Marketing News

Gen Alpha & Millennials Lead Beauty Market

A select set of consumers are driving business so far in 2025.

The beauty industry’s resilience continues to shine—and a select set of consumers are driving business so far in 2025.

According to Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry advisor, Circana, among CPG and prestige retailers in the U.S., beauty outperformed total store sales across the remaining industries in 2024 – and in many cases drove stronger total store growth – showcasing that when beauty performs well, other industries rise.

Even as economic sentiment declines, U.S. consumers continue to turn to beauty products and the industry outlook is positive for 2025. Generational impacts on overall market trends and other dynamics will drive the positive momentum in the coming year.

Gen Alpha

In addition to Gen X, another key consumer group is Gen Alpha. They burst onto the beauty scene a little over a year ago and their enthusiasm has only accelerated. Higher income households with children under 18-years-old have grown their spending on beauty products three-times faster than everyone else.

Millennials

Millennials continue to drive shifts and trends in the market as they age and their needs and priorities change. One example is in makeup, where Millennials are showing the largest drop in usage, which contributed to the slowdown in sales performance across the mass and prestige markets. This cohort has also shown the biggest pullback in their discretionary spending across multiple industries outside of beauty.

Within beauty, they remain engaged overall, but if their behavior across other industries is any indication, they may have to make different choices in the coming year regarding their beauty spend. Identifying ways to encourage continued engagement from Millennials will be key to ensuring industry success, said Jensen.

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