UK Women’s Skincare Market Report 2021

Providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date information and analysis of the UK Women’s Skincare market, including the behaviours, preferences and habits of the consumer.

Increased usage across several facial skincare segments indicates that women are embracing multistep routines, as well as regularly updating the products they use to suit their needs. However, despite women being highly engaged with this category, they continue to face challenges, with 59% of female facial skincare users struggling to know what products work well together.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the women’s facial skincare category and market growth has proved resistant to headwinds faced by other beauty categories. In 2020, value sales in the category increased 0.4% to £1.4 billion, boosted by a heightened focus on hygiene, skin conditions that have arisen from face covering use and wellbeing trends that have seen women turn to facial skincare for a sense of calm.

The biggest threats facing the category are savvy shopping habits and the risk that women will streamline their routines. Savvy shopping habits encourage trading down behaviours and mean women are willing to shop around for discounts when buying higher-value brands. Meanwhile, usage could fall into decline if routines are streamlined for convenience, cost-saving or sustainability reasons.

However, there are opportunities to offset these challenges. Brands and retailers can continue to develop tools and services that help women build effective multistep routines. Meanwhile, brands that can showcase product efficacy and real user results will be best placed to succeed as women are looking for high-performance facial skincare products among the latest skincare trends.

Read on to discover more details or take a look at all of our UK Beauty and Personal Care market research.

Quickly understand

• The impact of COVID-19 on the women’s skincare category.
• The value of individual segments and brand performance in 2020.
• Innovation and NPD in the women’s skincare category.
• Usage and purchase of women’s facial cleansing and caring products during the last 12 months.
• The rise of multistep routines and skincare challenges faced by women.
• Purchase journeys and opportunities to drive new product discovery.
• Skincare market growth.
• Skincare industry trends.
• Latest skincare trends.

Covered in this report

Brands: Simple, Olay, NIVEA, Garnier, Clean & Clear, Neutrogena, L’Oréal, Olay, Garnier, CeraVe, The Inkey List, No7, Prai, Faace, Indeed Laboratories, Peace Out, Sarah Chapman, Nuori, Haeckels, Adaptology, Zelens, Codex, Typology, Youth to the People, Bad Habit, Environ, Sapienic, Drunk Elephant, Estée Lauder, LVMH, Unilever, L’Occitane, Shiseido, Natura & Co, Beiersdorf, Revolution Beauty, Marks & Spencer.

Expert analysis from a specialist in the field

This report, written by Samantha Dover, a leading analyst in the Beauty and Personal Care sector, delivers in-depth commentary and analysis to highlight current trends and add expert context to the numbers.

Women have embraced multistep skincare routines during the COVID-19 outbreak, with product usage seeing a significant increase and growth in spend robust despite cautious spending habits. Women have prioritised facial skincare over other BPC categories, seeking to improve the health and appearance of the skin in parallel with reduced makeup usage. Whilst this trend is expected to continue, there is a risk that women will move away from multistep routines post-pandemic, though brands can respond and minimise this risk with continued NPD and innovation in services that help women build highly effective, personalised routines.

Samantha Dover
Senior Beauty and Personal Care Analyst