Where did indie beauty come from?

by Karen Yarussi-King  |  Global Regulatory Associates

Indie beauty didn’t just happen; cultural, commercial and technological innovations converged to upend traditional business models forever.

Pre-indie Beauty

Before the internet, the big, traditional brands (Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, Coty, Avon, J&J, Unilever, P&G, etc.) controlled the industry. Trends, benefits and key ingredients were dictated by these brands using beauty advisors and mainstream media to educate consumers. Products were only available in department, drug and grocery stores, or home visits (as with Avon), which made it easier to control the messaging.

Over the last 30 years, there were events, movements and ideas that began to take shape in different parts of the world that would ultimately become the foundation for the product and ingredient trends we are seeing today. The emergence of the internet provided a platform for the exchange of ideas and a new way to shop, spurring a global industry transfor­mation with each region contributing in different ways.

Changing Events

There were four key events that played a part in transforming how today’s consumer feels about ingredients used in products. While the natural movement is typically credited to the European lifestyle, its U. S. roots can be found in the 1960s counterc­ulture, which encouraged people to live simply and get closer to nature. In fact, this is how much of the non-industri­alized world was living.

There were major pollution events that raised consumer awareness of the need to protect the environment and increase sustaina­bility. Links between FDA-approved ingredients and their serious side effects led to a form of chemophobia that still exists today, and further interest in the use of natural ingredients. Lastly, Mad Cow disease outbreaks in the early 1990s raised awareness of animal cruelty and spurred the desire to replace animal-derived ingredients in products.

1. Changing lifestyles

These events created movements. The lifestyle of health and sustaina­bility (LOHAS) philosophy raised consumer awareness of the need for sustaina­bility and environmental and social responsi­bility. Around the same time, the growing natural and wellness movements used the internet to research information and educate consumers about ingredients and animal testing protocols. These movements have merged to create a new group known as the ethical consumer, the target audience for free-of claims, as well as natural, sustainable, environm­entally friendly and cruelty-free products.

For example, in the late 1980s and 1990s, the natural movement began to seep into product marketing. Plant extracts, natural oils and waxes replaced animal-derived and synthetic ingredients. Ingredient stories became a central marketing theme for brands to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive marketplace. The success of the Herbal Essences franchise showed that the consumer was open to change and had a desire for “natural” products.

2. A new way to shop

At the same time, the rise of alternative ways to buy products created increased pressure on traditional sales channels. While baby boomers embraced QVC and other TV shopping outlets, Gen-X and millennials embraced specialty stores like Sephora and Ulta. The idea of a one stop, self-serve, try-before-you-buy model dedicated to selling not only cosmetics, fragrances and skin care, but also toiletries, hair care and beauty tools, whetted the consumer appetite for a new way to shop.

The allure of specialty retailers was the ability to play with and compare hundreds of products in a no-pressure atmosphere because the beauty advisers weren’t paid by any one brand. As a result, smaller or indie brands found success in specialty retailers without the costs associated with beauty advisers and sales counters found in the department stores.

Due to declining traffic in department stores, traditional brands began selling on TV and in specialty stores as well. The result is that consumers were purchasing products based on likeability rather than on traditional marketing.

3. Indie brands’ embrace of the internet

Leveraging the power of the internet has provided consumers with yet another new way to shop for products. Not only has the direct-to-consumer path made the cost of entry affordable to new indie brands, it has also been a way for those players to quickly respond to trends, benefits and key ingredients that consumers want in their products. It is for this reason that the internet has helped to birth so many new indie brands.

Tapping into search engine data to find global internet trends has made it easier for these brands to market themselves to specific sub-populations of consumers. In this way indie brands have been able to embrace trends from around the world as points of differen­tiation. As evidence, look at the impact of K-beauty on the US market over the last five years.