OBJECTIVES: What are the opportunities to innovate in a skin care product? There are certainly many opportunities and many technologies involved. In this work, we assumed the role of identifying and categorizing these opportunities to develop a comprehensive and intelligible classification system, which could be used as a tool to support decision-making in different professional contexts. METHODS: Initially, we employed the Delphi method to identify, discuss and standardize the opportunities to innovate in a skin care product. Finally, we used the classification system obtained in the previous phase to label patent applications, therefore, testing the suitability and utility of the system. RESULTS: At the end of the process, we achieved a 10-category classification system for opportunities to innovate in skin care products, and we also illustrated how this system could be used. CONCLUSION: The resultant classification system offers a normalized terminology for cosmetic scientists interested in dealing with the particularities of incremental and radical innovations in skin care products.