Mass Beauty Sales Performance in 2022, Per NielsenIQ

Despite inflation-driven revenue increases, mass beauty saw a slowdown in unit sales in 2022.

In the shower and bath category, the only two offerings that saw unit sales increases were exfoliants and scrubs (up 24 percent versus the year prior, with Tree Hut and Dr. Teal’s among the big winners of this surge) and bath and shower gift sets (up 95 percent).

While soap saw a 9.8 percent decline in unit sales, Anna Mayo, vice president of content and strategy, beauty at NielsenIQ, notes male-focused brands such as Duke Cannon and Dr. Squatch saw momentum in 2022. Meanwhile, in the hair care category, men’s grooming saw one of the few unit sales increases, posting 3.4 percent year-over-year growth.

In terms of facial skin care, Mayo doesn’t necessarily correlate the 1.9 percent decrease in total unit sales to lessened consumer interest in the category: “People expanded their skin care routines during the pandemic, and now they’re maintaining them, but not necessarily growing them — if they went to a five- or six-step routine, they kind of stayed there,” she said.

While eye makeup, too, faced declining overall unit sales, face makeup notable saw an overall increase in the metric, driven by an upswing in blush (up 13.2 percent in unit sales), bronzer (up 17.7 percent) and concealer (up 6.6 percent).

Here, the dollar sales and unit sales performances of mass beauty by category in 2022, per NielsenIQ.

2. Facial Skin Care:

3. Hair Removal:

4. Hair Care:

5. Eye Cosmetics:

6. Face Cosmetics: