Are you a beauty enthusiast who is curious about the state of the beauty industry in 2023? No need to look further.
In this piece, we have organized, assessed, and classified some beauty industry statistics below.
Each category has been laid out for you. Keep reading for the top beauty industry statistics in the UK.
- General Beauty Industry statistics
- Beauty Industry Statistics
- Makeup Industry Statistics
- Skincare Industry Statistics
- Cosmetic Industry Statistics
- UK Beauty industry Statistics vs USA Beauty Industry Statistics
NOTE
This article contains a collection of statistics gotten from various sources on different areas of the UK beauty industry trends and put together by Hollywood Mirrors, makers of dressing table mirrors.
These are the results:
General Beauty Industry Statistics
Below are some general beauty industry statistics that show the behavior of people in the UK towards beauty.
- People in the UK spent £8.6 billion at hairdressers and personal care salons in 2019. Each person spent an equivalent of £166 on personal care treatments yearly.
- 33% of Brits admitted to spending between £1 and £15 monthly on beauty treatments and beauty products.
- According to 84% responders, Dettol was the most popular health and beauty brand in the UK in 2021. Oral-B, Colgate, and Boots were also chosen.
- In 2020, 73.9% of UK households shopped Colgate products, 61.4% shopped Nivea and 57.6% households bought Dove.
- The organic industry experienced 10-year consecutive revenue growth of 13% between 2019 and 2020, making £13.8 million.
- The UK has over 14,000 certified organic ingredients and 15,000 all natural products in the beauty industry.
- 45% of British consumers use at least 1 organic product, and 64% buy products with recyclable packages.
- Shampoo sales led the UK haircare and beauty industry segment in 2020 with a market value of £470.5 million, hair colorant made £324.5 million, and conditioners with £315.8.
- The fine female market fragrance in 2020, made £1 billion in market value and fine male fragrances made £554 million for the £945 million UK fragrance subsector.
- In 2019, approximately 92,000 people worked in UK beauty industry
- Over 50% of the UK's hair and beauty industry experienced an annual turnover of less than £99k in 2020.
- 582 small and medium beauty care enterprises operated in the UK in 2020.
- In 2020, the UK hairdressing, barbering and beauty industry had more than 288.000 employees.
- Skincare was the leading category, accounting for about 42 percent of the global market.
UK Beauty Industry Statistics
Everyone in the UK has a preferred behavior to beauty. Here is some beauty industry analysis that prove how they've interacted with this industry.
1: As of 2020, the UK's beauty industry worth is £27 billion and ranks as the seventh-largest global cosmetics market in the world. It holds the third spot for largest markets operating in the UK.

2: For 2021, the size of the beauty industry worth is placed at €9.8 billion by the European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Data.

3: 38% of Brits said they don't spend money on beauty treatments and products, 33% spend £1–£15 per month (£12–£180 per year), 3% spend £51–£100 per month on their looks and 1% spend over £100.

4: Health and beauty spending in the UK will rise to 8.8 per cent by 2024, amounting to an additional £2 billion.

5: Due to the impact of COVID-19, 37.2 percent of consumers bought their health and beauty products online.

6: Prestige beauty sales fell by 24% due to the 2020 lockdown, in the first quarter of 2021 it rose by 33%.

7: The beauty market value of the UK natural and organic beauty industry in 2020 was £221 million. It is expected to reach £339 million by 2025.

8: Social media is instrumental to the growth of many beauty brands, as social influencers are used as part of strategies to increase exposure.

9: In 2018, beauty content on YouTube had a mesmerizing 169 billion views.

10: Yuya is the most popular beauty content creator on YouTube with over 24.8 million subscribers.

11: The most popular beauty brands on Instagram are Kylie Cosmetics with over 25.5 million followers, Anastasia Beverley Hills 19.5 million and Fenty Beauty 10.9 million.

12: Most popular beauty brands on Facebook are Bath & Body with over 10.37 million likes, Risqué 7.03 million and Mary Kay Brasil 6.08 million.

13: Vaseline was the most popular brand in the beauty industry in the UK in Q3 2021

14: In 2019, 94% of people who worked in the beauty industry were female. In 2020, 65% of beauty workers were self-employed, a 57% growth from 2019.

15: The presence of beauty brands on social media is essential. For example, people in the UK spend around 53 minutes a day just on Instagram .

16: Men's beauty industry size and growth are yet to reach their peak as more beauty brands tap into this market.

