Shalinee Mishra, Exchange4Media
May 7, 2025

Bollywood’s biggest stars, Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone, have reputed beauty businesses to their names — Kay Beauty and 82°East, respectively.

Kay Beauty, launched in late 2019 in partnership with Nykaa, has crossed the ₹200 crore revenue mark in 2024. In contrast, 82°E, launched by Deepika in November 2022, has managed around ₹25 crore, according to industry estimates.

Both actors have massive social media pull, strong brand equity, and sizable fan followings. They are matched in popularity, but the same cannot be said about their respective brands. One clearly has an edge over the other. In this case, it is Kay Beauty.

What went wrong with 82°E?

A core difference between the two brands is pricing.

Kay Beauty’s average product is priced affordably at around ₹299, making it accessible to a large portion of Indian beauty consumers. It hits the sweet spot of mass affordability and aspirational branding.

Katrina seems to have built the line keeping in mind India’s price-sensitive but beauty-conscious audience, especially women who look for functional, everyday products without shelling out a fortune.

On the other hand, 82°E positions itself as a luxury skincare brand, with products starting at ₹2,500 and going up to nearly ₹4,000. While targeting the premium market is a valid strategy, it demands either a very clear value proposition or a unique, standout offering that sets it apart from both domestic and global competitors.

According to multiple marketing and retail experts, 82°E currently lacks such a defining “hero” product. In contrast, top-tier global brands like Estée Lauder (Advanced Night Repair) and L’Occitane (Immortelle Divine Cream) have built their entire portfolio identity around one or two iconic products.

Devangshu Dutta, CEO of retail consultancy Third Eyesight, cautions against overestimating the power of celebrity equity alone. “Celebrity involvement, even with an equity stake, doesn’t automatically ensure brand success,” he says. “What matters is how well the product and brand resonate with the end consumer. Many factors—category selection, pricing, accessibility, and retail strategy—determine scalability.”

He adds, “A high-priced D2C brand with limited-use products will always scale slower than a more affordably priced, high-rotation brand with widespread retail availability.”

Missing the emotional connect

Another crucial area where 82°E falters is brand recall without Deepika. Experts argue that if Deepika’s face were to be removed from the branding, very little would remain to emotionally anchor consumers.

While celebrity-founded brands enjoy the initial boost of recognition, long-term consumer connection demands storytelling, product efficacy, and relevance.

For a product priced between ₹2700–₹3900, the experience and results need to justify the cost. But user feedback suggests the perceived benefits don’t dramatically exceed what one might get from a ₹999 serum in the market.

Katrina’s Kay Beauty, in contrast, positioned itself as a homegrown solution for Indian skin types, with products that worked well for deeper skin tones and humidity-prone weather.

The brand tapped into inclusivity and practicality—two emotional hooks that resonate deeply with Indian consumers. Additionally, it responded to functional needs by launching waterproof and sweat-resistant products, which especially make sense during monsoons.

On Instagram, Katrina actively promotes her products, collaborates with influencers, and shares content that resonates with her target audience. In contrast, Deepika’s brand presence on social media lacks the same level of relatability and consistent engagement, suggesting a need for a more tailored and active digital strategy.

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Retail footprint and distribution strategy

Skincare, particularly in the premium category, remains an experiential purchase. Consumers often want to try and test products before committing, especially at a higher price point. 82°E launched as a D2C-only brand, relying heavily on its website and social media advertising for discovery and sales with no store opening.

The strategy meant substantial upfront investment in paid media and influencer partnerships to generate traction, but lacked the physical visibility or tactile experience needed to convert high-end skincare buyers.

In contrast, Kay Beauty quickly became visible across Nykaa’s extensive online and offline retail network, giving shoppers a chance to explore products across price tiers in-store and online. The Nykaa tie-up served not only as a strong distribution engine but also as a brand endorsement in itself, given the platform’s dominant position in Indian beauty retail.

As Kushal Sanghvi, a media and marketing strategist, puts it, “Kay Beauty got its pricing, packaging, promotion, and place—basically the key P’s of marketing—spot on. Deepika’s brand, though elegant, is caught in a niche premium wellness space with limited scale.”

Kay Beauty was developed with a clear understanding of what works in India: colour cosmetics tailored for Indian skin tones and seasonal weather. The brand focused on frequently-used products like lipsticks, kajal, and foundation sticks that had both a functional and emotional appeal, allowing it to drive repeat purchases.

In contrast, 82°E focused on skincare rooted in self-care and holistic wellness, a space that is already crowded with local and international competitors, and where product effectiveness needs to be proven over time. Moreover, Indian consumers still tend to see skincare as utilitarian, rather than indulgent, which makes higher pricing even more of a challenge.

Short-Term Results vs. Long-Term Vision

It’s important to contextualise these figures within brand age. Luxury brands, globally, have often taken decades to establish loyalty. From Estée Lauder to Chanel, brand equity is built slowly through repeated use, reliable results, and consistent positioning.

But time alone won’t change the equation unless the core approach is recalibrated. If Deepika’s brand intends to build a long-lasting business, it will need to think beyond elite appeal and D2C strategy. Offline presence, a wider retail network, and possibly a reimagining of its product portfolio to include lower price points or trial-sized options could open the door to a broader consumer base.

