Mild Surfactants Key to Innovation in Beauty, Says Euromonitor

Helen Reavell, a contributing analyst for Euromonitor International, wrote an analyst insight blog post for the market researcher, offering an outlook on the surfactant market within beauty. In "Mild Surfactants Offer Strong Growth Opportunities for Specialist Suppliers," she shows how the beauty industry is utilizing different surfactants in different ways, and includes an infographic that details the growing desire for milder surfactants.

Reavell writes, "Within beauty and personal care, total surfactants is forecast to record only modest volume growth at a 2% CAGR over 2012–2017. However, within the category, amphoteric surfactants are forecast to record stronger growth at a 4% CAGR. This is not only being driven by growing demand for key applications such as bath and shower and hair care, but also the increased demand for milder surfactants.

"This key characteristic of amphoteric surfactants means they are particularly suited to use in baby and child-specific formulations. Given the growth in baby and child-specific products—global sales of baby and child-specific products were valued at US$14.2 billion in 2012 and are forecast to see a CAGR of 4% in constant value terms over 2012–2017—this is a strong and profitable category for specialist ingredients suppliers to target. However, suppliers of mild surfactants have a much wider potential market outside of baby and child-specific products. More mild formulations are being used across the wider beauty and personal care market, such as in shampoo and body wash. And, not only is there a large and growing market for mild formulations, but, as specialist ingredients, they can also be more profitable than standard primary surfactants. Mild surfactants should therefore be an area of focus for innovation, in a category that has become rather staid in terms of new product development in recent years.

"Euromonitor International’s Global Trends in Beauty and Personal Care Surfactants discusses these trends and issues, as well as highlights other areas of opportunities in the surfactants market," she concludes, leaving beauty product developers and brands to consider how this push from both the supply side and from consumer desires is affecting product development in the future.