By Sharon Kwek, Senior Innovation and Insights Analyst, Beauty and Personal Care at Mintel

New age philosophies, such as crystal therapy and energy cleansing, are emerging as consumers find new ways to maintain a healthy mental state. Self-care is also becoming a critical concept in emotional health management. In fact, Mintel research indicates that consumers, today, are more aware of their emotional health. For instance, 23% of urban Chinese females aged 20-24 report that they are suffering from anxiety disorders or depression, while 72% of British females aged 16-24 are interested in using a fragrance to destress and almost half to boost mental clarity. As highlighted in Mintel’s Trend ‘Mood to Order’, consumers are looking for ways to enhance their mood and feelings through products. Mintel’s 2025 Global Beauty & Personal Care Trend ‘Power Play’ also discusses how consumers are recognising that they need to address their low energy levels while proactively managing their looks.

Mintel predicts that the beauty industry will meet this new consumer need with mood-enhancing products that directly address emotional health and healing, and ‘serve up’ a menu of new emotions, from inspiring creativity to peace and courage. The beauty routine will transform into a self-care routine and all categories of beauty will be expected to deliver these benefits. Although fragrance is the easiest category to implement these claims by using essential oils for example, there is opportunity for brands in colour cosmetics, skincare and bath products to generate innovation with other methods. As skincare transforms into self-care, emotional benefit claims will become a universal offer and will appeal across demographics, reaching a range of categories from facial skincare to body care.

Beauty brands should tap into new modern treatments such as aromatherapy, floral therapy and other alternative medicines, for ingredients that promote emotional health. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), for one, is something that can be further explored as it links key emotions to vital organs and would prove to be rich in insight for emotional management.

For more insight into ‘Developing beauty in a world of emotions’, join Sharon as she presents at the in-cosmetics Asia Marketing Trends & Regulations Theatre on Tuesday, 30 October, 2pm. For free entry, visit http://asia.in-cosmetics.com/register