The U.S. beauty industry has gotten off to a slow start in 2014 due to severe winter conditions and record low temperatures across much of the country, which kept consumers indoors and out of stores. As a result, many packaged goods categories showed soft sales in Q1, and the professional beauty segment is no exception. Things seem to have picked up in Q2, and Kline is optimistic that momentum will continue into the second half of the year.
Final results are still in the works, but Kline’s preliminary research points to a low, single-digit increase for the U.S. professional beauty market for the first half of the year.
In professional hair care, colorants remains the largest category in the United States, accounting for about one-third of sales. The low/no-ammonia segment continues to flourish and evolve into new sub-segments, such as colorants with conditioning properties and those that are free from potentially harmful ingredients. Surprisingly, the low/no-ammonia segment has relatively low penetration in the U.S. market, especially when compared to Western Europe, signaling its growth potential here. The conditioners category remains vibrant, particularly the treatment segment, which has begun to shift away from oils in favor of multi-benefit and hybrid products, such as It’s a Ten and Revlon’s Uniq One. Dry shampoos are also picking up steam, up 31% in Q1 in independent salons, according to data from the Kline PRO database, which aggregates transactional data from a panel of salons each quarter.
In the professional nail arena, the recent gel polish market explosion is already fading into memory, at least in the United States. Price competition and a lower level of innovation compared to prior years have suppressed market growth, which was further exacerbated by the brutal winter. One bright spot in professional nail care is the new long-wear lacquer segment, spurred by the launch of CND’s Vinylux and later Geláze by China Glaze. The impact of these introductions, as well as OPI’s pending launch into the long-wear lacquer segment, will be reported in Kline’s Professional Nail Care: Global Market Brief, due out later this year.
With the recent slew of professional skin care acquisitions from 2013, the jury is still out whether new parent companies have hindered or helped fuel sales of brands such as SkinMedica (Valeant) and Obagi (Allergan). According to our recent survey of physicians who dispense skin care products, doctors expect their skin care businesses will see a nice bump in sales for the year compared to last year.
Kline will continue to monitor the industry through its portfolio of studies assessing the global professional beauty market. For more information, please visit /market-research/research_consumer.asp?category=39
