Lipstick sales soar in emerging markets

In particular Eastern European consumers are still favouring coloured lips and failing to pick up on the Western trend for dark eyes and neutral lip shades.

According to a Euromonitor report global lipstick sales have declined from 2001 - 2006 with the influential Western consumer favouring the more natural effect of lip-glosses, which has also resulted in declined lip liners sales.

With lipsticks and lipliners accounting for over three quarters of the $9.9bn lip product market, this is worrying news for lipstick manufacturers.

However, with the largely unsaturated markets of Eastern Europe and Latin America yet to pick up on the Western trend for 'nude' lips, growth in this sector has been high, with lipstick sales soaring by 105 per cent in Eastern Europe, and lip liners by 81 per cent.

The mod look that is currently driving sales of lip-glosses in Western cultures is yet to reach the developing markets and has not impacted lipstick sales as it has in Western Europe and North America, which has posted slow growth rates of 1 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

Lip-glosses do however play a large part in the sustained market growth of the overall lip product market, with the global growth rate in 2001-2006 more than treble that of lipsticks and contributing an extra US$607 million to the market total.

And with consumers that favour the 'nude' look also desiring a shiny finish, lip-glosses reach out to all demographics.

This growth is predicted to slow down in the future, as the developed markets arrive at a plateau and reach maturity, no doubt heralding the arrival of the 'other' lip product category - including lip plumpers and multi-function colour products that can be used on other areas of the face.

These products are already beginning to drive growth in developed markets that have become over-run with lipsticks and lip-glosses, with sales of lip plumpers in North America surging by 287 per cent between 2001-2006.

With 'fuller' lips back in the media spotlight, thanks to Hollywood stars such as Scarlett Johanson and Angelina Jolie, consumers are increasing opting for products that plump the lips, with offerings such as Du Wop Lip Venom and LipFusion Lip Plump.

Many manufacturers are also becoming aware of the fast changing environment of the beauty industry and are covering all bases by creating lipstick and lip-gloss products that have plumping qualities incorporated in them.

This micro-segmentation could be a key driver behind the predicted continued growth of the lip product market between 2006-2010, which should further expand on the 20 per cent overall gain in the last five year period.