Karen Grant, The NPD Group

Lips, eyes, nails, all segments of the U.S. prestige colour cosmetics market are growing, both in value and volume, according to a survey by The NPD Group conducted during the first 10 months of 2011 (January to October).

According to the market research company, total prestige makeup sales in U.S. department stores were US$2.8 billion, an increase of 8%, compared to the same time last year. Units grew 5% with almost 117 million units sold. October was the tenth month of dollar growth and the ninth month of unit growth for the year.

In the first 10 months of the year, all prestige makeup segments saw dollar growth:

 total nail, up 59%
 total eye, up 10%
 all other colour, up 10%
 total sets, up 9%
 total lip, up 8%
 and total face, up 7%.

The big winners in the face segment were concealer and foundation, while eyes showed dramatic increases in the eye shadow, eye brow, and mascara categories. In lip, it was lip colour that stole the dollars away from lip gloss and liner (each declining -1% in sales). Lip colour outperformed the category’s dollar performance of 8%, with an increase of 12%. The nail segment was a winner all around, growing by more than 50% in value for both nail enamel and top/base coats.

In addition, eye shadow palette sales came on strong, with the trend of dramatic eyes this season. In the first 10 months, eye shadow consisting of five or more palettes grew triple digits in dollar sales, compared to the same time last year. Quad palettes grew double-digits.

In makeup, while neutral tones and face products led in the past, across countries we see strong gains in colour categories of lip and nail colour and a new focus on eye shadow and eye definition with growth in eye pencil and brow products,” said Karen Grant, vice president and senior global industry analyst at The NPD Group. “In makeup, the joy of colour is seen with more than half of the top 25 new products (and 7 of the top 10) being from an eye or lip category.