Beauty’s elite gathered Thursday evening at Manhattan’s The Union League to hear how beauty ended 2014 at this year’s invitation-only CEW/NPD Group’s Beauty Industry 2014 Year-in-Review Event “Hot off the Press.”

To cut to the chase, prestige beauty grew 3% to $11.2 billion, while mass beauty remained flat at $22.1 billion. Unit sales were up 1.5% in prestige and down 2% in mass. Overall, beauty reached $47.9 billion in the US, with TV/Home Shopping accounting for 24%, mass channels 24%, department stores 17%, specialty stores 17% and drug stores 13%.

The gap between prestige and mass was seen in all categories, with prestige skin care growth +2% and in mass +1%; prestige makeup +6%, mass makeup -1%; prestige fragrance +2%, mass fragrance -4%.

Consumers’ beauty trips to mass and prestige stores decreased during 2014, 4% and 8%, respectively. Meanwhile, consumers visited pureplay sites 16% more often during the year.

NPD reported that the retail trends for 2015 include:

• Consumers are no longer being proactive, they are reactive.
• Mobile is a necessity, not a luxury

• Mobile has entered into a mature phase and now reaches 69% of households

 
Globally, beauty saw success in the UK (+5% to $3.7 billion); Canada (+5% to $1.3 billion) and Peru (+7% to $42 million). France saw a decline of 1% to $3.6 billion, and Italy saw a slip of 1% to $2.1 billion. Makeup was a winning category globally with increases in the UK (+13%), the US (+6%), Mexico (+9%), Peru (+13%) and Canada (+10%).