May 12, 2026
JanPietruszka/Depositphotos.com
What’s the Secret To Capturing Attention (and Spend) in Today’s Beauty Market?
With the latest Circana data highlighting significant growth across channels in the beauty category — prestige retail sales improved by 6% YoY during Q1 to $8.1 billion, while mass retail improved by 7% to $18.1 billion across the United States — one thing is clear: retailers and beauty brands are reaping the benefits of motivated consumers.
“Mass and prestige beauty are growing at nearly the same rate for the first time in five years,” Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry advisor at Circana, noted.
“Fragrance, facial skincare, hair treatments, and personal care products like body lotion and wash continue to benefit from consumers prioritizing self-care, elevated routines, and wellness driven products. We expect these areas to remain strong this year, as shoppers continue to shop across channels, seeking affordable yet high performing beauty products that feel good and work well,” she added.
Standout points represented in the Circana report included:
- Makeup sales grew, but remained comparatively soft: On sales, prestige retail makeup rose by just 2%, and mass retail at 5%. Declining unit demand was in evidence, with exceptions noted for lip and face products, as well as blush and bronzer.
- Hair products showed a slight divide: In hair (prestige up 10% and pushing more units, mass up 6%), a channel divide was on display. In prestige, treatments were the showcased product category, while in mass retail, shampoo and conditioner pack were — showing that value-oriented shoppers were looking to save on the essentials.
- Science matters in skincare: Clinical brands took down more than 33% of dollar sales in skincare, illustrating just how important “science-backed positioning” matters, per the report authors. In mass retail, skincare showed robust sales across produce assortment (and sales up 8%), while in prestige it was all about face creams, serums, and eye treatments.
- Interest in minis and women’s fragrances spiking: Both of the aforementioned products saw significant growth, with fragrance outperforming overall — prestige saw a whopping 16% growth rate in terms of sales, while mass retail saw a still-respectable improvement of 7%.
TikTok Shop, Live Commerce More Broadly, and E-Commerce Continue To Outpace Brick-and-Mortar Beauty Retail in Prestige Markets
Another theme brought to the fore by the report’s authors: When it comes to beauty retail, online and social shopping are growing apace and taking share as time goes on. When it comes to the prestige market in particular, e-commerce sales numbers beat brick-and-mortar equivalents in every major category measured during Q1.
Social commerce, most notably via the TikTok Shop platform, is adding fuel to this fire. Beauty alone accounted for 20% of spend on TikTok Shop throughout the first quarter, establishing dominance even in an explosive and emerging market — TikTok Shop as a platform amounts to 10% of all beauty e-comm sales.
“Digital and social platforms are no longer just a testing ground for emerging brands; they are full‑scale commerce engines,” Jensed said.
“For both established players and smaller brands, success increasingly hinges on how effectively digital and social plans are embedded into marketing and product strategies. Rather than optional or additive, these platforms must be foundational to how brands build relevance, drive demand, and scale growth,” she added.
BrainTrust
Nicholas Morine
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Do you believe that beauty, both prestige and mass market segments, will continue to shine in live commerce and e-commerce sales environments? What could be a point of disruption?
Do you see the beauty category as being a potential foothold for social commerce as it grows / matures in the North American market? What needs to happen to cement this success?
What’s missing from the brick-and-mortar retail experience in beauty, particularly as regards the prestige market?
Poll
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It’s not really a secret, but the key is being on channels where consumers are open to discovery. From our data, the fastest growing channel for beauty is TikTok Shop, where 83% of users have discovered a new product or brand. Interestingly, the best performing brands tend to be younger ones – like Tarte – because they create engaging and authentic content. By contrast, some of the legacy brands – think Estee – are not fully aligned with growth channels and struggle with fresh content that resonates.
Beauty is going to continue to grow. The piece that is missing between in store sales and growing digital sales is simplifying the easy ability at the in-store point of contact to enable automated reorders and replenishment directly to consumers. That is a leg up that the digital channels have. In most High touch Beauty retailers today the high end sales person is getting commission or at a minimum being tracked on conversion and in many cases it is counter productive for them to auto replenish the consumers preferences.
The digital black book has come a long way in the last five years but still can be seen as an obstacle to overall customer satisfaction in some cases.
How often has a Person you know walked into a beauty store to pick up a specific product and not found it in stock. this then leads to Brand switching.
A big part of capturing attention in beauty right now seems to be credibility. Consumers are looking for real reviews and recommendations, which is why social platforms like TikTok have become such a strong fit for discovery. Brands that can build trust quickly online seem to have a major advantage right now.
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It’s not really a secret, but the key is being on channels where consumers are open to discovery. From our data, the fastest growing channel for beauty is TikTok Shop, where 83% of users have discovered a new product or brand. Interestingly, the best performing brands tend to be younger ones – like Tarte – because they create engaging and authentic content. By contrast, some of the legacy brands – think Estee – are not fully aligned with growth channels and struggle with fresh content that resonates.
Beauty is going to continue to grow. The piece that is missing between in store sales and growing digital sales is simplifying the easy ability at the in-store point of contact to enable automated reorders and replenishment directly to consumers. That is a leg up that the digital channels have. In most High touch Beauty retailers today the high end sales person is getting commission or at a minimum being tracked on conversion and in many cases it is counter productive for them to auto replenish the consumers preferences.
The digital black book has come a long way in the last five years but still can be seen as an obstacle to overall customer satisfaction in some cases.
How often has a Person you know walked into a beauty store to pick up a specific product and not found it in stock. this then leads to Brand switching.
A big part of capturing attention in beauty right now seems to be credibility. Consumers are looking for real reviews and recommendations, which is why social platforms like TikTok have become such a strong fit for discovery. Brands that can build trust quickly online seem to have a major advantage right now.