The United States Beauty And Personal Care Products Market size is estimated at USD 93.74 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 106.74 billion by 2029. In the United States, beauty products like cosmetics are growing owing to a huge demand for organic and natural products. Consumers are more aware of skincare, grooming, and physical appearance because of social and environmental concerns. Also, due to skin sensitivity issues and allergies, consumers’ preference for organic and vegan skincare products has increased. The surge in new product innovations, increasing demand for chemical-free products, and advertising and promotion of products are driving the market. Market players are innovating organic skincare and personal care products according to consumer preferences.

A larger proportion of the millennial population in the United States also serves as a market driver. The millennial generation accounts for the majority of the working population in the country. For daily usage, personal care products like deodorants, perfumes, and cosmetics have become necessary as physical appearance is essential. The market players target consumers of specific age groups and launch new products. Americans are engaged in physical activities like going to the gym and fitness centers. Due to this, demand for personal care products like deodorants has also increased.

Consumer spending on cosmetics and other personal care products has witnessed a rise. Due to the increase in advertising and promotional activities, consumers in the United States are purchasing these cosmetics. Furthermore, advertising is frequently targeted at a specific age group, such as adolescents or aging women, to influence and target specific population groups. Due to frequent product innovation on the market, consumers are being introduced to new types of products and are trying them out. Consumers generally want to ensure that they buy products that suit their skin or hair type, and thus, product trials are important in the cosmetics market.

Estée Lauder Companies, L’Oréal S.A., Unilever PLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company, and Procter & Gamble Company are among the major players in the US beauty and personal care products market. The market is highly competitive, with players actively competing in terms of new product launches, mergers and acquisitions, expansions, and partnerships. Additionally, leading players are investing heavily in research and development to come up with product innovations. In the market studied, major brands are launching or acquiring portfolios that claim to be natural, organic, and sustainable to have higher penetration across retail shelves and online channels.

When did the beauty industry get so big?

Women have been coloring their hair since ancient times. Egyptians used henna to turn their grey hair to red. The Greeks and Romans used saffron, gold dust, blended flowers and other plant and animal products to embellish their hair with various color tints. The combinations used were natural but the results were short-lived. Chemicals would soon enter common practice: lead for dark-colored hair and sulfuric acid for light-colored hair. They produced better results but they were dangerous to the health of people using them and often even lethal.

Everything changed when French chemist and pharmacist Eugène Schueller invented the first synthetic risk-free hair dye for women in 1907. He used para-phenylenediamine (PPD), a chemical discovered in the previous century and named his innovation “Oréal.” Two years later, he founded the French Company of Inoffensive Hair Dyes, the company that was to become the L’Oréal Group.

Eugène Schueller set out to conquer the international market and established a network of sales reps around the globe. His innovative hair dyes were sold to hairdressers and later, pharmacies. In the following years, he developed new products: Dop, the first modern shampoo without soap (1934) and Ambre Solaire, the first tanning oil containing a sun filter (1935).

Schueller’s success was powered by his ability to understand the needs and anticipate the expectations of customers. L’Oréal revolutionized the market for women’s hair dyes allowing women greater opportunities for self-expression. Today 75% of American women and 60% of European women dye their hair compared to only 7% in the 1950s. Schueller understood early on that technology-driven innovation was the answer to solving customers’ needs effectively and efficiently. Being the first helped build the L’Oréal brand and establish a strong relationship with the customers.

There have been many people and brands that have left their mark on the history of the cosmetics and skin care industry. Here are just a few of the early notable brands and people in the history of the modern cosmetics/beauty industry; over time companies will come and go:

