Nikhil Kamath decodes WTF is Skincare: India’s Beauty Market, Trends, and Entrepreneurial Insights Unpacked
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, September 27, 2025: In the latest episode of the popular WTF Podcast, investor and entrepreneur, Nikhil Kamath gets together with industry leaders Bhakti Modi, CEO, Tira; Diipa Khosla, founder, Inde Wild; Shantanu Deshpande, Founder of Bombay Shaving Company and Nikhil Kamath to deep into India’s dynamic beauty industry, exploring market trends, consumer behaviour, and key advice for budding entrepreneurs.
The podcast covers the latest insights on beauty market dynamics, premiumisation, community-driven branding, emerging trends, and startup wisdom, making it the perfect listen for beauty founders, entrepreneurs, investors, and industry enthusiasts. Key discussion areas include:
1. India’s Beauty Numbers Unpacked:
Shantanu highlighted the scale of India’s personal care and beauty industry: “Personal care hair products are Rs7-8 billion, makeup around Rs3 billion, skincare Rs6 billion, and fragrances Rs3 billion.”
Bhakti noted that beauty is growing at a 10% year-on-year rate, outpacing general personal care growth. Shantanu added context from shaving products: of 30 crore shavers in India, only 3% use premium blades.
2. Premium vs Mass Market:
The discussion clarified key market definitions: products over INR 1,000 are considered premium, INR 2,300–2,500 as prestige/luxury, and below INR 1,000 as mass. Bhakti shares, “It’s premiumisation at every level. It’s happening in pockets; it’s not happening homogeneously. It will take time, your core will still remain mass but you will have a valorised product for that mass brand for the consumer so you don’t also lose the consumer.”
She stressed that without an upsell path, brands risk losing their base to competitors as tastes change.
Diipa noted the rise of the middle-class and luxury consumer; she counters, “Yes, the premium market is not as big, but the middle class and the luxury consumer is growing at a very fast rate.” Bhakti cautions that building a thousand-crore, high-volume prestige business in India is not easy and will take time. Shantanu cautions that high-end products often remain niche.
3. The Community Advantage:
Building a loyal community emerged as a central theme for the skincare space. Diipa stressed, “You can copy product, you can copy branding, marketing, but you cannot copy a community.” Bhakti adds, “Shared values are the foundation of community.” The panel highlighted authentic engagement and consistent messaging as low-cost, high-impact ways to build brand loyalty.
4. Salons as Channels and Discovery Hubs:
The panel shares how salons continue to act as both distribution and discovery hubs. Bhakti emphasized new, niche segments, while Diipa noted Gen Z’s preference for home-based salon experiences. The panel agreed that salons remain a gateway for trust and sampling. Bhakti notes that millennials still look at stylists and dermatologists as experts, while “Gen Z is looking at influencers and KOLs as their experts.”
5. 10 Trends Shaping Beauty in India:
1. Reimagined Old: Nikhil opened with a cultural parallel beyond beauty, noting how today’s youth isn’t buying entirely new products but “reimagined old,” and asked if this approach works. “I think it really resonates with the new India,” said Diipa, explaining how nostalgia, once seen as dated, has become aspirational when reinterpreted with innovation and style. The panel agreed that India’s beauty market, already at $21 billion in 2024, is thriving on this trend. She highlights how, with consumers embracing identity and pride, brands are modernizing heritage rituals into covetable formats and winning both wallets and hearts.
2. Beyond the West: While discussing Indian identity driving storytelling, Bhakti explains, “When it comes to what they expect from a quality perspective, yes, there is a want to emulate the West in product standard, in transparency, in claims. But when it comes to storytelling and identity, that identification has changed very beautifully. Consumers realize they were not seeing people who represent them.” Diipa echoes Bhakti’s viewpoint, framing this shift as India breaking free of a colonial hangover, and highlights the change she’s seeing. She says, “But in recent years, there’s this pride. With everything that India is doing, the global south is where it’s at. India is the epicenter of beauty in our industry, but also in so many other things.”
3. Hero Product: Nikhil observes underlying how today’s beauty brands often straddle content and commerce. Bhakti, however, stressed that he foundation of success lies in product first. She highlights that “You need to have one solid product and you need to be able to solve a real problem… even if it’s good quality, that’s one, and then you can go.”
4. Food-Inspired Beauty: Bhakti highlights, “Everything in beauty is all about food. if you can eat it, you can put it on your face.” From cherries to pistachios, and even matcha, beauty brands are capitalizing on ingredients that evoke comfort and nostalgia. Nikhil captures the mood: “Old products made cooler, nostalgia sells.”
5. Tier-2 &Tier-3 Cities: Nikhil opened by asking, “Are Tier 2 is an opportunity?” The panel collectively highlights that premium-to-prestige beauty is growing the fastest, with Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities emerging as key drivers.
Social media, rising female earners, and aspirational consumption are powering this shift, while mass segments continue to dominate overall volume. Bhakti made the strongest case, highlighting, “It is about premiumization at every level. We are not only speaking to the metro audience, there is at least 5x times headroom to grow in terms of acquisition. A huge amount of prestige sales come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.” Shantanu reframes “Tier-2” as high-income pockets hidden in smaller cities: the top 5 % of households in Ludhiana or Coimbatore may have more disposable income than their counterparts in bigger metros.