17: Having a personal hands-on experience with new beauty products is critical While beauty brands see digital e-commerce and digitally-enhanced in-store and virtual try-on apps as the wave of the future, a sizable percentage of beauty customers (41%) said they would not buy beauty products from beauty brands that they had only tried-on virtually.

Makeup Industry Statistics
These are the most prominent UK Makeup statistics you should look at.
- Sales of color cosmetics (makeup) in the UK were earlier predicted to reach £2.5bn in 2021.
- In 2019, 18% of people in the UK bought makeup once a month, while 3% bought once a week.
- 35% of women buy makeup to subtly enhance their features, 12% for experimenting with different looks, 7% to create a bold or dramatic look, 41% to conceal tiredness, 39% to cover blemishes, 25% to look youthful and 22% (aged 16-24) to be camera ready.
- 83% of UK women wear makeup. Most preferred purchased products are mascara (57%), lipstick (49%) and liquid/cream foundation (46%).
- In 2017, a report revealed that UK women spent £95.94 yearly on makeup.
- UK makeup sales went up by 229% since the post-Covid-19 lockdown.
- Between 2016 and 2017, internet sales of makeup products jumped 44%, 29% for beauty care and 22% for perfumes.
- 6.8 million women recorded that they use foundation and tinted moisturizer at least once a day in 2020
- In 2020, an estimated number of 13.2 million people actively used lipstick.
- In 2020, 3.7 million people used Boots No.7 as the UK's most used makeup brand. Rimmel and Max Factor were the second and third.
- In 2017, 39% of UK women aged 18-29 used makeup and foundation more than 20% aged 60+. 31% of women aged 60+ said they never used these products.
- 29% of UK women have tried makeup trends like eyebrow defining. 69% of UK women say makeup trends are too time consuming and 72% think the results are too unnatural.
- UK's most popular brand of highlighters and blushes in 2020 was Boots No7, purchased by 2.1 million people.
- In 2020 3.8 million people in the UK used Boots No7 lipstick and lipgloss products. Boots outsold both Rimmel and Maybelline.
- Over 4.6 million UK consumers used Rimmel as their preferred eye makeup brand.
- 3.7 million people in 2020 chose Boots No7’s makeup foundation, face powder and tinted moisturizer.
- The global makeup market alone is estimated to be worth approximately $85 billion
Skincare Industry Statistics
How much do Brits love their skin and just how much do you think they're willing to pay to take care of it? Find out in the stats below:
- Skincare is the second-largest branch of the beauty industry contributing to 23% of its revenue.
- The United Kingdom skincare is predicted to reach USD 24.37 billion by 2024.
- Cosmetics industry statistics revealed the UK 2020 skincare market size to be worth £2.17 billion.
- UK beauty industry statistics show facial care as the market's largest segment estimated for £860 million in 2019.
- Up to 40% of the world's skincare products launches in 2018 took place in the United Kingdom. The US was second with 25% and France with 15%.
- In 2020, respondents in the UK aged 75 or above, spent an average of 8.20 British pounds weekly on personal care. Respondents aged 50 to 64 spent the most weekly with an average of 15.40 British pounds.
- In March 2019, 31% of respondents bought skin care products once a month in the UK, 13% bought several times a month, and 28.2% never bought any products in this category.
- Great Britain's skincare market of cosmetic, dermo-cosmetic skin creams, hand and lip care products, sun screens, and body lotions, amounted to a value of 2.16 billion British pounds by the end of 2019.
- Women's facial skincare in the beauty industry is worth nearly £1.5 billion as of December 2019.
- Non-medicated face care goods passed the £1 billion market value milestone in 2020.
- In 2020, non-medicated facial goods were the UK's first choice of skincare products. Luxury skincare and gift boxes came second with over £537 million, body creams and lotion (over £200 million) and sunscreens (almost £167 million).
- The most popular face creams among UK women were Germany-based Nivéa and the UK’s Boots No. 7. British men also used masks, scrubs, anti-age creams, and moisturizers.
- The UK's skincare global market is dominated by major brands like Clarins, Unilever, L'Oréal S.A., and Procter & Gamble.
- The UK was the world leader for skincare microbiome product launches in 2018.
- Skincare products had the highest import value of cosmetics in 2019 at £1.81 billion.
- H&M’s beauty offerings increased by 94.8% over the course of a year in the UK.
- 8.6 million women used lotions and face creams more than once a day in Great Britain in 2019.
18: Hair care industry statistics estimate the global hair care market will increase by over $4.9 billion between 2020–2024
Cosmetics Industry Statistics
