The global professional nail care market is currently driven by two key areas of innovation - the products themselves and their removal techniques, explains Kline in just-published report: Professional Nail Care: Global Market Brief. In 2015, the market posted growth of almost 6%.
Hybrid posts triple digit growth
The long-wear nail polish (also called hybrid or semin-permanent), which combines the benefits of gel and regular nail polish, appears as the biggest innovation since the introduction of gel-polish. The hybrid category posts a triple-digit increase in 2015, finds Kline’s report.
“While this innovation is the key market driver, it is also leading to cannibalization of sales between product types, which causes several brands to suffer declines in sales for their nail polish product lines as loyal consumers shift to the use long-wear nail polishes,” comments Agnieszka Saintemarie, the report’s project manager. “These products particularly target nail polish users, while gel users only use it for a shorter period of time, wanting to take a break from gels.”
Innovative removal solutions
In parallel to the success of hybrid lacquers, innovation regarding removal methods is becoming increasingly important due to growing concerns from consumers over the use of acetone or fillers, which can damage one’s nails. “In response, brands extend their services by creating unique removal techniques, offering a wide variety of options from peel-off base coats to steamers, resulting in the removals experience witnessing most innovation in 2015,” explains Kline.
Steamers that warm up acetone-based removal solutions to create steam, which helps remove gels and acrylics, have been one area of innovation. Some of the products available in the market include Steam Off from The Painted Nail and Gel II’s Steam Gel-Polish Removal System. Alessandro International creates its own nail clip. CND creates the Xpress5 Top Coat, which enables CND Shellac to come off in five minutes. A variety of the brands, such as Akzentz, Nubar, and Cuccio, have started offering foil wraps for the easy removal of soak-off gels and gel polishes.
Asia lags behind
While booming in Western markets, hybrid nail polish and novel removal techniques are still in the early stages in the Asia-Pacific region, which is currently driven by nail art. For instance, in South Korea, filing continues to be the main removal method, and Bandi is the only local brand offering long-wear nail polishes.
