Beauty industry growth slowed from 43% in 2024 to just 5% in 2025. For brands that rely heavily on the makeup category, that shift raises an urgent question: Is makeup performance slowing across the board, or are some brands still finding growth while others decline?
The answer determines where you invest next. Makeup represents an average of 68% of total brand performance across beauty segments—and for some brands, it’s as high as 93%. When a dominant category is impacted by an overall slowing industry, understanding which product types are growing and which are contracting becomes critical for making smart budget decisions in 2026.
That’s where detailed category analysis comes in. In our latest report, The Beauty Industry Growth Playbook, we analyzed performance across makeup, skincare, haircare and fragrance, breaking down how each category performs within six market segments: Mass Market, Luxury, Prestige, Star-led, Clinical and Indie.
In this blog, we’re taking a closer look at makeup specifically. Using Media Impact Value® (MIV®)—Launchmetrics’ proprietary metric that assigns monetary value to brand mentions across Influencers, Celebrities, Media, Owned Media and Partners—we tracked the top 10 brands in each segment between Q1-Q3 2025 to understand where makeup is still delivering growth and where it’s losing ground.
Here’s what the data reveals and how to use it to benchmark your brand’s position.
Understanding Beauty Segments
Before diving into makeup performance, here’s how we defined the six segments analyzed in this report:
These segments allow brands to benchmark against the right competitors by positioning and strategy.
Makeup’s Share by Segment
Here’s how much of each segment’s total MIV comes from makeup categories:
- Star-led and Indie brands are heavily dependent on makeup; if growth in this category slows, their entire business feels it.
- Mass Market and Prestige have more balanced portfolios, giving them flexibility.
- Luxury balances makeup with fragrance.
- Clinical brands are the outlier: makeup is a small part of their mix, but growing fast.
How to benchmark your brand:
Compare against segments with similar makeup concentration. For instance, a prestige brand with 80% makeup share is more aligned with indie brands (88%) than with luxury brands (63%), making the strategic comparison clearer and easier to act on.
Makeup Growth by Segment (Q1 vs Q3 2025)
Clinical leads growth: Makeup grew 40% for clinical brands, the strongest performance across all segments. These brands already dominate skincare, representing 82% of their total MIV, and have built consumer trust through science-backed positioning. Now they’re extending that trust into makeup categories, positioning complexion products as skin health, rather than just color.
Mass Market stays stable: At +1%, Mass Market makeup holds steady. This segment benefits from scale and wide distribution: makeup represents 72% of total MIV and even flat growth at that volume represents significant market presence.
Prestige holds flat: Zero growth for prestige makeup. For a segment where makeup accounts for 80% of MIV, flat performance means defending share. Prestige sits in the middle: more premium than mass market and more accessible than luxury.
Indie contracts slightly: Indie makeup declined 1%, a minor dip for a segment where makeup drives 88% of performance. The challenge: maintaining that focused identity while scaling beyond their core offerings.
Luxury contracts: Luxury makeup declined 5%. At 63% makeup concentration, luxury has the most balanced category portfolio across segments meaning makeup alone doesn’t define their performance the way it does for star-led or indie brands.
Star-led declines slightly. Star-led makeup fell 2%. At 93% of total MIV, makeup is still the dominant driver but the dip signals cooling momentum. Sustaining makeup performance means the category itself needs to deliver through product innovation, not just celebrity association.
Which Voices Drive Makeup Performance?
When makeup growth slows or contracts, the brands that maintain share are the ones using the right Voice mix for their positioning. Different segments require different approaches—what works for mass market doesn’t mean it will work the same for star-led brands and vice versa. Here’s how Voice strategies vary by segment and what that means for your approach:
- Influencers are the only Voice leading in YoY growth across Prestige (+1%), Clinical (+22%) and Luxury (+5%). This confirms creators continue to drive makeup discovery and consideration across segments.
- Celebrity Voices in Mass Market generate the highest MIV per placement at 1.3x the industry average. L’Oréal Paris proved this at Cannes when Rebecca Armstrong’s post delivered $1.9M in MIV and exceeded the brand’s owned activations.
- Star-led brands are shifting to Owned Media, as founder visibility dropped by 8% YoY on average. Rare Beauty is one brand that reflects this shift, achieving $79.6M in Owned Media MIV and $50.1K per placement.
- Indie brands rely on Media for credibility, as they look to translate niche credibility into mainstream authority. For example, Merit Beauty saw a 39% YoY increase in Media-driven MIV, with 98% of the brand’s Brandon Maxwell collaboration MIV coming from Media coverage during NYFW.
How to Use These Makeup Insights to Future-Proof Your Strategy
Makeup performance is diverging by segment and that gap will widen in 2026. The brands that get ahead are the ones using these insights to make smarter decisions about where to invest next. Here’s how to apply this data when planning your strategy:
1. Compare against the right segment, not just the industry average.
When you break down your brand performance by category, you might find makeup represents 90% of your total impact (as it does for most star-led brands). If that’s the case, comparing against the industry average of 68% won’t help. You need to benchmark against brands with similar category concentration to understand if you’re gaining or losing ground. Want to see how your brand performs across makeup, skincare, fragrance and haircare categories? Explore our Beauty Category Insights Hub to access category-specific benchmarking and competitor analysis.
2. Track makeup performance monthly
Clinical makeup grew 40% while luxury declined 5% in the same period. Waiting until year-end to assess category performance means missing shifts that could inform Q4 strategy. Instead, tracking on a monthly basis lets you adjust Voice strategies, campaign focus and budget allocation in real time.
3. Use Voice data to understand what’s driving (or not driving) your makeup performance.
Influencers drove growth in Prestige, Clinical and Luxury segments, but Mass Market Celebrities delivered the highest efficiency per placement. If your makeup performance is flat, the issue might not be the category—it might be which Voices you’re activating and how.
4. Identify category expansion opportunities by segment.
If you’re in a segment with high makeup concentration (80%+), look at how adjacent segments are expanding into your core categories and what positioning they’re using to differentiate.
Get Full Insights into the Beauty Industry
The brands maintaining or gaining share in 2026 will be the ones using detailed makeup product insights to benchmark performance, identify gaps and adjust faster than competitors.
Want to see where your brand ranks across segments, Voices and categories? Download the Beauty Industry Growth Playbook for full benchmarking data and actionable strategies to guide your 2026 planning.
By Luna Weissman