The UK cosmetics market is prominent and one of the most dominating globally. The statistics for the cosmetic industry is shown below:
- The UK's organic cosmetics market is predicted to grow to £339 million by 2025.
- In 2017, the UK's cosmetic market was valued at a whopping £9.8 billion.
- The UK's cosmetic industry is the third-largest in Western Europe.
- The cosmetic market is the third-largest market operating in the UK and the seventh-largest globally.
- In 2019, the cosmetics market with the second- highest import value was perfume with £865 million.
- Great Britain's toiletries and Cosmetics industry made sales of £8.7 billion in 2020, £580 million less than 2019.
- 58.3% of all the products sold in the cosmetics market in the UK in 2020 were toiletries.
- The UK placed third in Europe for cosmetics consumption value in 2019.
- Imported and exported cosmetics value from and to the UK dropped in 2020 by 8 and 7% respectively.
- In 2020, the USA was the UK’s main non-EU export and import partner.
- The biggest destination for beauty UK Cosmetics was the Irish Republic in 2020 with an import trade value of over £467 million.
- In 2019, over 1,600 specialized stores were selling imported and British cosmetics in the UK.
13 . L’Oréal was the world leading brand in the global cosmetics market with £ 34.3.8 billion sales in 2019. Unilever was second with £ 17.1 billion and Estée Lauder third with £10.85 billion.
- 79% of men in Great Britain frequently used deodorants and shampoos as their most-used cosmetics products. The preferred cosmetics brands were Lynx and Head and Shoulders.
- In 2018, a quarter of men in Great Britain spent a monthly average of 11 to 20 British pounds on male grooming products.
- In 2020, Toiletries led the market for cosmetics in the UK with a market share of almost 30%.
- In 2021, 13% of UK adults either intended to or bought a beauty advent calendar for Christmas.
- The beauty market value of eyeshadows in the UK was estimated to be above £351 million in 2020.
- Toothpaste products generated £538 million, which was the highest market value for the cosmetic toiletry sub sector in 2020.
- The production of cosmetics and beauty products is controlled by a number of multi-national corporations – L'Oréal , Unilever , Procter & Gamble Co. , The Estee Lauder Companies, Shiseido Company, and Lancôme to name a few
- 42% of the global cosmetic market is made up of skincare.
UK Beauty Industry Statistics vs USA Beauty Industry Statistics
The UK and the USA, have the highest impacts in the beauty industry. The statistics we've given show how these countries interact with this industry:
- The global beauty industry market is valued at $511 billion
2: As of 2020, the UK's beauty industry is worth £27 billion.
- The US beauty industry generated a revenue of $77,985 million in 2020.
- In 2020, the largest global skincare market was the US, bringing in $17.5 billion in revenue.
- As of 2020 the UK skincare market was worth £2.17 billion.
- The UK's natural and organic beauty market is predicted to hit £339 million by 2025.
- In 2019, the US cosmetic industry was worth $49.2 billion.
- The US organic and natural beauty market is projected to reach $54 billion by 2027
- Approximately 70% of US consumers between 18-29 prefer to use only natural, organic cosmetics.
- 45% of British consumers use at least 1 organic beauty product, and 64% buy products with recyclable packages.
- Men in the USA spent over $6.9 billion on grooming products.
- A quarter of the UK men in 2018, spent £11 to £20 monthly on male grooming products.
- Women in the US spend over $3,756 on beauty products annually.
- In 2017, UK women spent £95.94 annually on makeup.
- 46% of beauty buyers in the UK and the US say they discover brands and products through family and friends recommendations.
- Since COVID-19, people in the US and UK are following simpler and easier skincare routines.
- Hair Care products are the most used type of beauty products by women in the US and UK.
- Since the COVID-19 outbreak, men in the US and UK shop more frequently and consciously for skincare products.
- UK and US beauty consumers say they are more interested in skincare products brands that offer their customers at-home trials before purchasing.
- Women contribute the most to the revenue of the global beauty industry. Today the global beauty industry is a $532 billion business .
- Americans spend an average of $197.01 on beauty products.
- 19.33% of the British spend between £1 and £15 per month on beauty treatments and products.
Final Notes
The UK beauty industry market size rapidly evolves, and proof of this is evident in the beauty industry trends we have listed above.
We think reading them will help you stay informed as someone with ties to the beauty industry, whether you are a manufacturer, retailer, or consumer.
Interested in any of our products? Check out our makeup mirrors and full length mirrors.
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