The NPD Group kicked off this year’s Hot Off the Press event, held January 31 at The Roosevelt Hotel, with the news that beauty grew 7 percent in North America for the 12-months ended September 30, and that prestige beauty grew $1 billion to $17 billion for 2016. Karen Grant, Senior Vice President, Global Beauty Industry Analyst, NPD, said that prestige beauty continues to outpace mass beauty with a 6 percent jump for the 12 months ended December, while mass beauty sales grew 2 percent to $22.8 billion. Some highlights from the annual event, which was co-hosted by CEW and included presentations by Nielsen’s Jordan Rost, Vice President, Consumer Insights and Sarah Jindal, Senior Innovation & Insights Analyst, Beauty Personal Care, Mintel Group Ltd., included:

• Sales of prestige beauty in Europe grew 2 percent, while sales in South America grew 14 percent. Prestige beauty sales grew in all regions except for France, where they fell 3 percent. Sales of prestige makeup drove growth across the board; three out of every four dollars gained in prestige beauty was driven by sales of makeup.Skin care sales grew in North America and South America, but decreased in Europe.

• U.S. prestige beauty saw sales jump 6 percent overall, with skin care growing 2 percent, makeup growing 12 percent and fragrance inching up 1 percent. Skin care saw growth driven by masks, cleansers and lip treatments. Makeup sales were driven by segments including lip color, brows and concealers.

• The top 10 channels shopped in prestige beauty are specialty, drug and mass stores, with the biggest growth seen coming from beauty supply stores, online and warehouse stores.
• HOLIDAY: In 2016, sales of prestige beauty grew 5 percent during the holiday season (October through December), while sales in December grew 4 percent versus 2015.
• The percentage of Amazon’s beauty purchases aged between 18 years old and 34 years old grew to nearly 60 percent in Q4 2016, up from just over 50 percent in Q4 2015.
• Social media’s brand winners for 2016 included e.l.f., NYX, NARS, Benefit, Becca, Tarte, IT Cosmetics, Urban Decay, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Make Up Forever.

• The top lip shades include brown/nude and mauve variations.
• Since 2014, niche fragrance segments have added more than $240 million to the category.

• The top prestige skin care launch in dollar volume sales for 2016 was Estée Lauder’s Revitalizing Supreme Plus Cream. Other notable launches include Chanel’s Sublimage LA Texture Supreme; La Mer’s The Perfecting Treatment; Living Proof’s Full Dry Volume Blast Spray; Rita Hazan’s Root Concealer Touch Up Spray and Estée Lauder’s Advanced Repair Concentrate Recovery Powerfoil Mask.
• Makeup’s top launch for 2016 was Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Modern Renaissance Eye Shadow Palette. Other notable makeup launches include Urban Decay’s Vice Lipstick, Benefit’s Gimme Brow New, Too Faced Born This Way Naturally Radiant Concealer and Tarte’s Grav3yardGirl Swamp Queen Eye & Cheek Palette.

• Retail health clinics are seen driving beauty sales. Nielsen cites that 53 percent of clinic visitors are influenced to buy a product in-store, with 27 percent of those purchases being personal care items. That percentage increases to 76 percentage when it’s a millennial shopper.

• Beauty items fitting in with an active lifestyle will be a major trend going forward, complimenting the $30 billion worth of gym memberships sold in the US. Brands such as Tarte, Pink Cheeks, Lola, Activ Bod and Pretty Athletic are leading the way.