The National Association of Perfumery and Cosmetics , Stanpa has carried out a study to analyze the situation of natural products in cosmetics from different perspectives.
It is the first macroanalysis in Europe around natural, neutral and objective cosmetics, for which it has had the collaboration of three research institutes: Mintel, Sigmados, and Epsilon.
The conclusions of the study show that the consumer identifies and relates these products with values such as well-being, health and respect for the environment .
As pointed out by Óscar Mateo, director of training and market knowledge at Stanpa, in the act of presenting this study held this Tuesday in Madrid, “the profile of the user of natural cosmetics is an urban woman, with children or pregnant, aged between 30-45 years and medium-high purchasing power that pursues a healthy lifestyle and declares that they are interested in a very specific type of diet ( vegetarian-vegan ) They use women’s social networks, forums and blogs to stay informed about beauty, cosmetics, nutrition, children, etc.
The weight in Spain of this type of cosmetic is ” 10 percent lower than what is observed in other countries such as Germany, France or the United Kingdom”, it has stood out, possibly due to the characteristics of the products in the different markets and the different weight of hygiene and basic personal care products.
The most demanded products are those of cleanliness and hygiene (hand, foot and body creams, soaps, gels, depilatories and shaving ) and hair care.
The reasons
The environment is the main reason that 62 percent of Spanish natural beauty consumers choose to buy these products . 46 percent use simplicity, understood as formulas with fewer ingredients, as a reason to take into account attributes that could be more characteristic of food than of cosmetics. Transparency, understood as ethical values of companies and brands, is also alleged as a third factor.
59 percent of Spaniards, however, think that natural products do not necessarily work better than other products and two out of three (66 percent) believe that they do not have to be more ethical than those found abroad. of this category.
Only 36 percent of consumers state that they can distinguish which cosmetics are natural and which are not, and in more than half of the cases they do so through the information on the label. Around 15 percent do so because they observe a seal or certificate . “This seal is not synonymous with natural since it is granted to companies that pay for it, without showing anything,” Mateo recalled.
Food or cosmetic
In recent years, the trend to be healthier in eating habits has also been transferred as a value to the field of cosmetics. Although 77 percent of consumers claim to give importance to natural ingredients in cosmetic products, in the purchase process it is observed that interest is reduced, as only 47.7 percent pay attention to whether cosmetics are natural or not.
For their part, there are 19 percent of consumers who directly transfer their eating habits to cosmetics, even affirming that “they would not put anything on the body that they could not be eaten”, despite eating a food and applying it to them on the skin are totally different things.
What is natural cosmetics for you?
In social networks, the Epsilon study shows that there are a total of 27,000 net conversations that directly speak about this topic , which is below the rest of conversations about other categories on the network such as “fragrances” (71,000), “hair ”(33,000) or“ skin ”(30,000).
This digital conversation “is generated mainly by specialists (39 percent) who self-attribute knowledge about this category, forums, blogs and in general news spaces (34 percent), users (19 percent) and, finally , e-commerce (7 percent) “, according to Mateo.
In the conversation on social networks, for 6 out of 10 consumers these are products that contain “some natural ingredient”, generally botanicals and with a very limited number, such as aloe vera, coconut, natural oils, shea, flowers, argan, rosehip, almond, honey, etc.
For 2 out of 10 consumers, these are products “without” “unnecessary” ingredients or additives , but they cannot determine which should be those that should be excluded. For 1 in 20, the natural implies that they are cruelty free products , “ unaware that all the cosmetics marketed within the EU already are”, Mateo recalled.
Nature and science are compatible
Faced with consumer preferences regarding the characteristics that a natural cosmetic product should have, almost half of the population considers that there cannot be a completely natural cosmetic since it is necessary to include some process or ingredient to make it more effective and pleasant or eliminate possible adverse effects.
More than three-quarters of the population believe that the use of technology is positive and there is full consensus when combining science and technology to improve the safety and efficacy of cosmetic products. Affirmation that the population ratifies 92 percent.
