February sales of prestige beauty items in U.S. department stores inched up 3% to $799 million, according to NPD Group. Sales of fragrances, representing 25% of prestige beauty dollars, stayed flat versus the previous year. Skincare, representing 35% of prestige beauty sales, grew 4%. Makeup, representing the lion’s share of the prestige beauty business at 40%, grew 3%.

Year-to-date, sales of total prestige beauty (with an extra week in January) totaled $1.5 billion, an increase of 15% versus a year ago. When adjusted for the extra week, total prestige beauty was still upbeat with a 4% gain versus a year ago. Looking at the individual categories’ year-to-date dollar performances, fragrance sales increased 11%, but was only up 1% when adjusted to reflect a four-week January. Makeup sales increased 17% and was still up 5% when adjusted. Skincare posted a 16% increase and remained up by 5% when adjusted.