In 2019, Vogue published an article with the headline: “Western brands are infiltrating India’s beauty market.” At the time, the framing reflected the reality of the global beauty industry. Multinational groups had spent years expanding into India, drawn by a fast-growing consumer base and a beauty market that was beginning to show the same premiumisation patterns seen in China and Southeast Asia.
Fast-forward seven years, and the dynamic seems to have turned on its head. Earlier this week, Ayurvedic beauty brand Indē Wild announced that it would enter Sephora in the United States, becoming the first Indian-owned beauty brand to do so. In the same week, Estée Lauder Companies confirmed it had taken full ownership of Forest Essentials, having first invested in the luxury Ayurvedic skincare business nearly two decades ago.
Over the past few years, routines that have long existed as everyday beauty practices in India began appearing regularly across social media, with the likes of hair oiling and tutorials demonstrating scalp massage circulating widely across TikTok and Instagram. Beauty editors began writing about Ayurvedic botanicals including amla, moringa and ashwagandha, with product launches across haircare and skincare incorporating the same ingredients.
India’s domestic beauty market provides the commercial backdrop for these developments. The country’s beauty and personal care sector is estimated to be worth around $21bn and continues to expand as disposable incomes rise among a young and digitally connected population. Within that market, prestige beauty remains relatively small. Premium products accounted for roughly $800m of sales in 2023, with forecasts placing the segment closer to $4bn by 2035 as spending on higher-value products increases.
Alongside the multinational brands entering the market, a generation of Indian-founded beauty companies began building businesses rooted in local beauty traditions. Some focused on translating Ayurvedic ingredients into contemporary skincare. Others built product ranges around rituals such as hair oiling and scalp care that had long existed within everyday routines.
Premium products accounted for roughly $800m of sales in 2023, with forecasts placing the segment closer to $4bn by 2035.
Forest Essentials sits among the most established of these businesses. Founded by entrepreneur Mira Kulkarni in 2000, it has become one of India’s best known luxury beauty brands over the past two decades, operating close to 200 standalone stores across the country and establishing a presence in international markets including London. This has, in part, been due to early investment from Estée Lauder Companies in 2008, which then grew to 49% in 2020 indicating the organisation’s trust in the brand. However, the acquisition of the business in full is significant, highlighting in no uncertain terms that one of the largest beauty conglomerates in the world is betting on Indian-founded beauty brands as an area of real growth opportunity.
Alongside established businesses like Forest Essentials, a newer generation of Indian-founded brands has begun expanding beyond the domestic market. Kay Beauty, founded by Katrina Kaif, recently launched in the United Kingdom through Space NK. In the United States and United Kingdom, brands such as Ranavat and Fable & Mane introduced Ayurvedic ingredients through hair oils, scalp treatments and botanical skincare.
Indē Wild represents one of the clearest examples of this new generation. Entrepreneur and creator Diipa Büller-Khosla founded the brand in 2021, building it around Ayurvedic ingredients combined with clinically informed formulations. Early distribution focused on direct-to-consumer sales across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and India. This kind of growth would not have been possible without a strong digital community, something Diipa – who has a strong online presence – already had in place, as it allowed the brand to build a foundation with a global community that already understood how to use the products before entering physical retail.
Its entry into Sephora this week therefore marks a significant moment not just for the brand, but for Indian-founded beauty companies more broadly. Sephora remains one of the most influential prestige beauty retailers globally, often acting as a gateway for emerging brands entering international markets. One of the most successful K-beauty based skincare brands to gain traction at the retailer was Glow Recipe which became Sephora’s no.1 selling indie offering and is now worth $300m. Indē Wild’s arrival in the same retail environment suggests that brands built around Indian beauty traditions may now be entering a similar stage of international visibility.
The global industry has already seen how this process can unfold. Over the past two decades, Korean and Japanese beauty brands have built international followings by introducing product categories, ingredients and routines that were initially unfamiliar to Western consumers. Sheet masks, essence-based skincare and multi-step routines became central to the rise of K-beauty, while J-beauty established its own reputation through minimalist formulations, precise textures and a focus on long-term skin health.
Sephora remains one of the most influential prestige beauty retailers globally, often acting as a gateway for emerging brands entering international markets.
Initially a niche, the explosion of ‘glass skin’ meant brands like Laneige and Sulwhasoo were able to break through to international audiences, while Japanese companies including Tatcha and SK-II translated domestic beauty practices into globally recognised luxury skincare businesses. As their international traction grew, major beauty groups began acquiring stakes in some of these brands. Unilever purchased Tatcha after it had established a strong presence in prestige retail, while Amorepacific took a 93% stake in COSRX in 2023 for around $560m. In both cases, cultural heritage and formulation expertise became defining features rather than obstacles to international expansion.
With the two announcements this week, it feels like a new geography is entering the global beauty conversation. Korean skincare introduced routines and product formats that travelled rapidly across international markets, while Japanese brands established global followings built on ingredient expertise and formulation discipline. Both movements began with culturally specific practices that were gradually translated into prestige products distributed through global retailers. With Ayurvedic ingredients, scalp care rituals and a new generation of founders building brands with international audiences in mind from the outset, Indian beauty companies now appear to be approaching a similar stage of visibility. If K-beauty and J-beauty have already reshaped how the global industry thinks about skincare, the next cultural influence may well be emerging from India.
