadening beyond traditional facial skin care and hair care categories
Innovation remains concentrated in moisturisers and treatments and hair care, but the launch mix is gradually broadening. Body care, body wash, sun care, deodorants and face masks are gaining share, spreading NPD across a wider range of beauty and personal care needs. Across these categories, launches are increasingly enhanced with skin care-inspired benefits, targeted efficacy and convenient formats, extending products beyond their traditional core functions.
Innovation intensity and staying power are diverging by category
Innovation intensity does not translate equally into staying power across beauty and personal care. Moisturisers and treatments combine high launch volumes with stable survival, while sun care pairs strong assortment renewal with comparatively low inactivity. By contrast, body wash and hair care show faster turnover and higher inactivity, highlighting a divide between categories where innovation sustains relevance and those characterised by shorter portfolio cycles.
Targeted outcomes, efficacy and easy-to-use formats drive differentiation
Moisturising, hydrating and nourishing remain foundational, but their widespread use is reducing their ability to differentiate. Growth is shifting towards sensitive skin, skin health, fast absorption and refreshing benefits, indicating that more successful propositions increasingly combine a precise need state with credible efficacy and convenient, low-friction formats.
Key findings
Higher stakes for beauty innovation
Our expert’s view of Innovation in Beauty and Personal Care
NPD overview: Fewer launches are raising the bar for innovation returns
The launch mix is gradually broadening beyond facial and hair care
High NPD intensity signals faster renewal, not necessarily stronger opportunity
Staying power is the sharper test of innovation quality
Innovation expands across BPC categories
Three innovation trends redefining value in beauty and personal care
NPD shifts towards longevity, credibility and Asian influence
Foundational efficacy remains the entry point, not the differentiator
Growth shifts towards targeted needs, efficacy and everyday performance
BPC differentiation shifts to targeted benefits and everyday usability
Opportunities for growth
Beauty and Personal Care
This is the aggregation of baby and child-specific products, bath & shower, colour cosmetics, deodorants, depilatories, fragrances, hair care, men's grooming, oral care, skin care and sun care. Black market sales and travel retail are excluded.
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