This article first appeared in Global Cosmetic Industry's magazine in August 2024
The pandemic brought a timely reminder of the importance of investing in skin care and health. As a result, today’s beauty consumer is smarter than ever, with a growing belief that skin care routines are just as much about health as about beauty. To no surprise, US consumers are becoming more sophisticated and savvier, increasingly searching for, and by, desired ingredients, claims, or positioning to find the most efficacious, personalised, and safe beauty routine. While dermocosmetics brands have become the standard for safety and efficacy, dermocosmetics-adjacent ones have adopted a similar positioning, tapping into motivating factors like clinical results, claims and, most importantly, scientific consensus.
Tremendous post-COVID growth in dermocosmetics skin care underscored by ongoing consumer demands for efficacy and safety…
Since 2019, more US consumers are looking for skin care features like “dermatologist tested”, specific ingredients, and clinical formulation, motivated by an underlying demand for safety, transparency, and healthy living, which is placing a higher reliance on substantiated medical guidance. This has placed pressure on brands to build trust, with dermocosmetics becoming a standard as they meet several consumer demands. This phenomenon is driven by brands with proven claims, well-substantiated efficacy, and alignment with dermatologists to address skin pathologies.
Indeed, the growth of dermocosmetics skin care has continued to outpace the growth rate of overall US skin care for the past few years.
From a consumer perspective, motivations to purchase dermocosmetics for skin health benefits (30%) and better alignment to skin type (24%) have been increasing
Source: Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Beauty Survey, fielded June to July 2023
Dermocosmetics brands continue to innovate to meet these developing consumer needs, like Cetaphil’s Healthy Renew Range. Beyond specifically calling out dermatologist influence in design and development, Healthy Renew is centred around a retinol alternative ingredient, supported with clinical results on even sensitive skin, a growing concern among US consumers.
…however, the success of dermocosmetics is encouraging non-dermocosmetics players to explore and lean into scientific and ingredient-led positioning
With consumer appetite for evidence-based or results-driven products fuelling dermocosmetics, other brands are responding by emphasising dermocosmetics-inspired features, like efficacy, safety, and the science-led nature of their ingredients, claims, or clinical results. This has led to an uptick in dermocosmetics-adjacent skin care brands positioned as clean, clinical, or “cleanical”, reflecting consumers’ desire for science-backed knowledge about the beauty products they use regularly.
Health and wellness motivations are underpinning this consumer desire, with 46% of US consumers citing moderate or extreme concern over their skin health in 2024, up from 38% in 2023, encouraging consumers to further scrutinise the formulations of the products they use daily
Source: Euromonitor Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition Survey, fielded January to February 2024
One example is Lion Pose, which is developed by Harvard-trained dermatologists and uses third-party clinical testing, among other science-backed initiatives.
With health and safety top of mind, some consumers start their ingredient-led journey by focusing on eliminating ingredients suspected to harm human or environmental health, also known as clean beauty. These concerns have only been heightened amid recent recalls, like the finding of benzene in various acne products in early 2024.
Apps like ThinkDirty, Hwahae, and Yuka are making it easier than ever for consumers to quickly check potentially harmful or irritating ingredients, providing a curated service of ingredient scanning and product reviews in beauty, and sometimes beyond. Consequently, the number of US skin care products with no parabens or no sulphates claims has been rising since 2019 (Euromonitor International Product Claims and Positioning), encouraging some long-standing beauty players to explore reformulations to address consumers’ safety concerns. This includes the removal of ingredients like parabens, artificial dyes, or sulphates when undergoing reformulations, like Clean & Clear or Bath & Body Works.
Furthering ingredient-led development: Balancing efficacy and desire for visible results with skin health motivations
While active ingredients to treat or prevent skin concerns will remain at the core of ingredient-led beauty, consumers are being challenged to balance their desire for efficacious and targeted products with the motivation of maintaining and protecting their skin health and barrier. During the pandemic, consumers were drawn to powerful active ingredients, but overuse and resulting sensitivities are now encouraging consumers to take a gentler, but still efficacious approach. In turn, a growing number of consumers are exploring softer alternatives or products suitable for sensitive skin, searching for ingredients like bakuchiol instead of retinol, or plant-derived antioxidants like rosemary or ginkgo biloba instead of BHA and BHT.
Future outlook: Wellness and clean beauty motivations will continue developing consumers’ greater ingredient consciousness
The rise and cultivation of ingredient-led beauty will continue developing alongside consumer motivations like rising health considerations, propensity for dermocosmetics or adjacent science-backed brands, and momentum from movements like clean beauty or K-beauty. As consumer standards continue to rise, non-dermocosmetics brands are expected to continue exploring many of the same motivating factors drawing consumers to dermocosmetics, like substantiated claims or clinical results, leading to greater levels of competition and pressure to differentiate oneself. Moving forward, simply cleaning up formulations will not be enough, as brands will have to lead with evidence-based, skin healthy and scientific positioning.
Read our article, Dermocosmetics in South Korea: Current State and Projections, for more analysis on the drivers of dermocosmetics in South Korea. For a deeper dive, you can learn more about consumers’ growing ingredient consciousness and health-based motivations in our report, Ingredient-Led Beauty.