• Estée Lauder. The company Estée Lauder was founded in 1946 by husband and wife Joseph and Estée Lauder. Estée or Esty as she was called, showed an early interest in the business of her chemist uncle – selling products like cold cream, lip rouge, and fragrances. After a few years she set up a counter in a newly opened salon to sell her products and by 1948 she had gotten her first order to sell cosmetics in Saks Fifth Avenue which led to increased exposure and eventually national recognition. Estée Lauder cosmetics were sold primarily at department stores.
• Revlon. Charles Revson is known as a founder of Revlon. In his early career, Revson sold nail enamel and experience proved to him that the nail enamel business had a future. In March of 1932 he, along with his brother Joseph and a man named Charles Lachman, started Revlon.
• Helena Rubenstein. Helena Rubinstein, arrived in New York in 1915 after having established successful beauty salons in Paris, London and Melbourne. One of her early innovations was the concept of classifying women’s skin into four groups – oily, dry, combination, and normal – and creating products for each.
• Elizabeth Arden. Elizabeth Arden was introduced to the beauty industry in nursing school when she became interested in the work of a biochemist who worked on cream for skin blemishes. She moved to New York and got a job in a beauty salon and eventually developed her own products, marketing them under the name Elizabeth Arden. Her first store opened in 1910 and marked the beginning of the company as well as its signature look with an attention-grabbing red door. After a a trip to Paris during World War I, where she discovered that French women were wearing mascara and eye shadow, she bought back samples and eventually incorporating color cosmetics in her product line.
• Mary Kay. Mary Kay was founded by Mary Kay Ash in 1963 as Beauty by Mary Kay. She started with a small store front but decided that women would rather purchase products in a relaxed home environment. Eventually, the company became well known for its direct sales model and the signature pink.
• Avon. But before Mary Kay there was Avon founded by David McConnell as the California Perfume Company in 1886.  Originally the company only sold perfumes with a staff female sales agents who brought the products directly to women’s homes. In 1928 the company introduced the Avon line of cosmetics and toiletries, and eventually the Avon name became so popular that in 1939, McConnell’s son and successor changed the company name to Avon.
• Annie T. Malone. Annie T. Malone began to experiment and develop her own products and eventually made a fortune manufacturing and selling skin and hair care products. Her products became so in demand she opened her own shop in the early 1900s and as her business grew, she utilized selling agents going door-to-door. She also founded Poro College in 1918 to teach African American cosmetology and the college did well until the late 1920s.
• Madam C. J. Walker. Madam C. J. Walker initially got her start in St. Louis selling for Annie T. Malone but went out on her own establishing herself and her business in Denver and Pittsburgh. In 1910, she moved all operations to Indianapolis where the business was known as the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company with the star product being Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower. This company was run by and catered to the beauty needs of African American women, and like Malone’s company, utilized door-to-door sales quite effectively.
• Fashion Fair Cosmetics. This company was launched in 1973 by the Johnson Publishing Company, publishers of Ebony and Jet magazines and was an outgrowth of the traveling Ebony Fashion Fair shows. It was a line of cosmetics, a makeup line exclusively for Black and brown women.
• Bliss and Soap & Glory. These brands as well as Soaper Duper and Beauty Pie, were found by Maria Kilgore, proving that women are still taking lead in the beauty industry.

Are beauty products harmless?

Chemicals and contaminants linked to cancer can be found in food, water and many other everyday products. However, no category of consumer products is subject to less government oversight than cosmetics and other personal care products. Although many of the chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics and personal care products likely pose little risk, exposure to some has been linked to serious health problems, including cancer.

Since 2009, 595 cosmetics manufacturers have reported using 88 chemicals, in more than 73,000 products, that have been linked to cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.

Many of these chemicals should be banned from cosmetics, as proposed in California Assembly Bill 2762, the Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act. Among the toxic chemicals that should be banned are:

• Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
• Paraformaldehyde, a type of formaldehyde.
• Methylene glycol, a type of formaldehyde.
• Quaternium 15, which releases formaldehyde.
• Mercury, which can damage the kidneys and nervous system.
• Dibutyl and diethylhexyl phthalates, which disrupt hormones and damage the reproductive system.
• Isobutyl and isopropyl parabens, which disrupt hormones and harm the reproductive system.
• The long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS, which have been linked to cancer.
• M- and o-phenylenediamine, used in hair dyes, which irritate and sensitize the skin, damage DNA and can cause cancer.

All of these toxic chemicals have been banned by the European Union and many other nations, and many have been slated for removal from the store brands of major U.S. retailers, including Target, Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS Health For example, as of the end of 2019, CVS Health prohibits the use of formaldehyde, many chemicals that release formaldehyde, many parabens, dibutyl phthalate and diethylhexyl phthalate. Some of these are already banned from products sold in Whole Foods.

Consumers use a wide variety of cosmetics and personal care products. Few consumer products contribute as many chemical exposures as cosmetics and other personal care products. Each day, American women use an average of 12 personal care products that contain 168 different chemicals. Men use an average of six personal care products that contain 85 different chemicals.Many of these products are applied directly to the skin, the body’s largest organ, where ingredients can be absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

Although most chemicals in cosmetics pose little or no risk, some have been linked to serious health problems, including cancer, reproductive and neurological harm, and developmental delays. Cosmetic chemicals enter the body through the skin, inhalation, ingestion and internal use, and pose the same risks as food chemicals. In addition to the risks posed by intentionally added ingredients, cosmetics can be contaminated with heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and nickel.

Some chemicals used in personal care products pose risks at very low doses and can interfere with the hormone system. Research shows that “endocrine disrupting” chemicals such as parabens and phthalates may pose the greatest risk during prenatal and early postnatal development, when organ and neural systems form. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to endocrine diseases and some types of cancer. For example, endocrine disruptors are known to affect how women’s bodies use estrogen and thus have been linked to breast cancer. Research has also shown that endocrine disruptors can harm the immune system – an effect that makes us more susceptible to disease and viruses.

