CivicScience has been tracking beauty trends for several years, and its surveys have highlighted a focus among women 18 and older on skincare, or a blend of makeup and skincare. Most recently, the skincare trend was impacted by the global pandemic which left many women investing in at-home skincare products and tools instead of paying for services that required leaving the home.
The world is opening up and certain safety mandates have lifted to shed light on skin sheltered or covered for a year or more. CivicScience polled women 18 and older to see how they are wearing makeup and how they felt about the products they were using.
More than half of the women surveyed stated they’re wearing about the same amount of makeup now as they were before the pandemic, but a significant percentage (38%) are wearing less.
In February of 2020, women wearing makeup on a daily basis has decreased from 52% to 44% today. While the largest percentage of women say they wear makeup daily, the second largest percentage is women who say they wear makeup occasionally, a number that increased by 10 percentage points since the early days of the pandemic.
Although more than half of female consumers consider brand and price equally important when shopping for beauty and personal care products, 27% consider brand to be more important while 16% consider price to be more important.
While beauty and makeup destination Ulta claims a greater percentage of favorable women than Sephora, Sephora fans are more interested in “clean” beauty products than Ulta fans.
The concept of “clean beauty” has been ramping up for decades within the makeup and skincare industry. At this point in time, 56% of women 18 and older say they are at least somewhat interested in “clean beauty,” which roughly means products formulated without harmful ingredients.
Looking ahead to the next few months of significantly less mask-wearing and increased socializing, it’s possible we will see an uptick in women wearing makeup on a daily basis. The “clean beauty” trend is the one to dig into: with only 17% of women buying beauty products based on price, the market for spending is huge.
