Lines, wrinkles, dull skin. The Benchmarking Company knows what women don’t want…now it’s up to cosmetic formulator to deliver what they do want. At In-Cosmetics North America in New York City, Denise Herich, co-founder and managing partner of The Benchmarking Company gave a presentation entitled “Let’s Get Personal: What US Consumers Want in Customized Skincare.” The presentation was based on data collected from a recent study in which The Benchmarking Company surveyed 5,700 women aged 18 and up in the US in order to gain insight into what women were looking for in personalized skin care products.
 
What They Want and Why
 
The top five skin care concerns for women, according to The Benchmarking Company, include lines and wrinkles, dark areas under eyes, uneven skin tone, large pores and dull skin. The top products that women are buying are facial day moisturizers, exfoliators, and facial night moisturizers.
 
According to TBC, 55% of women believe that synthetically created skin care products can be as good for skin as natural organic, but 44% believe that natural/organic products are much better. The skin care ingredients that women found most appealing were mostly natural, such as aloe vera, vitamin C, vitamin E, argan oil and coconut oil. Clearly, women prefer ingredients that they recognize. Over 50% of women expressed interest in using new trending skin care ingredients like CBD, retinol alternatives, oat milk, cactus and beet.
 
Probiotics and multivitamins are on the rise as me-time and wellness become increasingly important to more women. Nearly 7 in 10 women (68%) named healthy skin in general as a reason why they use wellness products.
 
Why Personalization?
 
Personalization of skin care products is appealing to women for many reasons. Seventy-six percent of women liked being able to find products for their skin and tone; 67% were attracted by the ability to create products that meet their price points and 65% desired products that were an exact match for their skin microbiome/DNA, according to TBC.
 
The women surveyed also expressed significant interest in trying personalized apps for skin care, such as those that recommend a skin care regimen made specifically for you or a device that would custom mix skin care products in your own home, although most women had not actually tried any of these things yet.
 
Nearly 9 in 10 (87%) of women found the concept of probiotic skin care appealing and the majority of women understood the benefits of prebiotic skin care products. Three-quarters of women believed that prebiotics balance skin’s pH and 67% believed that they kill bacteria on the skin that leads to blemishes/acne.
 
Overall, there is a great amount of interest in personalization from brands. Only one percent of women have no interest in buying personalized beauty products. Meanwhile, 26% of women have already purchased personalized/customized beauty products from brands.
 
There is growing interest in personalized skin devices, too. On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being very interested and 1 being not interested, 82% of women gave a 4 or 5 to a device that could measure sun damage to skin and 80% gave a 4 or 5 to a device that could tell if skin is dehydrated.
 
Personalization means different things to different people, but customized products are attractive to women, whether it’s in the form of tailored bundles or custom creams.
 
“Personalization is what a brand makes of it,” Herich concluded.
 
The wellness/me-time trend is making probiotic/microbiome-happy skin care very attractive right now, but educating women on ingredients, concepts and reasons for these products should remain a priority. Women are more likely to try things that they understand, so educating them and giving them proof of the benefits will convince them to buy.