A new survey from market analyst Canadean has identified personalised skin care as potential big business for the UK beauty industry.
The survery, which asked 2,000 British consumers in June 2014 about their attitudes to personalised skin care, found that 45% of respondents are interested in the laboratory approach to personal skin care, with many of these prepared to visit to a specialised laboratory for the privilege. Of those interested, 54% said they would be willing to provide blood, skin and hair samples to be tested in a laboratory in order to have the perfect product created for them. Equally as extreme, 51% said they would be interested in giving DNA swab samples. 52% would prefer to simply have a medical dermatologist consultation.
Understandably a costly and lengthy process, the consumers also said that they would be prepared to wait for up to a month to receive their product, while 59% added that they would be willing to pay a premium for such products, indicating a great potential for the beauty industry, according to Canadean. Veronika Zhupanova, analyst at Canadean comments: “Over 22% of skincare consumption by volume globally is driven by individualism, and with the development of new technologies, manufacturers have opportunities to take it to a whole new level. Factors such as allergies, genetic pre-disposal, nutrition, climate and exposure to the sun are all individual needs perfect for tailoring.”
Many skincare brands have already responded to the need for individualism by offering their customers in-store skin consultations to detect their skin type and personal needs in order to match them with the right product. Brands such as Dermalogica, Clinique and Nivea offer services either done in-store by trained staff, or that the customer can carry out themselves, to determine which of its existing product lines are most suited to the client’s needs, and which individual products within these line are required. In this practice, the customer’s needs must fit the capabilities of products in the brand’s existing offering.
Now though, a new market is emerging that takes this to the next level, developing a product specifically tailored to an individual set of requirements. Some companies are already offering a more scientific attitude towards skin care with laboratory tests and individually labelled products. In Russia, I.C. Lab (Individual Cosmetic) offers consumers individually made products, produced with personal skin characteristics in mind. The customers are invited to the laboratory, where their skin is tested, and after a few weeks they can collect the product, which features their surname on the package. Currently, the cost for the service and finished product is 3000RUB for a 15ml eye cream, around £50.
“I think that we will see more brands taking this trend even further with more niche products made one-to-one in a lab where the cost and waiting time is higher,” adds Zhupanova.
