Health and beauty no longer behaves like a typical discretionary retail category.

Consumers may be cutting back elsewhere, but many continue to protect spending that supports confidence, wellbeing and self-care. The bigger story is not simply resilience. It is redefinition.

Spending is moving out of the 'treat' basket and closer to everyday essentials. At the same time, the category itself is expanding - beyond looking better to feeling, ageing and performing better.

So where is spending moving, and what does that mean for consumer businesses?

Consumers are protecting health and beauty spending

The resilience of health and beauty is often explained by the 'lipstick effect'. When confidence is weak, consumers still allow themselves small, affordable luxuries.

That helped cosmetics outperform much of retail during the cost-of-living crisis. While retail sales weakened across much of the market, cosmetics continued to outperform pre-pandemic levels, supported by more accessible, high-quality own-brand products. This resilience was evident again in H1 2026, when cosmetics sales volumes rose sharply despite renewed pressure on consumer confidence from rising fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict, while wider retail sales remained relatively flat.

But the lipstick effect no longer tells the whole story. Our latest consumer research suggests that health and beauty's resilience reflects something more fundamental than the appeal of affordable luxuries.

As household budgets come under pressure, consumers are becoming more selective about where they spend, with health and beauty increasingly prioritised over other discretionary categories.

In August, net spending intentions stood at -18% for clothing and -26% for eating out, compared with just -8% for health and beauty.

Health and beauty is not immune to pressure on household budgets, but consumers appear less willing to cut back in this area than on other discretionary purchases. This suggests the category is becoming a more protected part of household spending.

For younger consumers, beauty already feels essential

Changing beauty norms and generational attitudes are accelerating a shift from discretionary purchase to everyday priority.

60% of consumers consider at least one beauty, grooming or wellness category to be essential. That rises to 67% among Millennials and 72% among Gen Z.

For digital-native consumers, appearance, self-expression and wellbeing are highly visible parts of everyday life. Health and beauty can therefore feel less like a luxury and more like an investment in confidence, identity and self-care.

What’s key for businesses is the runway for growth younger consumers provide, as they help redefine where health and beauty sits in the essential spending basket.

Consumers are buying outcomes, not routines

The traditional beauty routine has not disappeared. It now sits alongside a wider market spanning supplements, wellness products, technology, treatments and clinical interventions.

More than a third of consumers (34%) purchased health or beauty supplements in the past year. Health supplements alone were purchased by 29% of respondents, making them the second most purchased category in the survey after haircare.

Interest in collagen and other beauty supplements reflects the growth of 'inside-out beauty'. Consumers are increasingly connecting what they consume with how they look and feel.

Technology is extending the category further still. Beauty devices such as LED masks and microcurrent tools were purchased by 6% of consumers in the past year, rising above 10% in households earning more than £60,000.

Rather than replacing professional treatments, at-home technology appears to complement them. Almost half (45%) of beauty device buyers also invested in treatments such as cosmetic dentistry, laser treatments or injectables, compared with 16% of other beauty buyers – pointing to a broader, outcome-led beauty regime spanning products, technology and treatments.

Clinical beauty is moving towards the mainstream

Health and beauty’s expanding market now extends into clinical interventions. From cosmetic dentistry and GLP-1 medications, to injectables, laser treatments, non-surgical contouring and cosmetic surgery.

Typically associated with more affluent consumers, more than a quarter of households earning £60,000 or more have invested in at least one clinical category in the past year. This is compared with one in ten households earning under £30,000.

However, the data suggests that adoption is not being driven by wealth alone.

In the past year, 16% of UK consumers have spent on at least one of these categories. This rises to 30% of Gen Z and 29% of 25–34-year-olds, suggesting that clinical and aesthetic interventions are becoming part of younger consumers’ wider approach to appearance and wellbeing.

GLP-1 use shows how activity in one area can influence spending elsewhere. One in ten current or recent users’ reports spending more on beauty and aesthetic treatments. That does not establish cause and effect, but it does point to a more interconnected market in the future.

How younger consumers could reshape the health and beauty market

Younger consumers already have a broader definition of health, beauty and wellbeing. As they move into higher-earning years, the opportunity could grow well beyond today’s market.

For beauty retailers and other consumer businesses, the answer is not simply to sell more products. It is to consider how products, services, expertise and experiences could work together around the outcomes consumers want.

That opportunity comes with responsibility. As beauty moves closer to health and clinical intervention, regulatory, reputational and trust considerations become more important.

The key takeaway for businesses operating in and around the sector is that future growth in health and beauty will depend on combining relevance and innovation with expertise, trust and credibility for these consumers.

To explore what these changes could mean for your business, speak to our consumer markets team.

Latest related insights