By CultureBanx Team
- Sales of lipstick are up more than 80% from the same period a year earlier
- During the height of the pandemic Amazon saw sales of “lip care and color” dip 15% and saw prices decline by 28%
We’re moving away from living in a time when wearing a mask and lipstick just didn’t mix, with new data from global market tracking firm NPD Group finding sales of lipstick and other lip makeup grew 48% in first-quarter over previous year, exceeding $222 million. Typically, the logic goes, when times get tough, women seek little, affordable luxuries such as a new lipstick, an inexpensive pick-me-up, rather than pricey consumer goods.
Why This Matters: If you’re wearing your mask properly, it’s almost a given that whatever you put on your lips will eventually end up on the inside of your mask, smeared on your face, or both. In fact, a McKinsey report found that in the U.S. sales of lip makeup fell 15% in the spring of 2020, as mask mandates during the pandemic made it challenging to wear lipstick or lip gloss in the spring.
Change in mask guidance works in companies’ favor. Take Walmart (WMT +0.62%) for example, the company told CNN that lipstick is the top performer across all segments of cosmetics, and that lipstick sales were a standout in its quarterly report.
What’s Next: If you’re wondering what the most dominant lipstick texture emerging is, it would be the “satin” lipstick. According to the The Estée Lauder Company, high-coverage and dense color shades with a bit of sheen is what women are most interested in these days.
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