The lipstick index can now be the mascara index. With many people forced to wear a mask in public, consumers have turned to improving their visual game.
Growing consumer interest in eye makeup has been building for months, closely following the rise in mask use since the emergence of COVID-19 earlier this year. In South Korea, eye makeup sales rose 51.8% in March, year-over-year, at Lalavla, the health and beauty store chain operated by GS Retail. Lotte Shopping, which operates department stores and discount stores in South Korea, found high-end beauty brands, such as Dior and Bobbi Brown, that posted 40% sales growth in eye makeup sales in February.
Per Taobao Live, a series of live streaming sessions on creating makeup styles with masks, drew 8.2 million viewers on March 18. February and generated a 150% monthly increase in eyeshadow palette sales that week. “
In the cosmetics sector, lipstick sales saw the biggest drop in the US, with Amazon seeing a 15% decline, compared to a 5% increase for eye cosmetics in the four weeks before April 11. Sheena Yaitanes, founder of Kosas Cosmetics, a clean beauty brand with cult following and celebrities and sold at Sephora and Goop, says the company saw a 12% increase in sales of its eye category from January to August.
“The biggest thing we’ve seen is an acceleration of a trend that we were already seeing in 2019, which was a change from the complicated, layered and ultra-precise beauty looks that had taken over all of our feeds in previous years.
But it may not only be mascara mandates that fuel interest in eye makeup, but also the desire to look polished for video calls and meetings, suggests Gayitri Budhraja, e.l.f. vice president of brand. Cosmetic products.
“I think this is because women put more emphasis on the appearance of their eyes with the masking mandates instead,” says Emily Raburn, owner of several Amazing Lash Studio locations in Texas. Before the pandemic, Raburn says that sales at all of its locations were on an upward trend, reaching membership numbers never seen before. After the reopening, it took a minimum of 60 days for the numbers to stabilize again. But since the pandemic began, Raburn says his business has seen about a 46% increase in leads from year to year and a 22% increase in digital leads since March.
“Due to mandates in most states today, I think tabs are becoming even more popular now than before the pandemic,” says Raburn.
Right now, all Amazing Lash Studio locations are left open for indoor services, with the exception of California, where services were discontinued in July as COVID-19 cases. However, many franchise managers are doing their best and eyelash extension services can be provided outside the studio walls.
This requires salon managers to be more strategic in scheduling appointments, including using staggered hours to avoid meetings in the reception area.
