 |
| Source: Wardah website. How to wear red lipstick. |
Halal beauty products was a relatively niche area until the end of the review period, said Euromonitor, naming Paragon Technology and Innovation as the most prominent player in this area at the end of 2015. Its Wardah brand in cosmetics and skincare has allowed the company to capitalise on the growing popularity of halal beauty products in 2015, with its value share reaching 2% that year.
Things are expected to change as Indonesia passed the Halal Product Certification Bill in September 2014 that stipulates all products, including beauty brands, must be halal-certified by 2019. This requirement covers product ingredients, production machinery and equipment, as well as the entire value-chain process, with international manufacturers consequently starting to work towards halal certification, Euromonitor notes.
Some early adopters include L’Oréal Indonesia, which built a manufacturing plant in Indonesia at the end of the review period and now has around 145 of its ingredients halal-certified so as to meet the needs of Indonesian consumers. Colgate-Palmolive is another early adopter, with the company launching a halal toothpaste featuring miswak (Editor's note: miswak [مسواك] refers to twigs from a particular tree that were traditionally used for cleaning the teeth).
Unilever Indonesia also joined this trend in 2015 with the launch of Sunsilk Clean & Fresh, which is targeted at women who wear hijabs daily. The company partnered with New York based Francesca Fusco, a leading scalp treatment specialist, to launch this new variant. Incorporating citrus vitamin complex, Sunsilk Clean & Fresh nourishes hair strands while offering a clean and fresh sensation for the scalp which helps hijab-wearers feel more comfortable.
According to Euromonitor, halal beauty products are expected to gain further prominence over the forecast period as a result of the implementation of the Halal Product Certification Bill. Manufacturers will have to move quickly to ensure their existing ingredients and products are compliant in the short-term. This is especially crucial for international giants, which dominate sales in multiple beauty and personal care categories. While coping with securing halal-certification for existing ingredients, international manufacturers will place a greater emphasis on steering ongoing product innovation efforts towards halal offerings.
The blog concludes that there is a window of opportunity for local brands such as Wardah to take advantage of the gap before international manufacturers obtain halal certification and start to capture the interest of local consumers. "This will have to be done through heavy marketing campaigns, including sampling, in order to create awareness among local consumers, given that sales of local halal beauty brands remained limited over the review period," states the blog post.
Hashtag: #halaldariawal ("completely halal")