Asia Beauty Report 2025

Three growth secrets of Asia’s rising beauty brands

Consumers demand proof and performance over provenance

Smaller local indie brands are driving growth in Asia’s beauty market. They’re successfully winning buyers and spend from the big established players, by meeting new consumer needs and delivering real results.

Beauty continues to outperform overall FMCG growth in Asia, led by the ‘Emerging 30’. These brands are reshaping expectations with sharply-focused benefits, ingredient-led innovation, and advanced delivery technologies. Their prize has been explosive growth – with spend up a huge 117% in South Korea, 98% in Thailand, and 82% in Indonesia.

The fact is, Asian beauty consumers don’t value a brand’s heritage as much as they once did. Instead, they make decisions based on evidence that products will work, and on true performance.

The Emerging 30 are successfully earning trust and credibility by employing three core strategies:

1. Addressing and creating new demand spaces – with precision benefits like brightening, pore care, early anti-aging, and make-up infused with skincare ingredients.
2. Ingredient-first messaging – communicating active ingredients in ways that consumers understand and believe. Retinol, niacinamide, and PDRN dominate the conversation, while familiar components are being recombined in novel ways.
3. Beyond skin-deep delivery – developing innovative methods that ensure the ingredients reach the right skin layer. These include encapsulation, boosters, spicules, and technologically advanced beauty devices.