Many cosmetics have also been linked to acute risks, including burns and infections. Formaldehyde-based hair-straightening procedures, referred to as “keratin treatments,” have been linked to hair loss, rashes, blisters, nosebleeds, bleeding gums and loss of taste and smell. Other cosmetics have caused hair loss.

The FDA continues to find cosmetics contaminated with bacteria, including body wash, face powders, shadows and lotions, or containing banned colors chemicals, including shampoos, soaps, cleaners and temporary tattoos.

Under the current law, the FDA has little authority to review chemicals in cosmetics and other personal care products. Personal care products companies do not have to register with the FDA, provide the FDA with ingredient statements, adopt Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMPs, report adverse events to the FDA, or provide the FDA with access to safety records.

The FDA does not have the power to suspend registration or order recalls when products pose a risk of serious adverse health consequences or death. By contrast, manufacturers of food, drugs and medical devices must register with the FDA, maintain and give the FDA access to records and report adverse events. If food, drugs or devices are unsafe, the FDA can suspend production and product licenses. If unsafe food or devices reach the market, the FDA can order a recall and take legal action against drug-makers that do not recall their products.

Of more than 10,000 chemicals used to formulate cosmetics, just 11 have ever been banned or restricted by the federal Food and Drug Administration. By contrast, the FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have broad authority to ensure the safety of chemicals in other consumer products.

Is the beauty industry avoiding responsibility?

There’s reason for concern about many of the chemicals in popular personal care products on the market today. Case in point: a study published online Dec. 3, 2019, by the International Journal of Cancer found a link between hair dye and breast cancer. Women in the study who used permanent hair dye at least once in the 12-month period leading up to the study had a 9% higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who didn’t use hair dye. And when the study authors broke the findings down by race, they found an even higher risk for African American women. Women in that group who used any permanent dye in the previous 12 months had a 45% higher risk of developing breast cancer compared with women who did not use hair dye. It didn’t seem to matter how often or for how many years the women had used the dye.

A number of everyday hair and body products – including deodorant sprays, dry shampoos and sunscreens – have been found to contain elevated levels of benzene, a cancer-causing chemical. Benzene is a common chemical used in manufacturing and also found in cigarette smoke, gasoline, detergents and paint. We are routinely exposed to low levels from vehicle exhaust, factory emissions and other sources.

In the US, overall cancer rates have declined in recent years, but certain types of cancer – including those of the thyroid, liver and skin – are on the rise, according to the latest government data. And while the rate of cancer diagnoses among men is decreasing, rates for women have remained stable since 2008.

Known or suspected carcinogens like formaldehyde – found in some keratin hair treatments, body soap and nail polish – and coal tar – found in some hair dyes and shampoo – are of top concern in beauty products. So are heavy metals, like lead found in lipsticks and clay-based products, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals like parabens and phthalates, among others.

Personal care products – daily shampoo and conditioners, nail polish, moisturizers, perfumes, etc – have particularly lax regulation in the US. While the EU has banned or restricted more than 1,300 chemicals in cosmetics alone, the US has outlawed just 11 toxic ingredients. There are currently no legal requirements for cosmetic manufacturers to test their products before selling them to consumers. If consumers are harmed, there’s little the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulatory body supposedly protecting consumers, can do; the agency can merely request a company issue a voluntary recall.

Though the FDA requires cosmetics to have an “ingredient declaration”, toxic chemicals can still lurk in commonly used products. Fragrance formulations, for example, are considered a “trade secret” and thus protected from disclosure to regulators or manufacturers, meaning that the 4,000 chemicals currently used to scent products in the US – some of which cause irritation, endocrine disruption, or are linked to cancer – never make it to the label.

Unfortunately, because the chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products are largely unregulated, it’s difficult to give advice about which products to choose. Many ingredients in these products are untested, and some chemicals may not even be listed on product labels. The best we can do is highlight types of products to avoid and things to look out for.

• Choose fragrance-free products. Hidden fragrance chemicals can include hormone-disrupting phthalates and allergens. Be wary of products marketed as “unscented,” as these products may have chemicals added to mask odors. Choose products that are labeled “fragrance-free” instead.
• Avoid products labeled waterproof or long-wearing. Be cautious of foundations, lipsticks, and mascaras that are labeled waterproof or long-wearing, as these are more likely to contain PFAS. A recent study found that most cosmetics that contained PFAS did not disclose PFAS on ingredients lists. 
• Watch out for carcinogenic formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in a wide range of products. The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) found high levels of formaldehyde in cosmetics and personal care products marketed to people of color, including hair styling gels and creams, leave-in conditioners, and lotions and creams. Ecology found formaldehyde in 24 products above 200 parts per million (ppm), which is “high enough to cause allergic reactions in some individuals.”