A valuable addition to the market?
Well, of course brands want to earn money with the products they release, but in this blog post I want to talk about the phenomenon that many big makeup brands are coming out with skincare lines. Should they rather stick to makeup? Are they adding something valuable to the skincare market or just pumping out products to get in on the huge skincare industry?
The skincare industry is booming
First, let’s have a look at the global market value of skincare and makeup in comparison. The value of the global skincare market is estimated to be 189.3 billion US-Dollars by 2025 (Source: Statista), while the global makeup market is estimated to reach 85 billion US-Dollars by 2024 (Source: Statista),
This makes the skincare industry more than twice as profitable within the next few years! In 2016 the skincare market already made up 36.4% of the global cosmetic market (Source: Statista). Within the past few years more and more consumers used their disposable income to purchase non-essential items, including sometimes excessive skincare purchases.
Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the beauty industry
How the ongoing pandemic with its influence on the economy and the decreasing disposable income of consumers due to unemployment and income losses is going to play out in the long run is unsure. On the one hand, people have less money to spend now, on the other hand many people are shopping online to cope with stress, anxiety and boredom. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if consumers resorted to shopping for skincare as a form of selfcare and still spend what’s left of their disposable income on skincare products.
Skincare line releases
However that will play out in the long run, the products and brands released last year and throughout the next months have already been planned long before covid-19 started to spread. We saw huge makeup brands releasing skincare.
Fourth Ray Beauty
Colourpop’s sisterbrand Fourth Ray Beauty was already released in 2018. I would love to try something from them, but sadly the brand is not easily accessible in Germany. You can purchase it but you have to pay customs and pick the package up from the customs office. I don’t even mind paying customs, but I would prefer to pay it directly while ordering, just to get my package delivered directly.
Kylie Skin
Kylie Cosmetics released Kylie Skin in 2019 and the products were received rather critically from the skincare community. Needless to say Kylie’s skincare products sold out fast. I personally didn’t try any of the products, from the reviews I’ve read the walnut scrub was the most criticized. I don’t like physical exfoliants as they can damage the skin, so a walnut scrub doesn’t sound very gentle. There were a few products, like the face wash, that got good reviews though. So it seems to depend on the particular product.
Announced: Fenty Skin
The most recent announcement of this kind I read about is from Fenty Beauty. I blogged about the confirmation of the skincare line Fenty Skin here. For me the Fenty Beauty face is all about fresh and healthy looking skin, so an accompanying skincare line makes sense to me. I have high expectations for the release, as the makeup launch did fill a void in the market and Fenty Beauty has been serving us great products ever since. Hopefully they invest the same amount of effort and detail-orientation into their skincare products!
Charlotte Tilbury does it all
One famous makeup successfully launching skincare as well is Charlotte Tilbury.Her brand is all about that Hollywood-Glam and the extension to skincare makes sense here as well. The successful makeup-artist now released her first ever serum: Magic Serum Crystal Elixir. I’m not convinced by the crystal powder, as I doubt it has any beneficial effects on the skin. It rather seems to cater to the crystal-trend that has been around since last year. I won’t be buying this, but I’ll surely look out for reviews to find more. Farwa Shah from Science and Skincare broke down the ingredients in details, Check it out here.
Outlook
Skincare and makeup are closely connected and big brands have the resources to develop and release enriching skincare products in addition to their makeup products. But they also have to put in the actual work and effort to do so. A clumsy and thoughtless release won’t do well in the long run. Even if the brand can initially boost sales by mobilizing their core customers. If they want to get a real footing on the skincare market they need to deliver products, that will attract new customers as well and convince their makeup customers of their quality in skincare. Otherwise they even risk losing credibility as a whole, which could effect their makeup sales as well. Accountability and trust are key factors in today’s market, where customers actively share views and influence the market.
What I personally would love to see more of is the perfect merge between skincare and makeup. Makeup that contains beneficial ingredients in amounts that will actually deliver results.
Conclusion
As with any release, we should check the product properly to make sure the formulation benefits our skin. If done right brands can cater to both markets and boost sales. Customers can get a full line of products from brands they love.