The impact of the trend for bushier eyebrows – which is being worn by younger fashion models and a number of celebrities – means that women are plucking their eyebrows less and employing cosmetics to enhance them instead.
Mintel suggests that 25% of American women its researchers interviewed are now using eyebrow pencils and one in five are wearing eyebrow make-up on a regular basis, facts that come from its latest report: Color Cosmetics US 2015.
More eyebrow make-up, less for the face
The report also highlights how the defined eye trend is helping to boost multi outlet sales of eye liner, with sales up by 5% since 2014, mainly driven by products that emphasize longer-lasting results and precise application.
Likewise, bold and defined lips also remain on trend with American women, with 47% of users ranking long-lasting results and dramatic color as being crucial to their lipstick requirements, with a total of 55% of women saying that they use lipstick regularly.
However, quite different to the emphasis on eye make-up, there is a concurrent trend for less facial make-up that is providing an interesting contrast the eyebrow trend.
This is manifesting itself as part of the longer-term trend for BB creams, with 17% of American women going in for alphabet creams as part of the ‘less is more’ philosophy.
Less + more = steady growth
The Mintel report highlights how this contrast between less facial make-up and more eye make-up is actually playing out as steady market growth for the category.
“While overall color cosmetic category growth is slow, women continue to be influenced by trends, leading to shifts in cosmetics spending. Eye make-up is currently the strongest performing segment, driven largely by the popularity of eyebrow-specific products,” said Shannon Romanowski, category manager for health, household and beauty & personal care at Mintel.
“Despite facial make-up accounting for the largest share of category spending, sales have been slow as women opt for a pared down, ‘barely-there’ make-up look.”
Overall growth is steady
But aside from these two significant trends in the color cosmetics market, the Mintel report points out that overall growth is ‘steady’, with the $10bn category forecast to grow at a rate of approximately 2 – 3% in the years up to 2020.
This is in contrast to previous years, where significant growth was driven across most of the sub categories, but particularly in the area of alphabet creams, which grew quickly from a newly formed niche.