Kantar analysts Maya Zawislak said: “Manufacturers are going to struggle and they’re really going to have to work harder to get our money from us.”
A raft of celebrities have joined in a new trend for posting make-up free selfies on social media in recent weeks. Michelle Pfeiffer, Tyra Banks, and Jennifer Anniston have all posted photos of themselves online without make-up.
But the pandemic has dramatically altered how women spend their money.
Sebastian James, chief executive of Boots, told the BBC: “Over the pandemic we saw a lot less colour cosmetics in our trade, lipsticks and so on, and a lot more spend on self care, so skin care, haircare, and particularly what we call expert skin care.
“Certainly year-on-year we’re well up in [our beauty sales] but definitely people are buying different stuff.”
The pandemic shift towards working-from-home delivered a blow to both the high-end and low-end cosmetics industry. In-store sales were hit particularly hard.
Sales of designer make-up in department store counters fell by 40pc, according to data by NPD. The decline was worth almost £500m. Meanwhile, supermarkets selling cheaper make-up products took a £180m hit to revenues from their cosmetics aisles.
A report by McKinsey found approximately 30pc of the beauty industry was shut down in the pandemic, and that prolonged mask-wearing in many countries would continue to impact sales as stores reopen.
It said: “Given the realities of working from home, physical distancing, and mask wearing, it has become much less important to wear make-up and fragrance.
“When consumers do return to work, many will continue to wear masks, further slowing make-up’s recovery.”
“By contrast, skin-care, hair-care, and bath-and-body products appear to be benefiting from self-care and pampering trends.”
