Growth in the beauty and personal care industry reached a decade high last year and will continue unabated in 2019 and beyond, facilitated by new models of aspiration such as self-optimization and tailored experiences.

Wellness-Aligned Categories Continue to Profit

Skincare remains unchallenged as the largest beauty and personal care category, accounting for over one-quarter of value.

According to Euromonitor International, sales of skin care grew by 8% in 2018 helped by alignment with health and self-care, as well as being the focus of the shift to “cleaner” formulations in the industry, contributed to its strong growth in 2018.

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Baby Products & Makeup With Skincare Benefits, On the Rise

Other categories able to align with these new consumer values also reaped rewards, including baby and child-specific products and makeup with skincare benefits.

Color Cosmetics & Fragrance Lose Momentum

Recent stalwart categories of insurgent activity, notably color cosmetics and fragrances, have lost momentum as they struggle to adapt to long-term shifts in trends.

A cooling off of social media and particularly the Instagram aesthetic has been of severe detriment to color cosmetics, as this formed the basis of many brands’ core strategies.

Insurgent Brands Drive Industry Fragmentation

The top five companies in the key regions of Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific are experiencing erosion of their combined share, notably in skincare and color cosmetics, as these categories become more fragmented.

While insurgents rise quickly to disrupt the status quo, continued innovation and renovation are required to stay ahead. In the past few years, brands in the fickle and trend-led makeup space, such as NYX, ELF and The Estée Edit, have experienced rapid rises and falls. NYX, for example, was posting triple-digit growth rates at its peak, which slowed to single digits in 2018.

For more info, tune into Euromonitor International’s webinar State of Beauty: Trends Shaping the Industry in 2019 to learn about these trends and more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hannah Symons is the Head of Beauty and Personal Care at Euromonitor International. In her role, Hannah is responsible for the firm’s high-quality output of research, content and analysis across the global beauty and personal care space. She works closely with clients and industry stakeholders to help companies make informed and strategic business decisions. She has a particular interest in decoding the behavior of today’s beauty shopper in the context of wider consumer megatrends.