For decades an adjacent niche category, skin health promoted by natural ingredients and vitamins is an increasing demand for consumers. Euromonitor International’s Liying Qian, Industry Manager for Tissue & Hygiene, reports.
Wellness is playing an increasingly dominant role in product innovations across sectors. Facial tissues, a category leading pace of growth of all tissue categories, are transcending basic cleaning functionality to carry a stronger care proposition and become a part of self-care routines, driven by the blurring line between health and beauty, expanded use occasions and urban population, as well as strong consumer demand for wellness products that prioritise skin health.
This trend is most notable in Asia, where stringent beauty perceptions, increased incidences of colds, influenza, and seasonal allergies due to climate change and pandemic-induced weakened immunity, make sensitive skin a crucial pain point and support demand for facial tissues that offer sensitive skin benefits, multi-occasion solutions and convenience. According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Consumer: Beauty Survey, 49% of Asia–Pacific (APAC) consumers said skin health has a moderate or severe impact on their current health in 2023, up from 46% in 2019. In 2024, 17% of women in Asia reported extreme concern about skin health, versus 13% globally.
Moisturisation and specialised beauty benefits lead ingredient premiumisation and use diversification
Such wellness mindset has driven a slew of premium facial tissue launches, intensifying competition and escalating the cost of capturing consumer attention. Beauty-inspired ingredients with natural origins and vitamins such as milk cream, hyaluronic acid, collagen, and prebiotics are emerging as premium attributes for facial tissues by consumers.
Natural, food-fortified ingredients offering moisturising, cushiony and wet resistant characteristic such as lotion, milk cream, and shea butter, have become particularly popular among use applications. As consumers become more sophisticated at skin care and the boundary between health and beauty softens, more beauty- and health-related ingredients will be researched to unlock their potential in facial tissues, with scientific-based evidence. For instance, hyaluronic acid, collagen, glycerin and -biotics have made early debuts in facial tissues to tackle wrinkles, fine lines, and barrier protection apart from moisturisation.
In China, Hygienix, part of Shanghai Orient Champion Group, launched a facial tissue product dubbed “moist tissue,” which contains hyaluronic acid to provide facial moisturisation across occasions requiring skin care, such as cold/flu remedy, make-up fixing or removal, facial oil absorption, and baby skin cleaning.
In Japan, the skincare concept has for decades been a strategy where well-known major brands maintain category presence and competitiveness. In 1993, Kawano Paper launched a tissue paper product containing moisturising ingredients based on glycerin and sorbitol and obtained patents in Japan and the US. More recently, Elleair Luxury Moisturizing Lotion Tissue launched in August 2023 contains moisturizing ingredients as well as glycerin, collagen, and hyaluronic acid, offering a moist and smooth texture without attracting oil from skin. Similarly, in Malaysia, brand Popi positions its facial tissues as moisturising lotion tissue infused with hyaluronic acid, coconut glycerine and food-grade lotion made from sustainably-sourced 100% virgin wood pulp, for all consumers with sensitive skin. The skinification trend also manifested in adjacent disposable facial cloths and facial wipes. Similar ingredient-led innovations are occurring in the adjacent facial cleansing wipes segment, and bode well for novel product formats such as disposable facial cloth, which may create adjacent pivot opportunities for tissue players.
In disposable facial cleansing wet wipes, a beauty-adjacent category, the wellness shift is manifested in the emergence of specialisation and multifunctionality. For instance, anti-ageing wipes is a growing niche segment featuring ingredients such as retinol, hyaluronic acid, or peptides renowned for their rejuvenating properties. The convenience of concentrating these ingredients into a single wipe makes anti-ageing skin care more accessible and easily adoptable in daily routines. This trend is anticipated to continue gaining relevance over the forecast period.
Disposable facial cloths, a novel product format, are gaining popularity in Asia, particularly China, with durability and skin care advantages and offering a potential growth adjacency for tissue players. The product is specially designed for facial cleansing and post-cleansing face wiping and toning.
As an alternative to washable facial towels, disposable facial cloths effectively addressed common health concerns such as bacterial growth and wrinkle generation through rubbing with one-time disposability and gentle fabric texture.
The price range for disposable facial cloths falls between $1 and $5 per 100 pieces, depending on the choice of raw materials. In addition to 100% cotton products, some cheaper options incorporate viscose fibre and polyester. Local companies have taken the lead in educating the market and product development. Notable players in this category include Purcotton, which initially specialised in medical consumables, and Grace, a company originally focused on towels. While small local players drive the segment, multinationals such as Kleenex, Unicharm, and Tempo are also following suit.
Winning in the evolving APAC facial care market requires a strong focus on multifunctionality and accessibility
As the largest tissue region by dollar of consumption, Asia Pacific’s leading status in retail tissue will be further solidified by its advance in facial tissues, which is expected to make up 46% of its total incremental retail tissue volume sales growth over 2024-2029, according to Euromonitor’s tissue and hygiene research data published in February 2025. By 2029, facial tissues will make up just over 30% of the region’s total retail tissue volume sales, up from 29% in 2024.
To drive further growth in the category globally, businesses need to align with the wellness trend, openly communicating information about ingredients and tangible benefits across key use occasions to build trust. Meanwhile, with lingering economic challenges limit consumers’ discretionary spend, updating claims with wellness-focused language and positioning products as part of a multi-occasion, holistic lifestyle can further resonate with today’s health- and budget-conscious consumers.
