By Jamie Matusow, Editor-In-Chief10.17.24
It's that time of year again—for our annual ranking of the top global beauty companies. We've looked at financial reports, recent launches, brand acquisitions and investments to come up with our top 20 list —read on.
Scroll down to see the rankings—and click through to see each detailed company profile.
Looking back, 2023 was a good year for many of our Top 20 companies, while others suffered a slump due to continuing global economic and political pressures.
What lies ahead? The beauty industry is strategizing for what they anticipate will be a strong rebound. Product categories, sustainable packaging, consumer trends, shopping preferences, and stiff competition will all play a role.
Nearly every one of Beauty Packaging’s annual Top 20 Global Beauty Companies mentioned how they had strategized to succeed in an environment marked by the year’s economic and geopolitical challenges, and uncertainty in general. Some surpassed their goals, while others suffered consequences related to weak travel retail and unsteady conditions in China.
“Our continued strong momentum in emerging markets, Europe, and North America allowed us to more than offset the depressed beauty market in mainland China and the unfavorable comparative in travel retail.” Still, he remained cautious, telling JPMorgan investors that the French cosmetics company now “expects the global market to grow 4.5% to 5% this year, down from a prior outlook of above 5%. “The rebound in China isn’t materializing as expected,” he explained.
Lauder, Shiseido, LVMH, and others who seemed to take China’s reported $52 billion beauty market for granted, as far as growth—were also affected.
Premium fragrance, dermatological beauty, high-end skincare, and suncare advanced as winning categories in this uncertain environment.
In many instances, packaging for fragrance became more extraordinary than ever, as high-end brands introduced new scents bottled in “must-have” containers, and numbers grew in revenues.
In the first half of 2024, the U.S. prestige beauty market grew by 8% to $15.3 billion, while sales at mass merchants held flat, according to Circana, which reported that Fragrance is the fastest-growing prestige beauty category so far this year, with dollar sales up 12% in the first half versus the same period in 2023.
Fragrance and beauty have always had a strong relationship, and in 2023, the trend grew, with more and more fashion brands adding a new or expanded line of scent to their collections.
The Estée Lauder Companies, which had already purchased Tom Ford, made an additional deal with Balmain two years ago, and recently revealed their first joint project—a collection of eight scents called Les Éternels de Balmain, described as “a new fragrance experience comprising eight all-gender eaux de parfum.”
Shiseido recently signed a deal for a new fragrance with Italian clothier Max Mara.
Many global players have invested in Chinese brands to appeal to local consumers looking to spend on more domestic brands. L’Oréal has invested in niche Chinese fragrance brands, including a minority stake in the Chinese luxe perfume house To Summer, while Estée Lauder unveiled a limited-edition beauty collection with Chinese fashion designer Shuting Qiu, called Estée Lauder x Shuting Qiu.
Prada Beauty was a key launch for L’Oréal in 2023 (even though Prada Group has been in the beauty business for over two decades with other large brands).
In September, Celine previewed its first beauty range with Harrods pop-up store in a dedicated space for its beauty range, as well as the women’s fall 2024 collection.
Luxury fashion brand Rabanne, owned by Puig, also announced its first set of lip products, eye shadow palettes, and pigments.
This strategy includes “new female fragrance pillars, a debut into skincare, and the launch of dedicated beauty spaces within existing retail boutiques—plus “a complete overhaul of its makeup offering to seamlessly blend the brand’s fashion identity with the latest cosmetics trends and high-quality Italian ingredients.” CEO Gianluca Toniolo noted that the collection was designed with Gen Z and Gen Alpha—those under age 14—in mind.
D&G’s new Boundless Beauty Makeup Collection launched in July, with products in four looks—Fresh, Classic, Flawless, and Bold—and housed in luxe packaging.
On the flip side, to maneuver the market’s effects, some brands consolidated and sold off possessions. At press time, it was announced that Unilever is reportedly selling skincare brands Kate Somerville and REN Skincare.
Amorepacific and Kao made further strides in the U.S. market, in part by naming brand ambassadors.
L’Oreal’s Hieronimus commented, “In an environment that continues to be marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, we remain optimistic about the outlook for the beauty market and confident that our innovation power and the robustness of our multi-polar model will allow us to keep outperforming it and to achieve another year of growth in sales and profit.”
Our 2022 Top 20 Global Beauty Companies Report: Annual sales range from $2 billion to a whopping $37 billion.
Scroll down to see the rankings—and click through to see each detailed company profile.
Looking back, 2023 was a good year for many of our Top 20 companies, while others suffered a slump due to continuing global economic and political pressures.
What lies ahead? The beauty industry is strategizing for what they anticipate will be a strong rebound. Product categories, sustainable packaging, consumer trends, shopping preferences, and stiff competition will all play a role.
