Beauty industry remains strong; more women buying men’s skincare – Beauty Bar

January 16, 2025 | 10:04am

MANILA, Philippines — “The beauty industry is really a strong sector and through the years, it has remained consistently strong.”

Such was the observation of Reena Rosario as the Beauty Bar Merchandise Group Manager pondered on the beauty store chain’s 25th anniversary at a recent interview with Philstar.com.

Proof to the strong demand for beauty essentials is the store’s growth from eight stores when Rosario started with the brand, to 30 shops and counting this year.

“We’re doing e-commerce… We’re also in Lazada and sales will be around 67%. Maybe higher, much higher during the pandemic, but now we have seen our customers are all back and they still enjoy shopping inside our brick-and-mortar stores, and I think especially because Beauty Bar is the type of store where customers can dab and try and spread and you know, it’s really a beauty playground,” she said.

Through the years, among the chain’s bestsellers is Smashbox, which claimed to have introduced primers in the beauty world. Koh Gen Do Spa Water and organic cotton are also included in the chain’s list of 25 best products.

Co-gendered or genderless beauty products are an emerging trend, she said, as women are buying men’s products, and vice versa.

“It’s still women basically,” Rosario said of their majority target market. “Still a lot. We see a lot of women buying for their husbands or their partners or their spouses, but we’re seeing a lot of men come in to buy skincare or grooming products. They don’t care if it’s not specifically for men. Especially the Korean brands that we have brought in, a lot of men are buying into the skincare from Korea. Men, I feel, is a growing category.”

While the working segment, from ages 25 to 45, are still the chain’s main customers, many moms are also going to the store chains with their kids in tow. 

“A lot of moms as well, and they come with their children, and through the years, what we’ve seen also is that eventually, the children become the customers. We have seen also that the young are more experimental, you know, they can use bright colors, they can use glitter. They are not scared to use something that’s new in the market,” Rosario explained.

“But for the older ones, it’s basically also just mostly skincare. Brands like Smashbox,, Anastasia New York, Hince are the color cosmetics that are also doing very well for that age group.”

Korean beauty or K-beauty and Clean Beauty are already beauty industry staples that are here to stay, said Rosario.

“A lot of Korean brands, K-beauty, we have introduced K-beauty as early as actually even pre-pandemic we’ve already had a few K-beauty brands, but now we are bringing in more. We have brought in a number of skincare from Korea and they’re doing quite well for us. So that I would feel is a trend that will stay,” she predicted.

“Clean Beauty also, so we are very conscious about looking for brands that have that consciousness about either environment or use of chemicals. Clean Beauty has also been a strong category.”