Luxury Beauty Sales Fell

Total prestige beauty sales were down to $8.38bn in a year when the economic situation deteriorated rapidly and consumers began looking more carefully at their spending.

Make-up sales defy lipstick factor

One of the surprises of the study was the poor performance of make-up which had been mooted as a recession resistant beauty category. The much talked about Lipstick Theory had predicted that women, unable to splash out on expensive luxuries, would turn to make-up to cheer themselves up.

But the NPD study said that luxury make-up sales in the US fell 3 percent last year to $3.2bn. With the exception of natural make-up and premium priced face products, all segments in the make-up category suffered declining sales last year.

(http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Products-Markets/Luxury-beauty-sales-turn-ugly)