According to data from market research firm The NPD Group, Q3 2017 prestige beauty product sales were $3.9 billion, up 5 percent from the same period in 2016.
Larissa Jensen, beauty research analyst for The NPD Group, commented, “Skin care continues to outpace the other beauty categories in 2017. The big story for the third quarter is the age specialist segment, which has been declining for several years and is now experiencing growth again. Driving this turnaround are new launches entering the market that focus less on the anti-aging benefits that are inherent in these products, and instead on creating a story around ingredients, wellness, and great skin at any age.”
Sales highlights from NPD are broken down by category.
Makeup
Overall, makeup sales were up Q3 4 percent for a total of $1.9 billion. Total face makeup, the largest makeup segment, experienced the greatest amount of growth with a 6 percent increase in sales for Q3. Foundation sales grew by 7 percent and became the largest share of face makeup. Face primer and tinted moisturizer both had a positive outcome by an increase of 16 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Lip color had a negative outcome by declining one percent, however, lip gloss was up 7 percent. Eyebrow makeup had a slow increase in sales of 2 percent compared to the year before. Although a very small segment of makeup, false eyelashes experienced a giant leap in sales of more than 50 percent.
Skin Care
Skin care products had sales that grew up to 10 percent to $1.3 billion in Q3. In the previous year, age specialist products had a decline in sales. This year, age specialist products sales were up 7 percent showing tremendous growth. A hot ticket item, face masks sales were up 28 percent. Sunscreen sales had a large increase of 37 percent, as well as self-tanning products with sales up to 13 percent.
Fragrance
There was good news for fragrance products, too, with the category experiencing growth. Larissa Jensen remarked, “Heading into the holiday season, attention will center on makeup and fragrance—two highly giftable beauty categories that are contending for greatest dollar share during this critical time period.” Overall, fragrance sales increased by 3 percent; women’s fragrances grew by 2 percent and men’s by 5 percent. Interestingly, the prestige home scents market grew by up to 40 percent—up 17 percent from last year.
For more information on Q3 prestige beauty product sales, visit npd.com