CivicScience engages directly with consumers, collecting over one million survey responses daily, to turn real-time insights into high-performing advertising campaigns. See how leading brands use CivicScience to drive campaign performance here.
Beauty is holding firm amid economic uncertainty. In a sea of spending tradeoffs, health and wellness emerge as the only category where consumers continue to spend more than they cut back, and beauty has proven especially resilient – even in the face of tariff-driven cutbacks. With 63% of Americans now reporting they practice self-care, consumers are increasingly inclined to splurge on products that support their well-being, underscoring beauty’s enduring strength.
CivicScience’s real-time insights reveal how beauty brands can seize this opportunity among high-value segments:
Key Beauty Buyer Audiences: Three Segments CivicScience Tracks
Real-time declared consumer intent data allows CivicScience to highlight three key categories of beauty buyers today: value (big box and drug stores), prestige/premium (department stores, Ulta, Sephora), and luxury (designer brands and high-priced products). While year-over-year trends show that most shoppers still intend to purchase value beauty products, prestige beauty has seen the most significant intent growth. Over the past two years, the share of Americans reporting they’re likely to buy prestige beauty is up 4 percentage points, while value and luxury have remained relatively stable.
This suggests that prestige beauty serves as a “sweet spot” – offering consumers a way to indulge without paying luxury price tags. This aligns with CivicScience data showing that future prestige beauty buyers are the least likely to cut back on beauty and personal care products despite rising prices. In contrast, both luxury and value buyers are equally likely to be scaling back.
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Who They Are and How To Reach Prestige Beauty Buyers
Due to that resilience, CivicScience took a closer look at these valuable shoppers, particularly those planning to buy prestige/premium beauty products. Here’s a glimpse of how CivicScience uses millions of self-reported consumer intent data points to plan and execute high-performing ad campaigns. (Note: The following compares prestige beauty shopper audiences to the Gen Pop.)
- Paid Online Subscriptions: Prestige beauty buyers are more likely than the Gen Pop to pay for digital content, particularly health/fitness (+51%) and local news (+39%).
- Ads that resonate: Emotional (+90%) and inspirational (+36%) advertising is especially effective with this audience. In contrast, they are 12% less likely to connect with humorous ads.
- AI in advertising: This group shows an openness to innovation — prestige beauty buyers are 65% more likely than the average American to hold at least a somewhat positive perception of brands using AI in their advertising.
- More Digital Media Insights: Banner ads are influential – prestige beauty buyers are 49% more likely to say these ads impact their purchases. They also demonstrate slightly higher levels of digital device addiction (+14%).
- Streaming Services (A Caveat): Although they, like the Gen Pop, are most likely to use ad-supported streaming services, prestige beauty buyers under-index by 9%. This suggests that streaming may not be the most optimal channel to reach them.
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The Bottom Line
Beauty buyers aren’t a monolith—they segment into distinct behavioral patterns that create precise targeting opportunities. CivicScience’s millions of consumer-reported intent data points reveal which channels to prioritize, where to pull back, and the nuances between groups such as value, prestige, and luxury buyers.
Activate Your Campaigns Now
CivicScience provides real-time data to help brands engage beauty buyers across key shopping seasons, such as the winter holidays. Owning the world’s largest, real-time database of declared consumer intent, CivicScience helps advertisers and media companies reach the right audience with the right content at exactly the right time.
