JAKARTA: Indonesia’s cosmetics market generated an estimated 35.6 trillion rupiah (US$2bil) in revenue in 2025 and is projected to grow by around 4.73% annually, with personal care, skincare and makeup remaining the dominant segments.
The expansion has also been fuelled by a new wave of entrepreneurs blending wellness concepts with product innovation and marketing. These include the introduction of locally rooted ingredients.
Before the global wellness boom took off, Juara Beauty founder Metta Murdaya had already introduced jamu, Indonesia’s traditional herbal remedy, to the United States.
Traditionally consumed as a drink to prevent or treat health problems, jamu’s natural ingredients have since been reimagined and refined by the firm into modern skincare products.
Before formally launching the brand in 2007, Metta and her colleagues began experimenting with products in her home kitchen in the early 2000s.
Initially entering the United States market through small independent retailers, the brand has now positioned itself as a premium yet accessible skincare line.
“We want our customers to feel healthy and good. And skin was the easiest way to enter the market,” she said.
“That was legal and easy for us, because cosmetics is a pretty low-barrier-to-entry industry in the United States, we launched in a couple of hundred independent small stores around the country.”
Still, introducing Indonesian-based ingredients to American consumers proved difficult at the time.
“We were spending 80% of our time explaining to people not only what jamu is, but, like, where is Indonesia? No, it is not next to Bali. I feel like I was, like, an ambassador for the country more,” she recalled.
Despite the early hurdles, customer feedback kept the business going.
“That the people who get it really, really liked it. And we were getting back then letters like, ‘it really helped my skin. It looked like I had acne or I had eczema. And this calmed my skin down’.”
A turning point came around 2013, when wellness trends such as yoga and organic juicing gained traction in the United States.
“Suddenly, everyone was talking about it. In the United States, green juice and juicing came in,” she said.
“Because in America, if you tell them to take turmeric, and you press it and make it into a drinkable thing, they were like, what?
“So when finally, like in 2013 and 2014, people started talking about that, then we said, jamu, it’s a super juice for your skin! And then people started understanding it,” she said.
Despite its Indonesian roots, Juara only recently began exploring opportunities in its home market, a move that has exposed a fresh set of challenges.
Metta noted that compliance demands often exceed the capacity of small teams, forcing companies to dedicate significant resources just to manage registration.
“Indonesia makes it extremely hard for businesses to actually do what they need to do. Small businesses in particular. Any businesses. But it hits the smaller ones the hardest, because they do not have the budget to do all the paperwork. And then you have to gamble,” she said.
Even after clearing regulatory barriers, operational challenges persisted. Initially relying on imports from the United States exposed the company to high taxes and currency volatility. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
