The report highlights how Gen Z and millennials are driving growth in the beauty and personal care category on Myntra, with Gen Z allocating a 75% higher share of its wallet to the category. Spending per Gen Z customer on beauty and personal care has increased 1.2 times year-on-year, alongside rapid growth in the customer base. Sun protection product purchases among Gen Z shoppers have risen 60% year-on-year, while 53% of luxury makeup orders on the platform now include a mini product.
Deepak Joshi, Senior Director, Beauty and Personal Care, Myntra, said, “This is a skin-first generation. Gen Z doesn’t use a brand name as a shortcut for trust. They want to understand what’s in the product and what it will do for their skin. They keep their routines short and choose what works, and they think proactively, preventing damage instead of fixing it later. That’s why sun protection has stopped being a seasonal purchase for them. It’s a year-round habit.”
The report places Gen Z’s growing influence against the projected expansion of India’s beauty market. Industry reports cited in the report estimate that the market will grow from approximately USD 23 billion to USD 40 billion. India’s per capita beauty spending remains approximately USD 15, compared with USD 38 in China and USD 383 in the US.
Speaking at the report’s launch, Sharon Pais, Head of Myntra, said, “Beauty and personal care is one of Myntra’s strongest growth engines. For Gen Z, beauty is self-expression. It’s how they show up, plan their looks and live their social lives. They try premium and international brands through minis, find new ones through creators and K-Beauty, and choose on ingredients and efficacy, in cities across the country. The brands that win will meet this shopper early, make discovery easy and earn trust through the product and its ingredients.”
Mini products and creator-led discovery are emerging as important drivers of beauty purchases. Minis account for 14% of luxury beauty units sold on Myntra, led by lipstick, perfume and face primer. Brands including M.A.C, Kayali, Smashbox and Salvatore Ferragamo acquire more than half of their new customers through mini products.
Video content is also influencing how Gen Z discovers beauty products. Myntra has approximately 82,000 active beauty creators, while user-generated beauty content has increased 40% year-on-year. Nearly two out of three new beauty creator registrations over the last four months have come from Gen Z.
The shift is also visible beyond metropolitan markets. Gen Z shoppers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are purchasing serums, toners, sunscreens and hair masks alongside everyday beauty essentials. These cities account for half of the platform’s international beauty demand. Ludhiana, Patna, Bhopal, Indore, Guwahati, Surat, Varanasi and Imphal are among the cities contributing to this growth.
Ingredient awareness and preventive skincare are central to the changing purchasing behaviour. Searches for spray sunscreens have increased 80%, while searches for ingredient-led sunscreens have risen 70% and those for tinted sunscreens have grown 60%. Sun protection factor (SPF) products are increasingly becoming part of year-round skincare routines among Gen Z shoppers.
Demand is also growing for gel-based, fragrance-free and non-sticky formulations. Ingredients attracting interest include Centella asiatica, copper peptides, azelaic acid and panthenol, reflecting the generation’s focus on product composition and skincare efficacy.
Korean beauty, or K-Beauty, has recorded significant growth on the platform. Demand increased 200% year-on-year, while searches rose by more than 300%. Myntra now offers more than 1,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across over 90 K-Beauty brands, with more than 30 brands added during the last year.
Haircare and men’s skincare are also expanding. Hair mask sales have grown 110%, compared with 59% growth for conditioners. Men’s skincare orders have increased 78% year-on-year, with Gen Z leading the trend.
Repeat purchasing is another feature of the category’s expansion. Repeat orders from Gen Z shoppers on Myntra have increased approximately 70% this year. The platform also reports that repeat beauty shoppers and repeat apparel shoppers are more often than not the same customers.
Beauty accounts for roughly one in five units ordered on Myntra and is growing at twice the rate of the online beauty market. The category brought in nearly half a million new customers in May 2026 alone.
Myntra offers approximately 2.5 lakh styles from more than 4,500 brands, including over 360 international brands. Its Virtual Try-On feature makes shoppers twice as likely to purchase, while its Skin Analyzer increases conversion by approximately 58%. Beauty products on M-Now span around 600 brands, with delivery available in as little as nine minutes.
Indian direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are also benefiting from the shift. Myntra hosts 700 pure-play D2C beauty brands and 3,000 emerging D2C names, with D2C beauty growing 68% so far in FY26. Plum, Minimalist, Foxtale, The Derma Co. and Chemist at Play are among the brands driving growth.
According to the report, Gen Z shoppers are 25% more likely to try an indigenous or D2C brand. Both Gen Z and millennial consumers are supporting these businesses, with Gen Z among the quickest to experiment with them.
Deepash Jain, VP – Marketing, Myntra, said, “Gen Z doesn’t search to shop, they scroll to discover. That changes everything for us, from the platform experience to the brands we bring in to what happens after purchase. Marketing at Myntra has always been about following the customer. We have opened up our creator ecosystem so anyone with a community can talk about products they believe in. Trends find their way organically, and we don’t try to manufacture them.”
The report’s findings also point to emerging consumer interests, including lactic acid, tranexamic acid and foundation-SPF hybrids. Myntra’s future focus includes scaling its market share, improving pre-purchase and post-purchase experiences, strengthening its ecosystem through Myntra GlamStream, and sustaining growth in D2C, luxury and international beauty, non-metropolitan markets and among first-time online beauty shoppers.
The report was unveiled at the Myntra Beauty IRL event in Mumbai, which also featured a panel discussion on “The New Indian Beauty Consumer.”
Its findings are based on Myntra platform data, purchasing behaviour and search trends recorded between August 2025 and August 2026. The analysis covers Gen Z shoppers and incorporates trend-spotting by Myntra’s creative and curation teams. The market estimates cited in the report are from Redseer.
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