India’s beauty and wellness market is growing at over 15% year-on-year, and opportunities abound at both the premium and affordable ends of the spectrum. But clarity of positioning and accessibility remain critical to long-term success.

(Published in Exchange4Media)

Sagar Malviya, Economic Times
Mumbai, 20 March 2025

Established beauty product makers such as Forest Essentials, Colorbar, Kama Ayurveda, Body Shop, VLCC Personal Care and Lotus Herbals saw a slowdown in sales growth in FY24, according to the latest Registrar of Companies filings. Consumers favoured new-age rivals such as Minimalist and Pilgrim, specialised derma brands, as well as global labels Shiseido, Innisfree and Eucerin.

Sales growth of established brands mostly in the natural skincare segment, more than halved to single digits during the previous financial year amid a broader economic slump.

In contrast, companies such as L’Oreal, Nykaa and Sephora continued to grow at 12-34% on a significantly bigger base, even as they lost pace.

Direct-to-consumer brand Pilgrim more than doubled its sales, Minimalist’s revenue increased 80% and Foxtale’s sales surged 500% on a lower base.

“With most consumers tightening their budget on discretionary spends in FY24, they seem to have opted for brands that give instant benefits compared to natural products, which take time to be effective,” said Devangshu Dutta, founder of retail consulting firm Third Eyesight.

Over the past few years, there has been a flurry of beauty product launches, which have depended on platforms such as Nykaa and Tira for sales.

In the past two years, Nykaa has launched more than 350 brands, or In the past two years, or nearly one new label every alternate day on average.

This includes international brands such as CeraVe, Uriage and Versed, as well as home-grown brands such as Foxtale and Hyphen.

Reliance Retail, which entered beauty retailing with Tira two years ago, now sells nearly 1,000 brands, including exclusive labels such as Akind, Augustinus Badee, Allies of Skin, Kundal and Patchology.

“10 years ago we were only competing against big guys,” Vincent Karney, global chief executive of Beiersdorf, maker of Eucerin, Nivea and La Prakrit, told ET last month. “Now we have those local brands, and we have to become a bit more agile.”

On Nykaa, Fenty Beauty by Rihanna is the highest-selling brand in lipcare while Eucerin has become its biggest premium dermo-cosmetic serum. South Korean beauty brands Axis-Y, Tirtir and Numbuzin grew over 60% in 2024, with sales of toners increasing 104%, serums 45%, moisturisers 52% and sunscreens 154% on the platform.

VLCC and Colorbar did not respond to ET queries, while Forest Essentials was not reachable.

In January, Mike Jatania, cofounder and executive chairman of The Body Shop and Aurea Group, told ET, “There would be continuation of new entrants. Inflation is still a global issue and we will see the pressure. Competitive environment will be a challenge… 70% of our stores are showing decent growth. We have closed some stores and opened a few also, that’s the nature of the business.”

Ingredients Matter

Warnery of Beiersdorf emphasised the need to stay focused on “big innovation, by being able to talk to GenZ, (a position) which might be filled in by those local brands coming with basic ingredients.”

The likes of Minimalist, Ordinary and Pilgrim disclose active ingredients at a granular level, specifying the exact percentage of acid used in the product to appeal to GenZ users (those born between 1997 and early 2010s), who are said to be far more conscious of what they use on their skin compared to millennials (those born during 1980s to mid-1990s) and Gen X (those born from about 1965 to 1980).

Shoppers Stop, which manages brands such as Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Bobbi Brown, Mac and Clinique in India, sees the overall beauty market driven by companies focusing on consumers across age groups, and not just younger ones. Both natural and dermatological products are expected to find takers.

“While most new age brands tap younger cohorts, their pocket size allows them to mostly buy affordable products and the more affluent consumers opt for established global brands that have proven themselves since decades,” said Biju Kassim, chief executive, beauty, at Shoppers Stop. “Beauty is still not a habit in India and with hundreds of brands being launched, the focus is to grow penetration. There is also a shift from care to cure, driven by derma-recommended products and brands disclosing active ingredients, but it is still a niche sub-segment.”

Dutta of Third Eyesight sees the current trend as temporary. “We expect growth of (established) companies to bounce back in the current fiscal, driven by a strong demand for beauty,” he said, pointing especially to online platforms. India’s beauty and personal care market is expected to reach $34 billion by 2028, up from $21 billion now, driven by an online surge and a growing preference for high quality, premium beauty products according to a report by Nykaa and consulting firm Redseer.

Nicolas Hieronimus, chief executive of cosmetics giant L’Oreal, last year said consumers in India are more demanding and are not just settling for very basic things like putting an ingredient in a product such as salicylic acid or collagen. “That’s where L’Oreal has the best cards to play, and that’s where we really thrive,” he had told ET.

Beiersdorf, Unilever, L’Oreal and Shiseido, among the world’s largest cosmetics companies, have all identified India as a key growth driver, citing the burgeoning population and growing affinity for beauty products.

(Published in Economic Times)