Nail category boosts make-up sales growth

According to market research company The NPD Group, prestige make-up sales in US department stores grew 8% in the first half of 2012 to $1.8bn while unit sales were up 4% to 74 million. All make-up segments experienced growth in the period, said NPD; the biggest winners (producing double digit dollar growth) were the nails and sets segments, and the eyebrow, eyeliner and lip colour sub-segments.

While nail remains the smallest segment, it experienced the largest growth, increasing 68% compared to H1 2011. Moreover all nail sub-segments grew; colour by 70%, nail care by 36% and base/top coats by more than 100%.

Karen Grant, vp and senior global industry analyst, The NPD Group, said: “It’s not a surprise that the nail segment takes the lead once again. Fun shades and colours like neons and metallics, along with funky textures and decals have added to this growing trend.”

The make-up set segment brought in $61m, 19% up on the prior year period. Over 1.6 million sets were purchased in the first half of 2012. Meanwhile the lip segment kept pace with overall prestige growth at 8% with the lip colour, lip applicator and ‘other lip’ (multifunctional lip products, lip moisturisers etc) sub-segments all outpacing the segment as a whole.

The eye segment increased 5% in dollar sales to reach $512m and, finally, face (which makes up 49% of make-up dollar sales) increased 7% to $891m.

“The trends in prestige make-up for the first half of 2012 are quite telling especially when you take a close look at those categories in nail, lip and eye – they exceed sales in the overall market,” said Grant. “Consumers continue their desire to play with colour and accentuate and define their eyes. Underlying these trends is one consistent element – they have the lowest price points in the prestige market place.”

According to NPD, the nail and eye categories are all under the average price of prestige make-up, with products like eye palettes often equating to less than $5.00 per shade.