Growth is high across the region and is expected to remain so. The market research firm said the market grew 15 percent last year and is forecast to make gains of 30 percent in constant terms over 2007-2012.
Consumers throughout Latin America have been trading up as their incomes rise and large international firms such as P&G and Colgate-Palmolive have been highly successful. Marketing efforts have also paid off for multinationals as beauty buyers have embraced big foreign brands.
Economic and cultural differences
However, the character of the markets in Latin America varies considerably reflecting the cultural diversity of the region and the different levels of economic development.
In Bolivia, for example, outdoor markets account for 50 percent of retail sales compared to less than 1 percent in Chile, which has Western European style shopping norms.
Tastes and preferences also varied significantly between countries. Fragrance sales made up 27 percent of the Guatemalan market and only 11 percent in Chile.
There are also significant differences within countries due to high income inequality and cultural diversity. Euromonitor said Ecuador, for example, has a patchwork of communities, including Native Americans, people of colonial Spanish origin and descendents of African slaves.
Overall though, further growth is anticipated across Latin America and a general movement towards more Western style retail channels is expected to drive sales.
Brazil leads the pack
Brazil is the jewel in the Latin American cosmetics crown and was the single most significant contributor to global growth in 2007, according to recently published figures from Euromonitor.
"Our new data shows Brazil becoming a primary player in the industry and is expected to add $9.5bn to global sales over the next five years, supplanting China as the number one contributor to future growth," said Euromonitor spokesperson Alexander Kirillov.
Cosmetics have taken off in Brazil in recent years as the country becomes a garden of plenty for cosmetics manufacturers as well as suppliers looking for interesting raw materials in the Amazon basin.
