Country highlights
SLOWING DOWN BUT FEELING POSITIVE
Cosmetics Business finds out which skin care trends and product types are driving growth across the UK, US and China
UK
Skin care has been beauty’s stalwart category in recent years. In the UK, consumers invested in
their skin care routines during the pandemic, with many categories, in particular face masks and hand cream, enjoying a significant boost. Some degree of post-pandemic annualisation was inevitable, and in 2022, it came to pass. According to Kantar, skin care sales fell by 4.2%, while hand cream, which in 2020 found growth of 17%, last year experienced the largest decline, down 12.6%. “It’s had a good couple of years but skin care has followed the wider trend seen in toiletries where people are dropping those discretionary products,” says Matt Maxwell, Strategic Insight Director at Kantar. Skin care inflation for the latest 12 weeks has been running at 5.4%, behind total grocery inflation at 16%. Nevertheless, it is much higher than last year, and Maxwell says: “Ultimately consumers are looking their receipts and thinking about how they can save money. Skin care is one of the categories where we are seeing people look to save money, whether that’s by buying bigger bottles, or trading down to different products.” Prestige skin care, however, is a segment that has continued to glow, with sales up 10% and units rising by 3% in 2022 according to The NPD Group, outperforming mass beauty, as more affluent consumers continued to spend. New products from Clarins performed particularly well, with Double Serum and Super Restorative Day Cream accounting for two of the top three best selling prestige skin care launches. In fact in the third quarter, sales of super premium skin care increased 27% in contrast to other skin care which increased 6% in the same
UK: TOP 3 PRESTIGE SKIN CARE LAUNCHES, 2022
1 Clarins Double Serum 2 Liz Earle Cleanse & Glow Transforming Gel Cleanser 3 Clarins Super Restorative Day Cream Source: The NPD Group
UK PRESTIGE SKIN CARE GROWTH, 2022
2022 vs 2021 Value +10
Units +3
2022 vs 2019 Value -7
Units +8 Source: The NPD Group
UK sales of prestige face serums with hydrating properties increased 13% between January-October 2022, says NPD
period. But perhaps the most surprising news is that in terms of volume sales, units have grown by 8% compared with 2019 due to the recruitment of more consumers into the category. “The prestige skin care market has diversified with more mid-tier brands and these have recruited new consumers to different types of products, including serums, exfoliants and eye treatments,” says Mathilde Lion, Executive Director, Global Client Development at The NPD Group. But Lion does not believe that traditional prestige brands consider these lower-priced brands as direct competition. “The interesting point is that having these new consumers driving footfall in stores gives brands an opportunity to attract them to their products. It creates traffic, and this can be interesting longer term for prestige brands.” Meanwhile, in the mass market, brands have been focusing on ingredient-led innovation, with some impressive results. “Garnier launched a new range of vitamin C products to help achieve a healthy glow, and when brands like Garnier move into areas like this, they do particularly well because of their scale and the size of their product range. This range achieved £3m in its first year of launch,” says Maxwell. “These are positive signs that the active ingredient element is something that consumers are really aware of and are continuing to engage with in every day skin care.”
US
Described by Nielsen as having “a booming heyday” during the pandemic, and benefiting from
consumers learning about ingredients and their routines, facial skin care continues to grow in the
16 cosmetics business March 2023
cosmeticsbusiness.com
Clarins
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