By CultureBanx Team
- Sales of lipstick are up more than 80% from the same period a year earlier
- In April 2020, 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 sales of the colorful tubes hitting $34.2 million in the four weeks ending in April. Typically, the logic goes, when lipstick sales are up, it means the economy is in trouble because people are restricting themselves to inexpensive pick-me-ups rather than pricey consumer goods. Now sales of lipstick are up more than 80% from the same period a year earlier, according to CNN, putting the lipstick index in question.
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 recent 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. In April 2020, Amazon saw sales of “lip care and color” dip 15% and saw prices decline by 28%, according to data compiled by McKinsey & Company.
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 latest quarterly report.
It’s not just in the U.S., lipstick sales in Japan fell close to 70% in mid-May 2020 compared to the previous year, according to data from Intage Holdings. McKinsey estimates that about 30% of the beauty industry was shut down by COVID-19. However, if there is another coronavirus wave later this year, global sales of beauty products could fall by 20%-30%.
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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