India is fast cementing itself as a powerful player in the global beauty market and strategics are taking note.
The Estée Lauder Cos., for example, recently entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining 51 percent of Indian ayurvedic beauty brand Forest Essentials. It first made a minority investment in 2008 and increased its stake to 49 percent in 2020.
Founded in 2000 by Mira Kulkarni, as a luxury ayurvedic skin, body and hair care manufacturer based in Nida, a suburb of New Delhi, Forest Essentials has expanded to nearly 200 freestanding stores, primarily in India, and is forecast to grow net sales by low double-digits over the next few years.
Forest Essentials
Courtesy
“It’s a brand that is unique in so many ways in a market that is full of potential,” said chief executive officer of the Estée Lauder Cos., Stéphane de La Faverie. “At a moment where consumers are more and more in search of wellness, this brand represents a perfect opportunity, not only to continue to nurture it beautifully in India, but also expand globally.”
This strategy is also reflected in the company’s Beauty & You India initiative, which supports the next generation of India-focused beauty entrepreneurs.
“I do believe that India is on the path to become the most important emerging market in the world in terms of size, simply because of the size of the population, the digitalization of the country, the ability to create beautiful physical expression,” de La Faverie said in a recent earnings call.
Unilever has also been investing in India, with Srinivas Phatak, Unilever’s new chief financial officer, naming India one of two anchor markets alongside the U.S. Priya Nair, who previously was the president of the company’s global beauty and well-being division, was named CEO and president of Unilever’s India unit.
With this top of mind, the consumer products giant led a $3 million seed funding round in Secret Alchemist, one of India’s first clean fragrance indie brands, as well as investing in the luxury Indian skin care brand SkinInspired alongside Lotus Herbals, through its beauty and personal care investment arm, Lotus Innovation Fund, and Spring Market Capital. It is also a backer of Inde Wild (more on this later). But most recently, in April, it led Mumbai-based skin care brand’s Clayco’s $4.1 million funding round, having invested $2 million in 2024.
Clayco Rice & Sake Sleep Mask and Matcha Enzyme Scrub.
And early last year Unilever’s India unit, Hindustan Unilever, said it was acquiring Minimalist, a premium beauty brand born in the country.
At the same time, the world’s largest beauty company, wants in on the action, with India currently generating around just 1 percent of L’Oréal’s turnover.
Media reports are swirling that L’Oréal is in discussions to acquire a majority stake in Innovist, an Indian personal care company that includes brands such as Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play and Sunscoop in its portfolio.
If this materializes, it would follow L’Oréal’s BOLD venture fund, which in February revealed it had invested in two Indian beauty brands: Deconstruct and Arata.
As for why strategics are so focused on gaining a foothold in India, demographics and the country’s digital evolution are thought to be the main driving factors.
For starters, India’s population is 1.45 billion strong, according to the World Bank, almost 20 percent of the world population, and 900 million of those are below the age of 35, while a quarter of the population is 14 or under. At the same time, 950 million Indians own smartphones.
This means spending on beauty and personal care is growing as younger demographics are considered the highest engagement beauty users. According to data from Euromonitor, India’s beauty and personal care market was worth 1.52 trillion Indian rupees in 2024, up from 1.38 trillion Indian rupees in 2023 and 1.03 trillion Indian rupees in 2020.
There is also significant runway for growth. Despite pressure from the geopolitical environment, Deloitte expects India, the world’s fourth-largest economy, to grow between 7.5 percent and 7.8 percent in fiscal 2025 to 2026, and then between 6.6 percent and 6.9 percent in fiscal 2026 to 2027, buoyed by the rollout of new goods and services tax rules and slowing inflation.
In beauty retail, Nykaa is dominant and is also an active acquirer, reportedly in talks to purchase Indian actress Deepika Padukone’s skin care brand 82°E.
Earlier this month, it revealed that it expects net revenue to grow in the high 20 percent range in the final three months of fiscal 2026, which would mark its fastest pace of growth in three years. In addition to rising fashion sales, it cited steady demand in beauty.
Sephora entered the Indian market in 2012 and since 2023 has been operated in partnership with Reliance Retail. It has 31 stores across the country, with e-commerce representing around 11 percent of sales.
According to Kristina Strunz, managing director, Southeast Asia & Oceania, fragrance is its strongest category, accounting for the majority of sales.
“India is a key strategic market for Sephora, and our focus is on building a strong and sustainable presence over the long term,” she said. “We are planning to open another three stores for this year and also upgrading a number of our stores, for example Sephora Elante Mall, our number-one store, in the next three months.”
Other big players include Tira, Purplle and Tata Cliq.
Quick commerce, the concept of delivery within 10 to 30 minutes, is also growing, led by key players such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart. Some even do the job in five minutes and over the past couple of years, the main providers have been expanding their focus from groceries to also include personal care, beauty and fashion. Q-commerce only looks to get bigger, with Zepto expected to go public via an IPO. HSBC Global expects this sector’s gross order value to swell to between $35 billion and $40 billion by 2027 or 2028.
On a category level, Paul Austin, a fragrance consultant, believes one of India’s biggest opportunities lies in fragrance.
He said: “The paradox of India has always been that it’s got this highly sensory culture where scent is woven into every part of everyday life, and scent is understood on a very complex level, with devotion and beyond and beautification. But its classic fragrance market has always been quite small. It’s roughly about 3 percent so there’s a huge opportunity.
He continued: “One of the most interesting dynamics is the emergence of the middle as the power zone. Price points around [3,000 to 5,000 rupees] are unlocking a new kind of consumer who is both aspirational and highly discerning.”
Strunz said skin care is another huge opportunity, already representing a significant part of the market, with estimates valuing it in the tens of billions of dollars. “It continues to expand rapidly as consumers adopt more sophisticated routines,” she said, noting that more niche segments like aromatherapy and sun care have been growing in the mid-teens. At the same time, K-beauty is also getting more mainstream with brands like Laneige.
Color cosmetics, meanwhile, is growing at an annual pace of around 10 percent, added Strunz.
Then there’s the opportunity for Indian brands globally like Diipa Khosla’s skin care and hair care brand Inde Wild, which just entered Sephora U.S.
“For us personally, it’s a story of specifically one hero product, which is the Champi hair oil that’s resonating with consumers all over the world.”
Hair care is a key category in India, and one that Khosla thinks can become an entry point for global consumers. “Hair care actually has a lot of its roots in India,” she said. “The act of shampooing and the act of conditioning have their origins in India. When you think of Indian women or South Asian women, you already have this picture of long, luscious, thick hair, generationally between grandmothers, mothers. It’s this beauty ritual that’s been passed down,” she said. “With K-beauty making its moment in skin care, there’s a subliminal feeling of, Koreans would know skin care. And there is that similar sentiment to like, oh, Indians must know their hair care.”
It is also for this reason that Lauder completed its full acquisition of Forest Essentials. “I went to the [London] store, not just to see how we are going to do India for India, but India for the world,” said de La Faverie. “This for me is one of the big opportunities that we both see in the expansion of this beautiful brand.”
