Consumer enthusiasm for naturals gives rise to tasty trend

Food in cosmetics was pulled up as a key growing trend at this year’s in-cosmetics event in Hamburg, rising on the back of ongoing consumer enthusiasm for naturals in beauty products.

Speaking at the event, analyst from market research firm Mintel, Emmanuelle Moeglin, highlighted the food trend, which she states looks set to be particularly big in the fragrance sector.

Tapping into a parallel consumer demand for an increased sensorial experience, products now not only feature food-related scent or ingredients, Moeglin noted; they are also increasingly formulated to resemble foodstuffs, and packaged in a way which plays up to this too.

Sensorial

Moeglin pinpointed fragrance as the key segment set to see the dominance of this trend, due to the potential for this union with the consumer interest in increased sensorial experiences from their products.

60% of Germans like to smell bath and shower products before purchase,” she noted, adding that up to a third of Americans do too. Scent of products is top of consumer concerns globally when selecting soaps, pushing the products’ ability to hydrate the skin into second place.

Fragrance,” Moeglin stated, “is as important as functionality.” She highlighted the Body Shop’s ‘Blueberry’ range, Fa’s ‘yoghurt body smoothie’, and Kiehl’s ‘Radish’ as recent food-related launches.

Naturals and sustainability

Consumer enthusiasm for naturals has been steadily on the rise, and researcher Organic Monitor predicts that revenues of organic cosmetics will climb to $14 billion by 2015 in the US alone.

Yet the rise of naturals is being pushed by the brands as well as the consumers: sustainability and corporate social responsibility are major drivers in the use of green ingredients for many companies in this decade.

“The days of natural or organic for the sake of making such marketing claims seem to be drawing to a close,” Organic Monitor’s head, Judi Beerling, has observed of the trend.

“So not only is the ‘naturalness’ of ingredients important but companies are also becoming concerned about a multitude of other issues,” she added.