Top trends: Most-read stories on APAC beauty market and consumer insights

1 – Top of the charts: Facial masks and premium brands dominate Shopee’s first mega festival of the year

Health and beauty emerged as one of the top three categories on Shopee’s 4.4 Mega Shopping Day​ with products like face masks performing well while premium brands saw strong uptick in demand.

Shopee is an e-commerce platform based in Singapore that operates in South East Asia and Taiwan.

This April, it launched the inaugural 4.4 Mega Shopping Day. The first mega sale of the year, the shopping festival was conceived to build on the momentum of the platform’s year-end events.

According to Shopee’s data, during the festival, six times more items were sold on Shopee compared to an average day.

Across the region, Shopee’s in-app games saw 80 million plays across the region and 32 million minutes were watched on Shopee Live on average daily.

2 – Medical beauty: Japan’s MT Metatron looking overseas for post-aesthetic skin care opportunities – CEO

Professional luxury skin care brand MT Metatron is focusing on overseas expansion​ to tap into what it claims is a growing demand for post-aesthetic skin care treatment in Asia, particularly China.

MT Cosmetics is a Japanese company founded in 2005 and has a global presence in countries like Indonesia, China, New Zealand, Russia and Finland.

The firm’s flagship brand is MT Metatron, a high-end professional line primarily distributed through beauty clinics and aesthetic salons.

It also owns Sandalphon, a skin care brand aimed at younger consumers that claim to help them get the coveted V-shape facial profile. Additionally, it also produces devices for the professional channel.

3 – High-value, high-efficacy: Singapore’s IDS says ‘doctor-led’ skin care brands will lead the market

Singapore dermatological beauty brand IDS Skincare believes practitioner-endorsed and scientifically validated skin care solutions have the potential to rival ‘feel good’ products​ as consumers increasingly demand greater evidence and efficacy.

Innovative Dermatological Solutions (IDS) was founded two decades ago by Dr SK Tan, a pioneer in the local aesthetics industry and head of JYSK Group, which owns three brands under the IDS brand IDS Skincare, IDS Clinic and IDS Aesthetics.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, IDS managed to pull through the tough year by shifting towards an online model and was able to continue selling its skin care products and service its clients.

“The back-office team did a marvellous job in setting up teleconsultation services almost immediately. This speed in reaction meant that our patients and clients were able to continue with consultations and also able to purchase products online.”

4 – Precision skin care: Anake aims to empower consumers to make more accurate skin care decisions with DNA-based personalisation

Singapore firm Anake has launched a DNA-based skin care service in what it states is a bid to empower consumers with the ability to make more informed purchase decisions​ in a COVID-19 dominated world.

Established in late 2020, Anake claims to be Singapore’s first end-to-end DNA-based skin care experience. The firm was co-founded by Anna Melman and Liron Shalev, who conceived the idea for Anake following the COVID-19 outbreak.

Melman, who has eight years in the beauty industry under her belt, believes genetic testing can solve the problem of product confusion among consumers in the market today.

“There are just so many brands and products out there. We want people to be able to find what they need based on ingredients that are right for their skin, not just a brand name, or an influencer’s recommendation.”​

5 – ‘Botanical powerhouse’: Lotus Herbals launches new premium clean beauty brand with aims to cross $10m mark

Lotus Herbals has launched a new premium clean beauty brand that it believes can surpass $10m this year on the back of the strong market demand for clean beauty products​.

The Indian natural beauty company conceived Lotus Botanicals as a premium brand targeting the growing demand for safe and natural cosmetics, which has accelerated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Lotus Botanicals is a clean beauty, botanical powerhouse that is pure, potent and truly transformative. It was conceptualised and curated after months of social listening and consumer interactions,” said Nitin Passi, managing director, Lotus Herbals.

“The idea of the brand is nested in delivering clean beauty solutions for the problems that consumers are facing today. We saw a growing segment of aware and educated consumers looking for safer, cleaner products. These consumers are already aware of what kind of ingredients would work well for their problems. We saw this gap in our existing offering and started working on a new brand that would imbibe all these qualities.”