India’s beauty boom, rising competition drive surge in marketing spends 

India’s beauty and personal care market recorded strong momentum in 2025, driven by ingredient-led product narratives and the steady entry of global brands expanding their footprint in the country. From actives-focused skincare to science-backed formulations, consumers showed a clear preference for efficacy-first offerings, pushing both legacy players and new-age brands to sharpen their propositions.

According to Markets and Data, India’s cosmetics market was valued at $17.27 billion in FY2024 and is projected to grow to $29.23 billion by FY2032, at a CAGR of 6.8% during FY2025–FY2032. The growth is being driven by a rising middle class, increasing preference for organic and natural ingredients, and the expansion of online beauty platforms.

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As the category expanded, marketing spends climbed sharply. Heightened competition, rising creator costs and aggressive offline expansion emerged as key drivers pushing budgets upward. With more international brands entering the market and homegrown players scaling rapidly, standing out in an increasingly cluttered ecosystem became significantly more cost-intensive.

Ingredient education and credibility took centre stage across campaigns, with brands investing heavily in content, influencer partnerships and performance-led digital marketing. However, the cost of working with creators rose significantly through the year, particularly in high-engagement categories such as skincare and makeup, forcing marketers to rethink media mix, content formats and measurement frameworks.

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Offline expansion further added to spend pressures. Several digital-first beauty brands moved beyond online marketplaces to establish exclusive brand outlets and strengthen their presence in modern trade. This shift not only required higher investments in retail marketing and visibility but also demanded sustained brand-building efforts across channels.

Increased marketing spends

Samir K. Modi, Founder & Managing Director, Colorbar Cosmetics said, “2025’s beauty landscape is far more competitive than ever before, with global, domestic and digital-first brands all targeting the same consumer. Creator fees have risen, content expectations have intensified, and brands are now expected to deliver richer, more immersive omnichannel experiences. In this environment, marketing investments have naturally scaled up.”

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For ColorBar, the shift has been strategic, with a focus on strengthening brand equity, scaling new categories and supporting its expanding retail network. The brand says it is prioritising long-term creator partnerships, high-impact campaigns and focused retail activations over broad spends, with rising ecosystem costs reinforcing its emphasis on disciplined marketing and sustainable ROI.

Modi added that the brand stands apart through experience-led innovation, from a 100% satisfaction guarantee to bespoke services like Make Your Own Lipstick, personalised engraving and in-store customised nail polish. He further noted that ColorBar’s products are manufactured to global standards across international markets and are PETA-certified, cruelty-free and 100% vegan, with sustainability and consumer-centric innovation at the core of its approach.

Mars Cosmetics echoed similar sentiments. Anmol Sahai Mathur, Vice President of Marketing, MARS Cosmetics, said that instead of large-scale spends, the brand has focused on selective investments, strong storytelling and platform-specific content that deepens brand affinity rather than influencer volume. The company highlighted efficiency through in-house creative capabilities, active community engagement and continuous content optimisation.

While offline expansion has added to costs, Mathur said the move has significantly improved brand recall, particularly across Tier 2 and 3 markets, with engagement-led retail formats converting walk-ins into loyal customers. He added that 2025 marked a defining year for the brand, with differentiation driven by radical simplicity and solving real Indian beauty needs. “Our approach begins with science-led innovation, and we’ve invested deeply in R&D to create sensorial, stable, and results-driven formulas that truly work for Indian skin tones and climates,” said Mathur.

WOW Skin Science, meanwhile, said intensifying competition around “natural” and “clean” beauty claims has led the brand to reposition itself around a sharper, science-led approach. Central to this shift is its “Activated Naturals” portfolio, which blends traditional ingredients with proven actives to deliver visible, performance-led results that balance safety with efficacy.

The brand added that its formulations are backed by research and validation, addressing specific skin and hair concerns rather than generic claims. Alongside this, WOW has streamlined its SKU portfolio into clear, concern-led ranges, expanded its omnichannel presence across online platforms and offline retail including Tier 2 and 3 markets, and doubled down on transparency and trust to stand apart in a crowded category.

Manish B Chowdhary, Co - Founder, Wow Skin Science said, “For WOW in particular, while we remain committed to efficient unit-economics, we’ve concurrently diversified our channels from digital to offline retail, modern trade, and quick-commerce which naturally redistributed and recalibrated our marketing and promotional investments. As we expand offline and into new markets, our spends has to reflect those channel realities.”

Adding a broader industry perspective, Anil Solanki, Senior Director at Dentsu X, said, “Marketing spends for the category rose this year comparatively, driven by creator partnerships, retail expansion, and premiumisation.”

Accelerated growth

For beauty brands, 2025 became less about riding category momentum and more about doubling down on products and marketing. With competition intensifying, brands sharpened formulations, invested deeper in R&D and backed hero launches with sustained, high-impact marketing to stay visible and relevant.

This was evident across emerging players as well. With the Indian beauty and personal care market expanding on the back of a growing middle class and digital-first consumers, Recode saw a strong opportunity to scale. The brand said rising demand for high-quality, value-priced homegrown brands aligned well with its affordable-luxury positioning, prompting a sharper focus on omnichannel expansion, franchise-led physical retail and wider product availability.

“This larger market acceptance fast-tracked our growth journey and solidified our belief that we can create a truly scalable, pan-India beauty brand without sacrificing quality or affordability,” said Dheeraj Bansal, Co-founder, Recode Studios, an online store for cosmetics and beauty products.

The momentum was also reflected in adjacent segments. Ashmita Venkatesh, Founder, Amiy Naturals, a D2C wellness brand, noted that the broader expansion of the ingestible beauty category in 2025 strengthened the brand’s position as consumers increasingly sought ingredient-led, science-backed solutions beyond topical products. “It has allowed Amiy to grow as a new-age internal skincare system, one that restores clarity, glow and long-term skin health from within.”

Overall, the expansion of India’s beauty category in 2025 raised the pace of innovation and sharpened consumer expectations, prompting brands to double down on what differentiates them. While ColorBar leaned into hybrid innovation and experience-led beauty, Mars accelerated portfolio segmentation and brand storytelling, and WOW sharpened its science-backed, ingredient-forward positioning. Collectively, the boom shifted the focus from chasing growth alone to scaling responsibly, strengthening products and marketing, and building long-term trust.

2026 outlook

Looking ahead, industry experts expect marketing spends to remain elevated in 2026, albeit with greater calibration and efficiency.

Solanki noted that the era of blind acquisition has ended, with brands shifting toward ROAS-focused spending, first-party data, loyalty and offline-digital integration. Growth, he said, will continue, but is likely to moderate rather than spike sharply.

“Beauty in India is transitioning from a challenger-led phase to a high-investment, brand-building phase — similar to what FMCG went through a decade ago. As competition intensifies, the winners will be those who balance performance marketing with strong brand equity and retail distribution,” he concluded.