Data from Circana shows that prestige skin care is rebounding following a softer 2025, while lip color and eye shadows have also returned to growth.
Beauty is holding rank as a top-two industry by growth across U.S. retail, new data shows.
According to Circana, prestige beauty sales through the third quarter of 2026 reached $25.5 billion, up 5 percent year-over-year, while mass beauty grew 7 percent to $57.4 billion.
In prestige, skin care and hair care were tied as top growth categories — both rose 7 percent in dollar sales — though skin care units grew double digits, making skin the biggest category by overall gains.
“Prestige skin care is bringing in the most volume of any [prestige] categories,” said Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry adviser for Circana, adding that the growth is in part due to 2025 having been a softer year for skin care, which made the category poised for a comeback, and increasing interest in devices and K-beauty treatments and serums. (Case in point, even though K-beauty brands comprise just 8 percent of the $2.6 billion prestige antiaging market, they represent 40 percent of the gains in the category, Jensen said).
Elsewhere in prestige, fragrance sales rose 5 percent and makeup grew 3 percent, with the latter mainly driven by demand for complexion products like concealer, blush and bronzer, and a return to growth for lip color and eye shadow products, indicating a return to more expressive beauty looks.
In the mass market, fragrance grew 15 percent, skin care grew nearly 8 percent, hair grew 6 percent and makeup grew just over 4 percent.
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