Outlook 2026: Consumer trends shaping beauty and personal care

Consumer preferences in Southeast Asia are now strongly reflecting values around sustainability, personalization, and trust. These trends are not only changing demand, but reinforcing the need for manufacturers to consider the opportunities available under the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive (ACD), or the agreement among ASEAN countries implemented in 2008, and serves as the backbone of regulatory harmonization across the region.

As a backgrounder, the ACD lays out the requirements for labelling, safety, Product Information Files (PIF), Limits of Contaminants, adverse event reporting, safety assessment, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and the regulation of prohibited, restricted and permitted ingredients.

With that, the industry is  addressing the trend toward personalized and hybrid solutions such as AI-powered recommendations and skincare-infused makeup blur traditional category lines. To support this innovation, regional Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMO) partnerships become ever more important, and allow brands to outsource complex formulation and testing while ensuring compliance with diverse regulatory standards.

(cosmetics © Cenorman I Dreamstime.com)

Meanwhile, as sustainability-driven beauty becomes mainstream, trends in refillable packaging, solid formulations, and waterless products are advancing steadily. This is closely associated with opportunities for shared halal audits and group procurement, because sustainable packaging and eco-conscious formulations often require new testing protocols. By pooling resources, companies, including and especially SMEs can meet both sustainability and compliance requirements without prohibitive costs.

In recent years, and further into 2026, influencer and community-driven marketing will stress the importance of trust and transparency. Here, association-run regulatory helpdesks can play a role by equipping brands with robust guidance on claims substantiation, ensuring that marketing messages remain credible across borders and avoid regulatory pitfalls.

Livestream and social commerce, now accounting for up to 60% of Southeast Asia’s beauty e-commerce sales, will amplify the risks of counterfeit and non-compliant products. Industry collaboration through synchronized transition windows on the ASEAN Cosmetic Directive (ACD) annex updates would help legitimate brands to maintain consistency and credibility across markets, strengthening consumer confidence in livestream-driven sales.

Wellness-led beauty reflects rising demand for SPF, anti-aging, and anti-pollution features as standard. This trend reinforces the need for robust safety assessments and stability testing, which can be made more accessible through group procurement and shared certification initiatives.

In smart and premium packaging trends, designs that are compact, refillable, and elegant are meant not only to appeal aesthetically, but more importantly to communicate compliance and quality. By leveraging regional CDMOs and association-led support, brands can innovate in packaging while ensuring regulatory alignment, reinforcing consumer trust.

Whether in packaging or processing, trend-driven innovation is setting the pace for many industries, and specifically for cosmetics and personal care, it will help streamline development and harness technology to deliver products that meet demand for healthier, holistic body care.

The information was shared by Kusuma Westri, Deputy Chair for Industry Affairs, PPAKosmetika Indonesia, during her presentation at the ASEAN Personal Care Technology Summit in Jakarta in December 2025.