Nearly every one of Beauty Packaging’s annual Top 20 Global Beauty Companies mentioned how they had strategized to succeed in an environment marked by the year’s economic and geopolitical challenges, and uncertainty in general. Some surpassed their goals, while others suffered consequences related to weak travel retail and unsteady conditions in China.
L’Oréal Keeps Its No. 1 Slot
Nicolas Hieronimus, Chief Executive Officer, L’Oréal—which continues to hold its No. 1 slot on our list—reported:“Our continued strong momentum in emerging markets, Europe, and North America allowed us to more than offset the depressed beauty market in mainland China and the unfavorable comparative in travel retail.” Still, he remained cautious, telling JPMorgan investors that the French cosmetics company now “expects the global market to grow 4.5% to 5% this year, down from a prior outlook of above 5%. “The rebound in China isn’t materializing as expected,” he explained.
Lauder, Shiseido, LVMH, and others who seemed to take China’s reported $52 billion beauty market for granted, as far as growth—were also affected.
Beauty Bets on Fragrance
The start of 2024 brought a mixed message about global luxury sales in general, with some consumers opting for the most premium brands, while others gravitated to less costly, “dupe,” or local brands, in some cases, prompted by influencers and TikTok, which continue to play a strong role in Beauty.Premium fragrance, dermatological beauty, high-end skincare, and suncare advanced as winning categories in this uncertain environment.
In many instances, packaging for fragrance became more extraordinary than ever, as high-end brands introduced new scents bottled in “must-have” containers, and numbers grew in revenues.
In the first half of 2024, the U.S. prestige beauty market grew by 8% to $15.3 billion, while sales at mass merchants held flat, according to Circana, which reported that Fragrance is the fastest-growing prestige beauty category so far this year, with dollar sales up 12% in the first half versus the same period in 2023.
Fragrance and beauty have always had a strong relationship, and in 2023, the trend grew, with more and more fashion brands adding a new or expanded line of scent to their collections.
The Estée Lauder Companies, which had already purchased Tom Ford, made an additional deal with Balmain two years ago, and recently revealed their first joint project—a collection of eight scents called Les Éternels de Balmain, described as “a new fragrance experience comprising eight all-gender eaux de parfum.”
Shiseido recently signed a deal for a new fragrance with Italian clothier Max Mara.
Many global players have invested in Chinese brands to appeal to local consumers looking to spend on more domestic brands. L’Oréal has invested in niche Chinese fragrance brands, including a minority stake in the Chinese luxe perfume house To Summer, while Estée Lauder unveiled a limited-edition beauty collection with Chinese fashion designer Shuting Qiu, called Estée Lauder x Shuting Qiu.
Prada Beauty was a key launch for L’Oréal in 2023 (even though Prada Group has been in the beauty business for over two decades with other large brands).
In September, Celine previewed its first beauty range with Harrods pop-up store in a dedicated space for its beauty range, as well as the women’s fall 2024 collection.
Luxury fashion brand Rabanne, owned by Puig, also announced its first set of lip products, eye shadow palettes, and pigments.
Will Dolce & Gabbana Make the Cut Next Year?
Dolce & Gabbana (D&G)—though not yet on our list, but undoubtedly in the running for next year’s—brought its beauty business in-house to produce its own cosmetics, skincare, and fragrances, and says it plans to become the top luxury fashion house operating within the beauty sector, aiming to grow the retail value of its Beauty Division from €1bn to €3bn (US$3.3bn) by 2026.This strategy includes “new female fragrance pillars, a debut into skincare, and the launch of dedicated beauty spaces within existing retail boutiques—plus “a complete overhaul of its makeup offering to seamlessly blend the brand’s fashion identity with the latest cosmetics trends and high-quality Italian ingredients.” CEO Gianluca Toniolo noted that the collection was designed with Gen Z and Gen Alpha—those under age 14—in mind.
D&G’s new Boundless Beauty Makeup Collection launched in July, with products in four looks—Fresh, Classic, Flawless, and Bold—and housed in luxe packaging.
On the flip side, to maneuver the market’s effects, some brands consolidated and sold off possessions. At press time, it was announced that Unilever is reportedly selling skincare brands Kate Somerville and REN Skincare.
Amorepacific and Kao made further strides in the U.S. market, in part by naming brand ambassadors.
L’Occitane & Puig Join the Top 20
While many of our Top 20 Global Beauty Companies are mainstays, two additions have emerged this year: L’Occitane, which has been growing by leaps and bounds, and may soon go public; and Puig, which achieved record 2023 net sales of $4.7 billion, became a public company, and expanded its hold on the U.S. market.Growth Strategies
Growth measures—and beauty industry trends—that we spotted this year among our Top 20 companies include:- Brands are turning to Amazon
- A rise in beauty-from-within nutricosmetics
- Regulations regarding recycling
- Consumers’ acceptance of refills
- The adaptation of AI
- Sustainability continues to impact packaging
L’Oreal’s Hieronimus commented, “In an environment that continues to be marked by economic and geopolitical tensions, we remain optimistic about the outlook for the beauty market and confident that our innovation power and the robustness of our multi-polar model will allow us to keep outperforming it and to achieve another year of growth in sales and profit.”
