L'Oreal, Estée Lauder: India's Gen Z are driving up a mega boom in its beauty market

Earlier this year in March, American luxury cosmetics maker Estée Lauder fully acquired the homegrown ayurvedic company Forest Essentials. France's L'Oréal Group followed in June, picking up a majority stake in digital personal care brand Innovist.

And Unilever has made at least four beauty investments in the country through its venture capital arm in the last couple of years. Founded at the turn of the millennium in a garage in the Himalayan foothills by entrepreneur Mira Kulkarni - a single.

What Happened

Rising spending power in Asia's third-largest economy is partly driving this boom, according to experts. But now, along with more spending power, there is improved access, distribution and product education.

• Its rise mirrors the explosive growth being witnessed of the country's beauty industry, which was valued at about $23bn (£17.08bn) in 2025 but is expected to nearly double in size to $40bn by the.

• India's per capita income crossed $2,000 in 2019, a threshold beyond which discretionary spending tends to grow exponentially, according to Redseer, a business consultancy.

• And by 2030, some 155 million households are expected to earn more than $9,500 annually, providing a further tailwind to growth.

Key Details

The pandemic also proved to be a major game-changer for the industry, according to Vaishali Gupta, whose two beauty ventures have witnessed breakneck expansion since their launches during Covid. That knowledge base created a consumer who knew exactly what they wanted.

• In fact, e-commerce is expected to drive around 35% of overall beauty spending by 2030, compared with just 8% five years ago, according to Reedseer's estimates.

• She co-founded the vegan skincare company Hyphen with Bollywood star Kriti Sanon in 2023 and also runs mCaffeine which makes scrubs, washes and lotions and calls itself India's first caffeinated personal care brand.

• In the past year Gupta's brands have grown their top line by 100% and she anticipates strong double-digit growth going forward.

Why It Matters

Both Hyphen and mCaffeine, she says, are now among the top 10 brands across their categories in India. It is no surprise then, that a host of Bollywood stars - from Deepika Padukone to Katrina Kaif and Shilpa Shetty of Big Brother.

• Some 56% of its beauty and personal care shoppers are Gen Z, with 70% of them discovering the products they buy through social media.

• According to Redseer, Gen Z and Gen Alpha's share of beauty spending will grow from 32% in 2024 to around 50% by 2030.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• While only a handful of individual brands have scaled meaningfully so far, at this pace of growth at least 10-15 beauty companies will cross $200m in revenue in the next three to five years.

• Continued reporting by BBC as more details emerge