Overview of the Cosmetic Industry

The skin care industry worldwide is a 50 Billion Dollar plus business. Caring for the skin of people throughout the world is an extraordinary business. It is a business where people are passionate about their work, because it matters. It matters to their families, to their communities and to the world.

It is a business filled with tremendous opportunity for leadership and growth in the 21st century; a business where unmet needs still abound and where people around the world are waiting for new and better solutions. Skin care includes dramatic breakthroughs in science and technology are opening the doors to bold new approaches; where global demographic and economic trends favor growth.

It is a business where a broadly based company with a strong vision, a culture of caring and the resources to invest in the future has the opportunity to take the skin care to a new level for people throughout the world and where such a company can make a profound, positive difference for its customers.

The worldwide market for Skin care products is in billions of US$. The major product segments in the market are Face Care Products, Body & Hand Care, and Depilatories, and, Sun Care Products. The sub product segments include Facial Moisturizers, Facial Cleansers, and Hand & Body Lotions/Creams. At present there are about 889 companies in the international market including many key and niche players worldwide such as Amway Corp. (Artistry Cosmetics), Avon Products, Inc., Beiersdorf AG, Chattem, Inc., Clarins, Estee Lauder, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Neutrogena Corp, Kanebo Ltd., Kao Corporation, Andrew Jergens, L' Oreal S.A, Biotherm, Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc., Oriflame International S.A, Playtex Products Inc., Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Inc., Sara Lee Corporation, Schering-Plough Corp., Shiseido Co. Ltd., Tanning Research Laboratories, Unilever N.V, and Unilever Home & Personal Care.

Euromonitor International, a researcher and publisher of market reports, business reference books and online information databases, independently categorises Artistry Cosmetics as a prestige brand and ranks Artistry as one of the top five in sales in this category, alongside Clinique, Estée Lauder, Lancôme, and Chanel. Artistry is the only direct sales brand classified in this "prestige" category.

As the world's obsession with fair skin continues, skin care products have emerged as a key driver for the personal care category. All the personal care majors, from HUL, P&G and Emami to L'Oreal, CavinKare, Nivea and Dabur, are fighting a high-pitch battle to gain share in the small, but fast-growing skin care market.

The multi-billion-dollar global cosmetics and skin-care-product industry sometimes is beset by a me-too mindset in which research and development focuses on matching the competition rather than applying sound science to improve products. For example in western countries the skin care market is valued at $180 million. With safe and effective procedures, advancement in medical technology, increase in awareness, the Skin care solutions business is growing very fast. The skin care market can be segregated into toners, cleansers, sunscreens, anti-wrinkle creams, dark circle removing creams, astringents, facial creams, moisturizers, fairness creams, day and night creams, etc. Out of these, facial creams, moisturizers, fairness creams, day and night creams, etc. are the most popular products and account for approximately 60% of the skin care segment.

Cosmetics have a very long period of use. The companies involved have a tremendous knowledge of what works and doesn't work just from experience. Once they show somewhere that something works, then everyone jumps on the bandwagon.