At 70-plus years, Lakmé leads Maybelline by just one point among India's young makeup buyers

Lakmé has been on Indian dressing tables since 1952 and still calls itself the country's largest makeup brand. Yet in a December 2024 survey of mostly 14 to 24-year-olds, 19.3% named it among their most-used brands against 18.1% for Maybelline, with RENÉE and SUGAR only a few points further back.

HUL has clearly noticed. Lakmé signed Aneet Padda in September 2025 to speak to Gen Z, and it now sells a ₹10 sun gel sachet alongside an ₹849 cushion foundation. This report tracks which of those two directions young buyers are responding to, and what the brands closing in on Lakmé are doing differently online.

• Where young buyers pick SUGAR, RENÉE or Maybelline instead

• How a ₹10 sachet and an ₹849 foundation pull one brand two ways

• Which Lakmé products young buyers talk about and which they ignore