Shower gel used to be about getting clean. Now it's about how you feel
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
Since starting Enabler, I've begun watching some industries I never studied very seriously before. One of them is personal care, especially shower gel.
Last year I had a chance to talk with L'Oréal, and I looked a bit into Aesop's model. Aesop proved one thing: body care doesn't have to be just an "everyday necessity". It can also be made into a lifestyle and a source of emotional value.
L'Oréal completed its acquisition of Aesop in 2023, at a deal value international media reported at around US$2.5 billion. More interesting still, Aesop's sales grew from US$28 million in 2012 to US$537 million in 2022.
A brand selling hand wash, shower gel and body care reaching that kind of value says in itself that this market is no longer just about function.
From a function war to smelling like a holiday
We used to think about shower gel in a very simple way.
Big brands usually talked about: smooth skin after washing, no dryness, refreshing, antibacterial, cheap, big bottle, family size. Go to a supermarket and the whole shelf is a riot of colour, everyone fighting for attention. One pushes cheap, one pushes moisturising, one pushes fragrance, one pushes sensitive skin.
The logic of that era was more like a function war and a price war.
But in recent years, I've noticed this market getting very interesting.
Lots of niche brands have appeared, and they aren't cheap at all. A 400ml shower gel can sell for RM50, RM60, RM70, and consumers still buy it. For example, a 400ml Love Maya Bath Gel is about RM60, and Petals Shower Gel 400ml on Watsons goes for around RM75.
Why?
On the surface, they talk about function too: moisturising, pH, natural ingredients, suitable for daily use. Love Maya itself says its products are developed and made locally, use 90% natural ingredients, have a pH of 5.0 to 6.0, and include hyaluronic acid for moisture.
But if you actually go on Xiaohongshu or TikTok and look at how users talk about them, you'll find that usually isn't the point.
What people say is: it smells amazing, you smell great after washing, the scent stays on you, it's like being on holiday, like a hotel, like just stepping out of a spa.
That's the most interesting part.
Love Maya's brand story isn't simply "we get you clean" either. It's about a woman called Maya who, in her twenties, loved exploring new experiences, from Kuala Lumpur to Bali, with every scent taking you back to a place, a feeling, a memory.
Its Ocean is the feeling of sunrise on a Bali beach. Its Earth is the feeling of a Bali resort villa.
So you see, this isn't shower gel anymore.
It's packaging a shower as a small escape from reality.
CLEF is similar. Its Tea Core range doesn't just talk about body wash; it talks about a "shower that feels like tea". It uses tea scents, tea antioxidants and the texture of tea to create a shower experience. Its body wash and lotion also emphasise a long-staying aroma that lingers on you like a fine tea blend.
What's even more telling is that creators talk the same way.
One person sharing CLEF said outright that it smells so good you don't even need perfume after your shower, and that the scent feels very expensive and classy.
Emotion can carry a premium
So I increasingly feel personal care is going through a big change.
Shower gel used to be a cleaning product. Now it's becoming an emotional product.
Consumers used to buy "getting clean". Now they buy "when I shower, I can feel like my life is a little bit better".
That's a big difference.
Because cleaning is hard to sell at a premium. You say your shower gel gets you clean; so does everyone else's. You say it's moisturising; so is everyone else's. You say yours is a bigger bottle, and it turns into a price war.
But scent, mood, setting and ritual can carry a premium.
When someone is willing to pay RM30 or RM40 more, it's not necessarily because it's several times better than supermarket shower gel. It's because after a whole day at work, for those ten minutes in the shower at home, she wants a little feeling that belongs to her.
That's a very important shift in consumer goods today.
It's not that people have no money to spend. They're getting better and better at choosing to spend it on things that "make me feel a bit better".
At the same time, you'll see many niche brands have changed their packaging.
They don't look like the old crowded, colourful supermarket products shouting about function. Instead they're minimal, clean and refined, a bit like a fragrance brand and a bit like a skincare brand.
Because what they're selling isn't a "family-size everyday necessity".
What they're selling is: my bathroom can feel a little luxurious too.
From shelf space to mind space
For big brands, this is actually a huge challenge.
Big brands used to win on distribution, display, advertising, price and scale. Own the supermarket shelf and you'd won half the battle.
But today, for many consumers, the shelf isn't in the supermarket anymore. It's on TikTok, Xiaohongshu, Instagram and in creators' content.
It used to be shelf space. Now it's mind space.
Consumers used to decide what to buy when they saw the shelf.
Now a consumer might first see a woman on TikTok saying, "This really smells like you've just walked out of a hotel," and she's sold.
So many brands' problem today isn't just a lack of online sales capability. It's that they haven't translated their products into an emotional language consumers understand.
For a shower gel brand, just running its ads, listing it and doing live streams isn't really enough. What really matters is helping it find the reason "why consumers are willing to pay more".
Not body wash. An after-work shower.
Not fragrance. A clean, comfortable, cared-for scent on my skin.
Not a 400ml shower gel. A small reward I give myself every night.
I find this market fascinating. Because it doesn't just represent a change in shower gel; the same thing is happening across lots of consumer goods.
The more mature the category, the harder it is to break out on function. The more ordinary the product, the more it needs to be remade with emotional value.
That's true of coffee, of fragrance, of clothing, and now of shower gel.
We used to think emotional value was something vague. But now it looks anything but vague. It has become a reason consumers are willing to pay, and an entry point for new brands to challenge big ones.
So building a brand today, you can't only ask: what does my product do?
You also have to ask: after using it, will consumers feel their life has got a little bit better?
That "little bit" may be a brand's real premium.