What I Learned by Writing about the Brazilian Cosmetics Market

You learn the most funniest things in the strangest places.

A big name fashion trade magazine recently asked me to write about the Brazilian cosmetics industry. I had nothing else on my plate at the time, so I took the job. Believe it or not, I got a nice little update on where Brazilian society is headed. Check out what I learned.

If you’re like me and haven’t been paying attention, here’s the bottom line: Brazil – with its per capital annual income of under $9,000 - ranks as the world’s third largest market for cosmetics, fragrances and hygiene. It has been growing by 11% a year for a decade. That’s way more than the 2.5% average annual growth in the Brazilian gross domestic product for the same period.

Renato Prado, an analyst with the Brazilian investment bank Banco Fator, outlined for me a few of the key causes: more women in the workforce; lower prices engendered by better productivity; an increase in niche products to address specific consumer demands; and an increase in life expectancy and the desire of older people to look their best. Sounds more like sociology than fashion. Where’s Fernando Henqrique Cardoso when we need him?

If you accept one stereotype about Brazil, the one about beauty and sensuality in the tropics, you’ll understand why Brazil ranks just behind the United States and Japan and ahead even of France in overall sales. Yuriko Terada, president and director of Tampopo, a leading boutique hair salon in São Paulo that happens to be where BrazilMax cuts its hair (full disclosure: we get no kickbacks!), told me that consumer choices in cosmetics, fragrances and hygiene “ are related to sensuality. In Brazil there’s more physical contact and hugging.” João Carlos Basilio da Silva, president of the Brazilian Toiletry, Perfumery and Cosmetic Association (ABIHPEC) told me that “In a tropical climate, with the heat, you sometimes feel the need to take more than one bath a day to feel your best. When you take another bath, you use your entire kit again.” Living in Brazil, I’ll admit that I sometimes take a shower in the morning and then another one at the gym later in the day. Heck, it looks like even I’m part of the trend.

Forget the other stereotype, the one about the Brazilian masses being too poor to buy anything except rice and beans. Ever since the country quelled hyperinflation in 1994, the poor majority in the country of 180 million have enjoyed a gradual increase in their real earnings. Their often telenovelistic tastes have been fueling consumer demand in the most expected and unexpected areas – from music to, well, cosmetics. “Purchasing power has increased since inflation came under control,” observed Prado. “People are spending more on products that used to be considered superfluous.”

Big Brazilian Hair and Smelly Shampoo

Short may be stylish on the international scene, but hear this hair analysis from Basilio da Silva: “Brazilian women let their hair grow long. They use it as an element of seduction. In the United States and Europe, women are more practical. Here women want long hair and so they have to take care of it.” One style currently in favor with the ladies is a ponytail that would appear slightly out of whack – as if “customized by the wind.”

If fake wind-blown ponytails aren’t weird enough, get this: consumers often “go by the smell” when they buy shampoo, Yuriko told me. “They’ll open the bottle and take a whiff before deciding what to buy.” Sounds like a cool scene for my first screenplay.

International Trends in Brazil: Older, Healthier Men

As human beings everywhere, Brazilians are getting older. Life expectancy is up to 72 years now compared to 67 in 1995. “This means that people have to take care of their appearance,” said Basilio da Silva. “They have to take care of their skin – to retard aging or at least to age with a healthy appearance.”

Masculine products represent a growing part of the senior skin care niche, now accounting for 9% of sales, according to an ABIHPEC study. Ten years ago, one in 100 men used such products; now the number is up to one in 15. “There’s a cultural transformation,” said Prado. “Services account for a growing part of the economy, and men too have to look good on the job.”

Another international trend observed in Brazil is “the holistic/wellness/natural focus of many consumers,” in the words of Camila Toledo, trend & research specialist at Worth Global Style Network Incorporated, a research firm. The fragrance market favors scents “that appear to elevate natural or organic ingredients above such things as marketing plans.”

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