During the month of September, Premise Data, the San Francisco-based data and analytics company, surveyed a network of 500 female contributors across the United States and asked them a series of questions related to their use of beauty and personal hygiene products.
The goal was to learn how product use and shopping behavior changed during the COVID-19 pandemic — and why.
Nearly 39% of respondents reported their make-up and personal hygiene routines have changed because of local mask-wearing policies. In many places, using a face mask is essential or even the law. With face masks covering half of our faces for most of the day, it’s no wonder why make-up usage has gone down. Working from home has also become more normal, meaning we’re seeing fewer people. Around 55% said they will not or are not yet sure that they will return to their normal makeup routine, suggesting the pandemic may have fundamentally altered women’s relationships with beauty products.
Here’s what else we learned:
• The use of make-up is down by roughly 10%.
• Before COVID-19 55.8% of respondents said they used make-up every day, but as of September 30, just 44.4% are daily users.
• Before COVID-19, 61.6% of respondents said they used hair care products every day, but as of September that number dropped to 55.8%.
• The use of oral-care products and deodorant/antiperspirant products has remained steady.
• Before the pandemic, the most used make-up product was mascara but as of September, mascara use has dropped by 12 percentage points.
• The top spot on the makeup front is now held by lip balm, which 48% use daily.
Our survey respondents are also using fewer products on any given day:
• Prior to the pandemic, the majority of respondents said they used an average of 3-5 personal products per day.
• As of September, 38.8% of respondents say they now use between 0-2 personal care products per day.
• Before the pandemic, 31.8% of people said they used 0-2 products per day.
• Before the pandemic, 19% of people used 5-7 products per day while now just 13.8% of people say the same.
• 17% say they are no longer wearing any makeup at all. Only 16% say they are wearing more makeup than they did six months ago.
At GGA HQ:
- Pajamas and sweatpants have remained our lewk since March
- We still love lip balm (and are long time Hurraw Lip Balm purists..)
- Make up happens nearly never now
- The only items in our beauty regime we’ve continued to use regularly are moisturizers and face masks
How about you?
(*there’s a link to Hurraw above that may earn us a commission via amazon affiliates. We’re only sharing it because we’re personally obsessed with it, and not because we want your .02 cents. ;)
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash