The research reflects optimism about the future prospects of the emollient market and projects global revenues to grow at over 5% CAGR to surpass $ 1 billion by 2027. Growing penetration of personal care products and increasing reliance on cosmetics continue to be the prime drivers of the emollient market.
The report finds that the cosmetics industry will continue to remain preeminent for emollient manufacturers, however, significant opportunities will also emerge in the toiletries and skin care segment. The report estimates the latter segments to hold nearly 50% revenue share throughout the forecast period.
Following the divergent preference for different forms of emollients available in the market as well as those at the top of medical prescriptions, the semi-solid emollient form reported almost 35% of the total market share in 2017 and is expected to surpass $390 million by the end of 2027. The liquid emollient segment is expected to follow suit with a CAGR of nearly 3.5% in terms of value.
The analysis of emollient chemical compositions, their commercial availability and demand carried out during the study shows that the ether-based emollients dominated the emollient market in 2017, however, the fatty acid-based emollient segment is expected to outsell ether and account for the largest segment during the forecast period. Beneficial and widely accepted properties of lipids or fatty acids and their versatility in chemical formulations are likely to support fatty acid segment in outshining the neck and neck competition with ether during the forecast.
Europe is anticipated to remain the most attractive market with over 4.5% CAGR during the assessment period. With a flourishing personal care industry where manufacturers are actively engaged in introducing green chemistry, the region is leading the emollient market with production of natural emollients, novel manufacturing processes and packaging innovations. Demand for emollient in APEJ and Europe is likely to remain resurgent, with the former likely to account for marginally higher volume share of the market by 2027.
Rising consumer preference for clean labels and natural ingredients has led manufacturers to explore new avenues of natural emollient product offerings. Driven by consumer preferences for accessibility, cost and online shopping, emollient formulation sales through e-commerce platforms is gaining considerable traction.
However, higher costs and limited availability of premium products is expected to confine the adoption levels of emollient formulations in the coming years. In addition, despite extensive application in the cosmetics and personal care industries, intensive costs of prime products and their limited adoption is, in turn, impeding emollient demand in these sectors.
