As more people move into cities across the globe there develops a need to express one’s individuality, and that can stretch to all areas of life. The way people dress, the jobs they have, the pastimes they enjoy. Increasingly there has been demand for more ability to customise and personalise the cosmetic and personal care products people use.

This obviously creates problems for manufacturers. In the past there has always been rangtomes of colour cosmetics to take into account different skin tones and ranges of hair products to suit different hair types and there has always been opportunities at the luxury end of things for customised products. But how is it possible to take this further: to produce truly tailor-made, mass market personal care products?

One option is to take in a food industry approach and allow customers to create their own cocktail using a range of products that are known to work harmoniously in different combinations. In Asia there have been recent developments in DNA profiling to aid production of cosmetics that are manufactured to precisely the right balances for the individual’s skin. This type of customisation has been benefited by the advance of home DNA testing kits as well as in-store equipment.

Ingredient manufacturers have been helping the customisation trend with work on chassis formulations that can easily be used to form the basis of a ‘cocktail’. Other ingredient companies are producing products such as silicones that can be used for a wide range of hair and skin types, again making customisation an easier target.

True customisation for mass market may be a little way off, mainly due to the impracticalities of making it profitable rather than from a technological standpoint, but customers are already eager to feel that they are in control and are receiving something other than a standard, off-the-peg product. It’s up to formulators and brand managers to be creative to see how this can be achieved.

To find out more about the latest trends in the Asia cosmetics industry, visit in-cosmetics Asia 2015, from 3-5 November in Bangkok, Thailand.