Spending on health and beauty products is booming despite cost of living pressures as consumers increasingly consider make-up and perfume to be as essential as groceries. While retail sales as a whole grew by only 0.1 per cent year-on-year in August, spending on health and beauty was up 7.
3 per cent — significantly higher than non-essential spending overall, which was up 0.7 per cent, according to Barclays. A quarter of shoppers, or 23 per cent, say they have been cutting back on buying clothing and accessories, with Barclays transaction data showing clothing was down 1.
7 per cent last month. But almost half of consumers, at 46 per cent, say they consider health and beauty purchases as “essential” — a category which typically includes priority spending such as groceries and childcare..
