Face oils could hold big opportunity in UK prestige skin care

According to NPD, the face oil market was worth £4.9million (€6.2m) in 2015, and whilst this category accounts for just 1% of the total prestige women’s skin care market, it reported a 30.8% increase in 2015.

Teresa Fisher, Senior Account Manager, NPD UK Beauty says that the growth of face oils demonstrates that “innovation is key to the development and growth of new categories within skin care, it also reveals that there is real opportunity for further growth.”​

Awareness​

The face oils category, which includes: facial moisturisers, facial cleansing oils, anti-ageing beauty oils and treatment shave oils, has doubled in size in just four years, helped by increased awareness and new launches from players such as Elemis, Bare Minerals, Clinique, and Kiehl’s.

Fisher adds that the trend for facial oils has extended beyond skin care to include new product launches in the make-up sector, and this has helped to increase numbers and demonstrates the growing popularity of skin care benefits in make-up products; a trend that is likely to continue.

“The recent growth in the face oil market is important in a number of ways. Firstly, it’s boosting the prestige skin care market by increasing sales, and it also demonstrates the enthusiasm with which consumers adopt new rituals into their skin care regime,”​ she says.

“We are witnessing a new consumer who is increasingly turning to their peers for advice on products and take the lead from social media and bloggers. As a result they are willing to try new products and innovations, incorporating them into their beauty ritual.”​

Market comparison​

Serums still eclipse oils though in terms of new product launches with 45 in 2015, compared to only 15 facial oils.

This is because the serum market is more mature with sales of £49m; however, NPD says it presents a huge opportunity for brands to capitalise on the popularity of oils for anti-ageing, hydrating and cleansing.

The prestige beauty market was valued at £2.4bn in 2015. Skin care is an important contributor to growth where the total value of women’s skin care in 2015 was £496m, which grew by 2.3% on the previous year from £485m.