Focus on color: A snapshot of French and American beauty trends

Spate’s latest report reveals the behavioral specificities emerging from each market. Based on their latest: Hair & Makeup Trends Report for France & the USA (July 2022), Cosmetics Inspiration & Creation has identified three major takeaways:

The rise of warm red tones for hair color

In both countries, warm red tones dominate search volume changes. In France, searches for ginger hair are up +2.0K. The rise of searches for burgundy immediately follows with +1.3K, then come auburn (+1K) and copper (+0.7k). While red is the warmest color for French consumers, rising interest in babylights (+1.1K) also suggests a desire for subtlety. Likewise, in the US, red hair is the most searched color for hair with a volume increase of +213.4K. Red is followed by copper (+36.2K), auburn (+35.8K), ginger (+32.3K) and red highlights (+29.0K), all of them featuring in the top ten.

Across both countries consumers are using more nuanced search descriptors to find their desired hair shade, often searching for various colors alongside red hair, demonstrating a growing desire for tonal color with dimension and depth - as well as suggesting a desire for individuality.

As Cosmetics Inspiration & Creation noted from the previous report on the US/France skincare market, French consumers lean into the classics - and the hair color category is no exception, with L’Oréal holding out as the most searched-for brand. On the other hand, US consumers appear to be more open to challenger brands, such as oVertone Haircare (+1.4K), Adore Hair Color (+350) and Creme of Nature (+260), which top out as the brands with the greatest search volume increase YoY.

Lipstick at the center of interest

Lipsticks score high by search volume increase in both countries (+14% in France, +37,5% in the US). It is therefore not surprising that lipstick sales have seen a +28% rise in Q2 -2022 in the US according to NPD.

Long-wear and glossy are at the top of the list for French consumers (+1.7K and +1.1K respectively), while shine (+35.2K) and lasting (+16.1K) score highest for the US, according to Spate.

Interestingly for a country so defined by its love of the classics, magic/colour-changing lipstick is a rising category for French consumers, breaking into the top three most-searched-for benefits with an increase of +770 YoY.

Eyeliners shift from classic to contemporary

Searches for eyeliner are up by +8.9% in France and +11% in the USA. While white and brown eyeliners are owning overall search volume in both territories, blue eyeliner is also increasingly growing on the consumer radar (+230 in France and +19.1K in the US). Green is also breaking through in the US at +12.5K, with classic black dropping into third place for both countries.

The Cosmetics Inspiration & Creation analysis

French consumers are slowly shifting away from the classics, and are exhibiting growing interest in on-trend, contemporary colors and formulations. The uptick in searches for more niche lipstick benefits (such as ‘color-changing’, ‘waterproof’ and ‘sheer’) present opportunities for brands to inspire with innovative new concepts.

What is emerging is a shift towards greater expressions of individuality, which is apparent in growing searches for nuanced hair colors and bolder eyeliners.

Download the full report here.