6. Ayurvedistry: Nikhil asked if Ayurveda, once a novelty, still resonates, sparking a discussion on its reinvention for today’s ingredient-savvy consumers. Bhakti said it’s no longer a passing fad but part of a bigger shift: “I don’t think it’s a novelty…I think…right now it’s all actives.” Diipa described how beauty now has “two lanes” - clean/natural and clinical/dermatological, and a new “hybrid” is emerging: Clean-icle. “There’s a new trend or phase that’s coming up where it’s clinical so it’s the clean and the clinical aka hybrid”
7. Omnichannel Expansion: On being omnipresent, Bhakti shares, “I think today if you want to grow at scale, omnichannel is the way to go.” She explained that while D2C brands can build their own websites, platforms offer an already captive audience. Shantanu highlights how multi-brand platforms are not just distributors; they shape discovery, build categories, and even own the brands consumers love.
8. Sampling & Minis: On the market for product samples and minis, the panel agreed that when done right, sampling not only drives trial but also upsells. Bhakti shares, “If you want to convert a consumer shopping in mass for hair care to premium, you send them that premium sample and you will upsell them.” Minis, she explains, represent not just trial but a standalone business model in India. Bhakti reveals, “India is the mini capital of the world,” but cautions, “It’s also expensive to make minis. The margins are not great.“
9. Sustainability: Nikhil opens the discussion on the meaning of sustainability, sharing, “I don’t think that’s a trend right now. It was a trend yesterday.” Diipa sets the tone from the creator-founder lens: “It’s a bare minimum. She argues that sustainability is no longer a “label” but a hygiene factor. Shantanu adds, “Today’s Gen Z, actually cares about the product inside the bottle, not the bottle so much. They’re way too smart for that.”
10. Less is More: Nikhil challenged the panel to look beyond hero products, sparking a conversation on Gen Z’s rejection of clutter and how ‘skinimalism’ could define the next beauty cycle. Diipa explains that combining multiple actives into one high-performing product saves time, cuts waste, and lets brands focus on a few category-defining items rather than dozens of ‘me-too’ launches.
6. Fragrance Boom:
Fragrance is highlighted as the fastest-growing category, driven by perfume wardrobing, gender-neutral scents, and indulgent formulations. Shantanu adds, “The gourmand fragrances is a two-year-old trend…and all the big players are working on it.” He notes that young consumers are now buying multiple fragrances per month, signaling a cultural shift towards self-expression.
7. The Power of Influence:
Shantanu emphasized that current customers are the best influencers, while Bhakti highlighted the role of nanos and micro-influencers in building loyalty. Shantanu was direct: “My view has always been that the best influencers are your current customers.” Bhakti added, “That’s why I think that shared purpose or value comes in, you find those creators who align with your brand. The nanos and micros get you a lot more traction, organic reach and conversion. You use mega influencers for awareness, but you build loyalty from the ground up.”
8. Personalized Beauty Powered by AI:
AI is enabling personalized skincare solutions, though the panel stressed that offline retail remains crucial, with 67% of first-time purchases expected in-store by 2028. Bhakti cautions that AI can enable, not replace, offline touch, blending recommendation engines with simplified SKUs and immersive retail experiences, highlighting, “Consumers today still buy 80% of beauty for the first time in a store,” projecting 33% online and 67% offline by 2028.
9. Celebrity Brands in India:
Celebrity-backed products still work but must focus on authenticity, product quality, and meaningful storytelling. Bhakti said they still can, but only under new rules: “I think they are working, yes, but not the way they were working in the past. You need to have a solid product, you need to have that hook that links you to the consumer today, and it’s not just about slapping your photo on a product. You need to be able to connect with the consumer so the consumer buys the product for you, and also for the quality. A very strong storyline, and it’s very important for a celebrity to be authentic.”
10. Startup Wisdom: Progress, Purpose, Patience:
The episode concluded with entrepreneurial insights. Bhakti shares Identify your white space, build a hero product, focus on progress not perfection, and nurture a community.” while Diipa emphasizes, “Anchor in purpose, know your why, and build a winning team.” and Shantanu concludes, mentioning, “Entrepreneurship is a decades-long journey; 93% of value is created in the second decade.”
WTF Podcast, hosted by entrepreneur and philanthropist Nikhil Kamath, is a platform where friends and industry experts engage in casual yet intellectually stimulating conversations. This podcast delves into an array of timely subjects, spanning technology, social media, renewable energy, electric vehicles, philosophy, gaming, psychology, and beyond. Each episode is meticulously curated to provide valuable insights tailored to empower young entrepreneurs venturing into the business world.
Recognized for its quality content, the WTF podcast hosts 1.38 Million+ subscribers on our YouTube channel with 300+ Million lifetime views across various channels. The podcast was hailed as the best podcast by Amazon Music and rated as Spotify's & Best Global Video Podcastst; alongside Joe Rogan and Lex Fridman, Guests on the podcast include PM Narendra Modi, Bill Gates, Padma Shri Prashant Prakash, Kumar Birla, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and other global thought leaders.
Watch the entire episode here: Tira, Bombay Shaving Co., Inde Wild | WTF is Fueling India’s Beauty & Skincare Revolution? | Ep. 25
