Spending on health and beauty defies cost of living pressures

Spending on health and beauty products is booming despite cost of living pressures as consumers increasingly consider make-up and perfume to be as essential as groceries.
While retail sales as a whole grew by only 0.1 per cent year-on-year in August, spending on health and beauty was up 7.3 per cent — significantly higher than non-essential spending overall, which was up 0.7 per cent, according to Barclays.
A quarter of shoppers, or 23 per cent, say they have been cutting back on buying clothing and accessories, with Barclays transaction data showing clothing was down 1.7 per cent last month.
But almost half of consumers, at 46 per cent, say they consider health and beauty purchases as “essential” — a category which typically includes priority spending such as groceries and childcare.
The most resilient products over the past three years, those where consumers say they have either increased or not changed their spending, are pharmaceuticals at 68 per cent, hair care on 66 per cent, body care on 62 per cent and fragrances at 54 per cent.
Those aged 18 to 27 have increased their spending on health and beauty by 17.5 per cent over the past 12 months, more than double the rate of growth for those aged 44 to 59 at 6.5 per cent, and triple the rate of 60 to 78-year-olds on 4.7 per cent.
Almost a third of consumers say they are turning to “dupes” — affordable copies of more expensive products.
Fragrances are the most sought-after health and beauty dupe, with 28 per cent of those who buy cheaper copies admitting to spending on imitation scents.
Karen Johnson, head of retail at Barclays, said: “It’s encouraging to see that overall beauty spending has been in growth year-on-year, with August showing the highest level of growth in the past 18 months.
“Our data shows that social media has proven to play a key role in influencing online purchases, a further demonstration of the rising commercial importance of these platforms.”
Maura Higgins, for example, an Irish television personality, who was a finalist on the fifth series of the ITV2 reality series Love Island, has collaborated with numerous fashion and make-up brands.