In the past year the market has showed renewed vigour as a significant growth in new product launches appears to be chasing female consumers under the age of 30, according to a new report by Research and Markets.
Entitled Women's Cosmetic In Ireland, 2007, the report estimates the total market to currently be worth €112.2m, a figure driven by the fact that women have increasing spending power that is starting to show in cosmetics spend.
This is being underlined by the fact that women are increasingly trading up to more luxurious goods, attracted by the perceived added benefits such products bring, including both effecacy and quality.
The report also highlights that women are succumbing to pressure from society, dictating what they should wear and how they look by encouraging the adoption of high fashion styles that in turn translate into a higher retail spend.
Ireland recently came in for a special mention in Colipa's European market report for 2006. The European cosmetics and toiletry association said that the country was tipped as one of the markets with the most potential for further growth.
This is because Ireland currently has a relatively low per capita expenditure on cosmetic and toiletry products of €133, putting it in the bottom three rankings in Europe.
However, this figure does not tally with the countries huge economic growth in recent years, which has seen it develop from being one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of the richest in the space of just ten years.
Indeed, last year GDP in Ireland grew at the fastest rate in the EU, at 9 per cent.