EP206. Is the beauty industry truly saturated?

One of the most common questions I receive from people who are thinking about enrolling at Formula Botanica, the online organic cosmetic formulation school where I'm CEO, is how will I make my own skincare brand a success? Or isn't the beauty industry completely saturated? And another question many people have asked in the past is, aren't there too many beauty brands? In fact, I even recorded an opinion piece on this back in episode 138, and spoiler alert, I concluded that actually we need to rephrase that question. So we're not asking, is there really space for more beauty brands? But instead we're asking, do we really need the big beauty brands we already have, or is it time for a change? And I think last week's episode really put that question in the spotlight. So in the last episode I interviewed my friend Wiz Selvy, who's a beauty retail expert and thought leader in the world of retail. And Wiz and I picked apart what happened to the Body Shop, which has recently sadly gone into administration. And as I was reflecting on our conversation afterwards, I couldn't help but make the link between the downfall of the Body Shop and and this question about whether the beauty industry is saturated or not. So that's what I'm going to run through in today's podcast episode and I will be fascinated to hear your thoughts afterwards. Hi, it's Lorraine Dallmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions in which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week and talk about my thoughts on how we can make the green beauty sector a better and more sustainable place? If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So is the beauty industry overly saturated? Well, let's talk about the Body Shop for a minute, because here's a brand that was a leader in its day. It was the place that a lot of women bought their beauty products. One of the topics we even discussed in last week's episode was this nostalgia that some of their formulations even evoke for some people, bringing back memories of the 90s through fragrance and packaging. And yet here we are in a world 30 years later where the Body Shop is now, sadly, closing stores all over the world and going into administration. Is that because the beauty industry is saturated despite the fact that this sector just keeps on growing? Or is it because here's a brand that hasn't modernized, that hasn't innovated, and that sadly hasn't kept up with trends. So I think the conclusion we came to last week is that it really boils down to a lack of innovation. Although in fairness, I'm sure that the pandemic really didn't help many brands either, including the Body Shop. So when Dame Anita Roddick very sadly died, the Body Shop did lose an activist at its helm, and that activism was the very heart of the brand. But then look at another activist brand like Lush, who were founded 20 years after the Body Shop and who are actually coming on the podcast soon to talk about regenerative beauty. Stay tuned for that amazing episode. And there's a brand that has innovated, that has changed, that has kept up with what people are looking for in Ret. And it's very easy to then look at the Body Shop and think that they still weren't one of the cosmetics giants who might feel untouchable. In fact, I'm sure some people think that those giant cosmetic players will always have longevity. But that's not the case either. Look at Revlon, for instance, which was founded in 1932 in the middle of the Great Depression in the US and ended up filing for bankruptcy 90 years later in 2022. They were struggling with debt, with rising competition, with supply chain challenges, and ultimately they just weren't innovating because beauty standards and expectations change all the time. And if you stay static, then you run the risk of not keeping up with what the market wants. There are, of course, other examples just like Revlon, although theirs was possibly one of the biggest ones. So is it really possible for a new brand to make waves in this industry? Well, I continue to say yes, because of course there are always opportunities. After all, every industry needs to continue innovating. If you don't innovate, if you stand still, then others will simply overtake you. And companies are always standing still in every market because it's not easy to build a culture of innovation into a business without a very strong leader who drives forward that continual change. And although that is desperately sad for the brands that are closing, it also offers amazing opportunities for new brands coming to market. This is where finding that point of differentiation and understanding what people want from their cosmetics is so incredibly important. It's about ensuring that your brand continues to evolve. The Body Shop continued with their mission of fighting for a fairer world. It's still on their website, but their innovation in stores and products, I think it lacked the drive and determination that you get from someone at the top who knows exactly what change they want to make in the world. Had Anita Roddick still been with us, the brand would likely have looked very different, because just think about all of the causes she would be championing nowadays. The beauty industry really did suffer a great loss when she died. So I come back to my question one more time. Is the beauty industry really saturated? And the answer, of course, is no. Brands will come and go forevermore, but they will only enjoy longevity if they continuously innovate and improve. And many of them simply won't be able to do that, creating huge gaps in the market for new brands to join in. Furthermore, the cosmetics industry is just continuously growing. It's this enormous booming sector, so new brands can always come in and get a slice of the pie. My only hope for those new brands is that they champion that same activism for sustainability that Dame Anita Roddick brought to the Body Shop and the wider world. That's how we make the world a better place. Thank you for listening to my Green Beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course. And if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the Convers stations I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode.