U.S. Cosmetics Survey: The Millennials Lead the Pack

Once again, it’s all about the millennials!

Fresh off the heels of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery’s annual survey that showed an uptick in the number of millennials seeking nips and tucks, new research finds that millennial women are the heaviest buyers of beauty products in the $13 billion dollar cosmetics market.

The cosmetics market is up 5 percent from 2014, according to the 2015 research by TABS, a sales and marketing analytics firm for the consumer packaged goods industry. (The estimated market size excludes skin care and hair care products.)

Millennials (ages 18 to 34)  are twice as likely to be heavy buyers (defined as purchasing more than 10 types of products a year) and account for 47 percent of all heavy cosmetic buyers.

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A higher income correlates to likelihood of being a heavy cosmetics buyer, the research suggests.  Within the 13 percent of the population with an income of $125,000 or more per year, 39 percent of millennial women are heavy buyers, compared to 29 percent of the population buying cosmetics, the research showed.

And most heavy cosmetic buyers get the scoop on products from beauty blogs and YouTube. The fastest-growing cosmetics retail channel is specialty beauty outlets, such as Ulta and Sephora. Online sales are estimated at 8.3 percent of all transactions and approximately 10 percent of total dollars spent on cosmetics.

The study was conducted in November 2015 to determine what types of products consumers are buying, where cosmetics are purchased, how much do they buy and how often.