Super Premium Beauty and Personal Care in Spain

2021 DEVELOPMENTS

Super premium colour cosmetics and fragrances hit particularly hard by pandemic restrictions

Retail current value sales of super premium beauty and personal care declined by almost a fifth during 2020 and exhibited only a sluggish recovery in 2021. The economic shock of the pandemic had a significant negative effect on consumer confidence, which led many local consumers to trade down from super premium beauty and personal care to premium or even mass offerings.

Demand for super premium skin care cushioned by home indulgence trend and mandatory masking

Demand for super premium skin care was far more robust than either super premium colour cosmetics or super premium fragrances during both 2020 and 2021. Some used super premium skin care to indulge themselves during the lockdowns of 2020 and early 2021, with such brands as Barba Sturm, James Read and Carmen Navarro particularly popular in this regard, while others used these products to help their skin to recover from having to wear masks in enclosed public spaces and on public transport.

With local consumers increasingly comfortable shopping online, e-commerce holds onto most of the gains it made in 2020

With non-essential retail outlets forced to close for an extended period, e-commerce grew significantly in importance as a distribution channel for super premium beauty and personal care during 2020. It held onto most of these gains during 2021, even though physical stores were largely operating normally again.

PROSPECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Skin care will recover faster than colour cosmetics and fragrances

Super premium skin care will continue to recover faster than super premium colour cosmetics and super premium fragrances during the forecast period. While retail constant value sales of super premium skin care will exceed their 2019 peak as soon as 2022, this will not occur in super premium colour cosmetics until 2024 and in super premium fragrances until 2026.

Home working, virtual meetings and mandatory facemasks will continue to weigh on demand for super premium colour cosmetics and fragrances

The working from home and virtual meeting trends appear set to outlast the pandemic, and this will have a negative long-term effect on demand for super premium colour cosmetics and super premium fragrances but not on super premium skin care. The fact that consumers will continue to wear facemasks in many situations, at least during the early part of the forecast period, will continue to dampen demand for super premium colour cosmetics, especially lipsticks.

With some growing more sceptical of super premium offerings, brands will come under increased pressure to innovate

During 2020, some local consumers tried mass beauty and personal care brands for the first time. In at least some cases, this experience was a satisfactory one, and as a result, fewer local consumers are now prepared to pay a hefty premium for beauty and personal care products.