Beauty suppliers’ earnings: High-performance actives and fragrances lead

Beauty’s ingredient suppliers are banking on premium innovation to beat the macroeconomic blues, and it seems to be working. Croda, Ashland, Symrise, and dsm-firmenich all posted gains this financial quarter, driven by surging demand for high-performance actives, fragrances, and specialty ingredients. 

Each company is also in the middle of its respective cost-cutting and transformation programs. Despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, all four reaffirmed their full-year outlooks, indicating resilience in the beauty supply chain.

Personal Care Insights takes a look at the common threads linking the financial results and what they signal for the personal care value chain in the second half of 2026.

Croda actives rebound

Croda’s Consumer Care division has rebounded in its H1 financials, which helped group profits grow ahead of sales. The company delivered a 4.6% organic sales increase, but highlights its Beauty Actives arm was particularly strong, having grown 19%. This indicates that high-performance, innovation-led ingredients are resonating with consumers. 

Home Care and Fragrances & Flavors also delivered 9% and 8% growth, respectively, helping offset flat performance in the company’s Life Sciences division.

Croda’s profitability also increased, with its operating profit rising 6.7% to £155.8 million (US$209.5 million). The company attributes the lift to increased demand for its premium solutions and early savings from its restructuring program. The scheme helped free up £18 million (US$24.2 million) in efficiency gains during the half. 

Moreover, the ingredient supplier’s free cash flow jumped 37% to £38.3 million (US$51.5 million), supported by lower spending and tighter working capital management.

Premium innovation is helping beauty companies navigate economic uncertainty.Croda CEO Steve Foots says the company is making progress on its three-year plan to grow earnings.

“We are rigorously executing our plan to grow earnings and returns, successfully reinvigorating Beauty and seeing the early benefits of rebalancing Pharma. Despite the ongoing macro uncertainty, our outlook for full year 2026 is unchanged, and we remain on track to deliver our financial framework for full year 2028.”

Croda expects its full-year organic sales growth to stay within the 3–6% range.

Ashland actives accelerate

Ashland’s Personal Care division delivered another quarter of growth in Q3, with sales rising 5% to US$155 million. The company cites broad-based volume growth, indicating sustained demand. 

The standout categories were biofunctional actives, which posted strong double-digit growth, and skin care, which delivered high-single-digit gains. Hair care posted mid-single-digit growth.

Profitability in the division also improved, with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rising to US$45 million, up from US$41 million the year before. The improvement was driven primarily by higher sales volumes and a favorable product mix. Ashland says its commercial and innovation initiatives continue to gain traction.

“Sales increased 7% year-over-year, with growth achieved across all business units and regions. Our teams continued to successfully recover higher raw material costs through pricing actions, preserving margins while maintaining strong customer relationships,” says CEO Guillermo Novo. 

“While the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we remain focused on the factors within our control, including commercial execution, operating performance, cash generation, and productivity.”Demand is rising for high-performance and specialty cosmetic ingredients.

Symrise fragrance lifts

In Q2 reporting, Symrise says its organic sales rose 4.5%, driven by its Consumer Fragrance and Aroma Molecules segments. The Scent & Care division, comprising cosmetic and fragrance ingredients, achieved 3.8% organic sales growth. The figure marks an improvement from a flat overall first half.

Consumer Fragrance was the standout division, posting high-single-digit organic growth, as the company says demand for innovative scent solutions remained resilient.

Fine Fragrance, however, saw a mid-single-digit decline. The company attributes the figure to a tough year-over-year comparison, as the segment performed particularly well in the same period last year.

The Care & Wellness division, which includes UV filters, also reported a low-single-digit decline, though it showed recovering momentum over Q1.

The Aroma Molecules division delivered high-single-digit organic growth, driven by double-digit gains in Specialty Fragrance Ingredients and Menthol. The company says these figures reflect sustained demand in a challenging inflation environment.

To strengthen its position in high-end Fine Fragrance, Symrise is doubling down on its premium naturals strategy. As such, the company recently announced a planned acquisition of the French natural fragrances company Flower Concept. The company says Fine Fragrance is experiencing a growing demand for responsibly sourced, traceable, and differentiated ingredients, and positions the acquisition as a growth lever to tap this demand.

“We will leverage our proven Naturals capabilities, built through the acquisition of Diana and successfully established in Food & Beverage, to further expand our offering in Fine Fragrance and create differentiated solutions for our customers,” says Dr. Jean Yves Parisot, CEO at Symrise.

Fragrance ingredients continue to drive growth across the beauty supply sector.Despite increased freight costs tied to geopolitical tensions, Symrise reaffirmed its full-year outlook, expecting organic sales growth of 2% to 4% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.5% to 22.5%.

dsm-firmenich perfume leads

dsm-firmenich’s first half results were driven by its Perfumery & Beauty division, with 7% like-for-like sales growth, outpacing the group’s overall 5% growth. The division reported sales of €1.94 billion (US$2.24 billion) and 7% growth. The figure points toward improving business conditions and easing concerns over the Middle East conflict.

The momentum was driven by more customer contracts and selling across its combined portfolio, underscoring the resilience of the company’s fragrance and beauty portfolio.

The division’s adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 21.8% for the first half, which was slightly below last year’s 22.2%, citing negative effects from foreign exchange.

“We achieved good volume-led LFL growth in the first six months of the year across all businesses, demonstrating the resilience and quality of our portfolio and the consistent delivery on our operational priorities amid a dynamic global macroeconomic environment. We expect full-year LFL sales growth to be at the higher end of our 2026 target of 2–4%,” says CEO Dimitri de Vreeze.

The company is continuing to execute its cost savings and restructuring program, which aims to deliver a structural improvement of approximately 1% in EBITDA margin by next year.