K-beauty up 200%, men’s skincare 78%: Myntra’s Gen Z shift

Myntra’s latest beauty report, Beauty in the Age of Gen Z, offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of how 14-to-29-year-old shoppers are changing India’s beauty market. The platform says Gen Z now drives around 55% of Myntra Beauty’s growth, and expects the cohort to remain more than half of the category’s customer mix for the next two to three years.

The move from damage control to prevention

The most telling line in the report comes from Deepak Joshi, Senior Director, Beauty and Personal Care at Myntra, and Deepash Jain, VP – Marketing: “Gen Z is doing the opposite: preventing the damage before it starts.” That is a useful reframe for any brand still marketing skincare as repair. Young buyers are stocking up on SPF, actives and treatment products before problems appear.

Sun protection is no longer seasonal. SPF product growth among Gen Z shoppers rose 60% year-on-year, while searches for spray, ingredient-led, tinted and multi-use sunscreens all climbed. As Joshi and Jain put it, how an SPF feels has become a primary purchase driver, not a secondary one.

What the numbers show

• K-beauty demand rose 200% year-on-year; related searches grew over 300%.
• Men’s skincare orders grew 78%, with overall grooming orders up 70% so far in FY26.
• Hair masks grew 110%, more than double the 59% growth for conditioners.
• Luxury minis now appear in 53% of luxury makeup orders, and M.A.C, Kayali, Smashbox and Salvatore Ferragamo acquire over half their new customers through minis.

Why it matters for brand strategy

Gen Z’s beauty and personal care wallet share is 75% higher than millennials’, and repeat orders have increased around 70%. This is not experimentation alone; it is routine. The shift has also moved beyond metros. Half of Gen Z beauty buyers on Myntra are from tier II and tier III cities, and those cities account for half of the platform’s international beauty demand.

The report also cites industry estimates that India’s beauty market could grow from around $23 billion to $40 billion. With per-capita beauty spend at about $15, compared with $38 in China and $383 in the US, the headroom is enormous.

Discovery is increasingly creator-led. Myntra has around 82,000 active beauty creators, user-generated beauty content grew 40% year-on-year, and nearly two in three new creator registrations over four months came from Gen Z. That means the people explaining the products are often the same age as the buyers.

What marketers can do

First, lead with prevention and feel, not fear and repair. Talk about texture, finish and daily ritual. Second, use minis as a low-risk acquisition tool: 10% of Gen Z shoppers bought a luxury mini in 2026, and smaller formats are how many prestige brands are winning new customers. Third, do not treat metro India as the only audience; tier II and tier III demand is real, and it is moving fast.

Quick commerce is changing the buying moment. Myntra’s M-Now carries around 600 beauty brands and aims to fulfil more than half of beauty demand in its cities. The company’s own line captures the psychology: when beauty is nine minutes away, it stops being a planned purchase.

Source: ETRetail.com