Indian consumers are veering towards India-made personal care and beauty products, according to a new market study by research company Mintel. The research showed that 36% of Indian consumers bought products from Indian beauty brands, while 45% of consumers bought personal care products from Indian brands.

The reason for this high level of acceptance is the perceived notion of ‘value for money’, ‘good quality’ and ‘healthier and safer to use’. This growing popularity of local brands is being termed as localism. This trend is catching up because more and more conscious consumers are opting for products started by Indian entrepreneurs. In fact, this has added to the growth rate of these companies in a big way.

According to Saptarshi Banerjee, Senior Lifestyle Analyst, Mintel Reports India, one of the major reasons for the popularity of local products is various government campaigns promoting ‘made in India’ concept. “The current economic uncertainty, supply chain disruption and climate crisis have strengthened consumer support of local communities and businesses. We’ve also seen numerous government initiatives in the last few years with an aim to boost local entrepreneurship, such as Make in India, Vocal for Local, Digital India, and Startup India,” he added.

Top Reasons For Popularity of Indian Beauty Brands

Indian brands offer better results: Mintel’s research further shows that 26% of Indian consumers feel that foreign-made products do not offer the same results as Indian products since these have not been made keeping in mind the specific requirement of the Indian users. “The sentiment is that the imported products are not made to suit the local lifestyle,” said Banerjee.

Quality of products as good as foreign made brands: When it comes to the user experience of the products, nearly 32% of the users say that it is difficult to distinguish between Indian products and foreign made beauty products.

Sustainability and clean beauty are big selling points: Indian beauty brands have also adopted clean beauty and traditional Indian beauty recipes as the two main selling strategies. This has been well adopted by the Indian consumers in a big way, since there is already a tradition of using nature-based and herbal beauty recipes.

Growing number of D2C beauty brands and popularity of e-commerce: Over the last few years, the Indian market has seen the emergence of direct-to-consumer beauty brands selling what they call clean beauty products that are fee from harmful additives and harsh chemicals. This has resonated very strongly with the Indian consumers. Besides, their strong presence in the online retail space has made these brands highly accessible to consumers in tier 2 and tier 3 markets.   

The Indian beauty brands like MamaEarth, WOW Skin Science, Sugar Cosmetics, Plum, MCaffeine are experiencing impressive growth in the market with Indian beauty buyers preferring to pick up these brands over international ones.

---