Read on for the rankings & a few highlights—click through for each company's full report.
Our 2024 Top 20 Global Beauty Companies
#1. L’Oréal — $45 billion
L’Oréal’s CeraVe earned the title of ‘No. 1 skincare brand in the world.’#2. Unilever — $26.3 billion
Uniliver expects sales to grow between 3-5% this year.#3. Estée Lauder Companies — $15.9 billion
Fragrance net sales rose 14%, led by Tom Ford, Estée Lauder, and Le Labo.#4. Procter & Gamble — $14.8 billion
P&G is committed to an ‘integrated strategy' focusing on products that perform.#5. Henkel — $11.5 billion
Henkel's Consumer Brands business unit saw strong organic sales growth of 6.1%—driven, in part, by Hair Care.#6. Beiersdorf — $8.6 billion
Beiersdorf's Nivea, alone, had more than $5 billion in sales—and achieved innovative sustainability solutions for both its formula and packaging.#7. LVMH — $8.3 billion
LVMH’s Perfumes & Cosmetics business remains strong—as the Dior makeup range, Rouge Dior, and Capture skincare lines are key revenue drivers.#8. Bath & Body Works — $7.4 billion
Bath & Body Works and Accenture are creating a digital Fragrance Finder—and it's a "generative AI conversational platform."#9. Chanel — $7 billion (est.)
Chanel saw its total sales in the Asia-Pacific region climb by 17.7% to more than $10 billion. The rise was even higher in Europe, at 18.8%, to $5.6 billion.#10. Shiseido — $6.9 billion
To help increase investments in brands, innovation, and people, Shiseido launched "SHIFT 2025 and Beyond"—a three-year strategy structured to boost operating margin to 6% in 2024 and 9% in 2025, with a long-term goal to attain a core operating margin of 15% by 2029.#11. Coty — $6 billion
Coty's net revenues climbed 10% in 2024 to $6.1 billion, up from $5.5 billion in fiscal 2023.#12. Natura &Co — $5.5 billion
Natura &Co remains focused on further simplification—after selling The Body Shop to focus on optimizing Avon International’s footprint.#13. Puig — $4.7 billion
As of May 2024, the 110-year-old family-owned firm became a publicly traded company, raising 2.6 billion euros for its founders on its first day of trading.#14. Kao — $4.5 billion
Kao aims to achieve plastic packaging net zero waste by 2040—and negative waste by 2050—for all plastic used in its business activities.#15. Kenvue — $4.4 billion
Kenvue, the consumer spinoff of Johnson & Johnson, became a fully independent company in 2023.#16. LGH&H — $4.3 billion
In 2024, LGH&H said it will strengthen the core competitiveness of the group’s business and it will aim to drive growth in the domestic market, build a robust China business, and expand its non-China overseas business.#17. Amorepacific — $3 billion
In March 2024, Amorepacific’s Innisfree brand debuted a rebrand in the U.S. market, featuring new packaging, a new logo, and new, clean, cruelty-free formulas.#18. Mary Kay — $3 billion
Mary Kay has donated over $18 million to initiatives enriching women’s lives worldwide since 2008—and remains commited to developing the next generation of women STEM leaders by awardeding 29 grants totaling nearly $195,000 since 2020.#19. L’Occitane — $2.7 billion
The L’Occitane Group's eight distinct premium beauty and wellness brands had an action-packed 2023—and, as a result, made it onto our Top 20 list this year. Net sales grew a whopping 24%, to exceed $2.7 billion. The success was driven by the strong performance of Sol de Janeiro and the continued success of L’Occitane en Provence.#20. Kose — $2.1 billion
Kosé projects a year-on-year sales for 2024 to increase 3.9%.Our Methodology
Report Data: Companies were analyzed based on 2023 data. Annual reporting dates varied. Beauty sales included only cosmetics, fragrance, and personal care items when possible. We included packaging information whenever available. Figures for companies outside the U.S. were based on the exchange rate for the fiscal year on the day it ended. Estimates are provided in cases where full disclosure was not available.
Photo by Freepik/WayHomeStudio
Read Next: Take a Look Back
Our 2023 Top 20 Global Beauty Companies Report: Capturing consumers’ emotions to drive resiliency and growth.Our 2022 Top 20 Global Beauty Companies Report: Annual sales range from $2 billion to a whopping $37 billion.
