UK sales of skincare set to rise 15% over the next five years

The facial skincare segment is booming, with British women spending £1.15 billion on products in 2017, and that figure is set to rise 15% to £1.36bn by 2023. Sales are predicted to rise 3% by the end of 2018 to reach £1.18bn, according to analyst Mintel’s Women’s Facial Skincare UK 2018 report.

Facial cleansing has been the main driver of growth, with 92% of women now using cleansers. Face wash came out top in the cleansing category, with 54% of women using it, compared with 45% in 2017, while sales of cleansing wipes increased from 45% to 54% in the same period.

Use of day creams also boomed, increasing from 59% to 66% in the past 12 months, while night moisturiser sales rose from 39% to 48% in the same period. Unsurprisingly, micellar water has also risen in popularity, with an increase from 19% to 27%, the report found. However, when quizzed about what external factors affect their skin, only 72% believe sun exposure has the greatest impact, with less than half (47%) using products that contain SPF.

Pollution (41%) came out as one of the biggest perceivced skin irritants, followed by cold weather (39%).

When it comes to internal influences, sleep is considered to have the biggest impact on the appearance of skin (62%), followed by diet (54%) and water consumption (46%).