Europe is the largest market for cosmetic products. Export is the main driver of this sector. Cosmetics Europe, at the annual conference held in Brussels on June 13th and 14th 2018, released data on the cosmetic market.

Cosmetics Europe

Numbers

  • The European cosmetic market arrives at € 77.6 billion, with a grew of 1.3% compared to 2016;
  • There are over 2 million employees in Europe that works across the cosmetic chain
  • The lower performance of some key markets such as the United Kingdom (-6.8%), the Netherlands (-1.9%) and the French one (-0.5%) influenced the growth trend.
  • Skin care and toiletries remain the most important categories of products, followed by hair care and fragrances
  • Only perfumes (-0.4%) and make-up (-0.1%) decreased slightly compared to the previous year.

Export

In this context of moderate growth, international trade remains a key factor for the industry. More than 20.2 billion euros of cosmetics have been exported from European countries in 2017 (compared to 18.2 billion in 2016). Total imports amounted to just 5.935 million euros, mainly from the United States, China and Japan (compared to 5.633 million euros in 2016). More than ever, exports appear as the real driver of the growth of the European cosmetics industry.