From mood-matching scents and fun textures, to a greater focus on self-care and utilising more eco-friendly ingredients like fermentation, a much more specific offering in body care – rather than just mere hydration – seems to be what’s hot right now.
Niching down is an interesting move for a category that has commonly struggled to attain the same level of spend from beauty consumers as the facial skin care segment.
But could specialising in fun textures, trending ingredients or innovative formats be the way to turn the tide and create a real surge in growth?
“The increased focus on niche and multifunctional body care products has the potential to shift consumer spending, making body care a more lucrative category for brands,” says beauty industry expert Heisy Padilla, who has a decade of product development and marketing experience.
“Traditionally, body care has been seen as a basic necessity rather than a high investment category like facial skin care, but several factors are driving a new era of premiumisation, creating more opportunities for brands to capture consumer spend.”
And more specialised body offerings that focus on play, self-care and more unusual high-quality ingredients, some even with a stronger eco-conscious mindset too, are coming from surprising new players as well as household names.
‘Clean’ beauty retailer Credo entered the space this year with its first own-brand body range powered by fermentation – formulated with ethically harvested proprietary ingredient sugar kelp extract – after reporting “explosive growth” in general body care sales in the business.
Monday Haircare’s founder debuted new brand Daise in January, aimed at ‘discerning’ Gen Z and older Gen Alpha shoppers, offering affordable All Body Spray & Deodorant with mood-matching fragrances and whipped cream-textured body washes.
Big hitter The Ordinary even debuted a three-piece simplified offering after learning that shoppers were using its facial skin care products on their body due to the efficacy.
The range comprises more modern formats – a hybrid emulsion and body serum – alongside a more traditional moisturising lotion, formulated with its facial skin care hero ingredients salicylic acid and niacinamide.
Australian beauty brand Grown Alchemist is even repositioning itself this year to be more body-focused after discovering that
