Teen Spending on Beauty Rises with ELF and Olaplex Among Leading Brands

Teens are spending more money—and that’s good news for the beauty business.

Piper Sandler Companies' 43rd semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey, which highlights discretionary spending trends and brand preferences, found that overall teen spending was up 9% Y/Y, and that the “core beauty wallet” rose 10% Y/Y.

The survey, in partnership with DECA, included 7,100 teens across 44 US states with an average age of 16.2 years. This year’s Spring 2022 survey was conducted from February 16 to March 22.

Females continue to lead the growth in not only fashion spending (clothing +15%, footwear +16%), but also continue to lead in the shift to digital with 95% of upper-income females shopping online vs 91% of males, according to the survey data, found Piper Sandler.

The core beauty wallet (cosmetics, skincare, fragrance) stood at $264/year, up 10% Y/Y led by fragrance (+33% Y/Y). Female teens everyday use of makeup also continues to trend upward, according to the survey data.  Skincare held the highest priority of spending in the beauty wallet at $107, followed by cosmetics at $94 and haircare at $90.  

In the survey, 60% of females said they read ingredients in beauty products. Further, 88% would pay more for “clean” and 58% would pay more for “science-backed.”

Olaplex was the No. 1 preferred haircare brand among females with 11% mindshare and 15% share among upper- income females. e.l.f. rose to the No. 1 preferred makeup brand for all teens for the first time–-gaining 300 bps Y/Y and displacing Maybelline.

Ulta remained the No. 1 preferred beauty destination with 48% mindshare (46% LY) while Sephora remained at No. 2 and ceded 400 bps of share, said Piper Sandler.

World Events

According to the survey, GenZ is known to be a conscious generation, and teens this Spring cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine as their top concern, pushing the environment to No. 2. gas prices showed up as the No. 4 concern, and when combined with inflation, would have ranked No. 1.

Social Channels

“Teens continue to spend roughly four hours a day on social media as TikTok surpassed Snapchat as their favorite social media platform for the first time. While Amazon still remains the No. 1 website—it did see mindshare slip Y/Y driven by female teens’ mindshare dropping 1,200 bps Y/Y. Interestingly, 26% of teens own a Virtual Reality device, however just 17% use it on a weekly basis,” said Nicole Miller Regan, senior research analyst.