Nails | The Death Of Nail Art?

[The Ed.]

While the nail industry remained pretty resilient in the tough financial times, recent figures published by Advertising Age show a bleaker outlook. The once booming business of nail art appears to be dwindling.

Beauty product manufacturer Coty, which produces Sally Hansen and OPI, reported that nail polish sales fell 4 percent in the third quarter of 2013. Sales were up 21 percent in the same quarter last year. Revlon and L'Oreal also report hard time, with polish sales falling 13 percent and 10 percent respectively in October and November.

Is it possible that we've simply all got enough nail polish? Perhaps we're just taking a breather from shelling out some pennies for that quick beauty fix? A Google Trends graph confirms that online interest in nail polish has been on the decline as well, peaking in the U.S. in July 2012.

Consumer Edge Research says that the end of nail art has taken its toll on the entire beauty industry, with growth in the U.S. market falling from 2 percent to 0.9 percent growth between this year’s first and third quarter. Growth was down another 0.5 percent in October, with the decreased sale of nail products and beauty appliances as the leading factor.

Consumer Edge analyst Javier Escalante summed up the falling numbers to AdAge like this, “[Nail art] was a fad.” He also clarifies that, while the nail polish industry has certainly suffered as a whole, it’s those special effects, novelty products — textured and magnetic polishes, crackle top coats, nail art pens, patterned nail wraps, etc. — that have taken the hit worst of all.

So what does this mean? If you're still holding on to your caviar/bubble manis and all the rest of it, then the figures indicate that you're soon going to be on your own.

Until then...geek on!

The Ed.

 

[mrslargelashes]

This is due to the increased popularity of shellac and other uv coatings. Why have polish when you can have shellac???! I know minx have been a flop for me this year but shellac is soaring!

 

[VHunter]

I don't know where they get their numbers, but I'm inclined to think they don't know how to use a calculator.

Nail art is on the UPSWING becoming more popular and mainstream than ever. 70-80yr old women are wearing it now.
I'd venture to say that for the last several years, 95% of my clients wore nail art in one form or another. It is THAT RARE that I do a straight polish or french manicure.
I witness the same trend on FB-pages and sites of my peers.

As for downswing of polish sales... distinctly possible.
Especially given the increasing popularity of Shellac and similar products.
More and more women are opting for salon services versus doing it themselves. So if retail for Shellac and similar is UP, then of course polish will go down. People have found an alternative.
Not difficult to figure out.
HECK until Vinylux came onto the scene, my regular polish was LITERALLY collecting dust since the arrival of Shellac at my table. So yes, I bought less polish HOWEVER I bought every single colour of Shellac, and added gel paints to my collection for free-hand art on top of Shellac (replacing polish and stripers and acrylic paint...)

So my take on that article?
It's bubkus.

 

[lisasnails]

I would have to agree with VHunter on this,clients wanting nail art has been more requested now then ever! Even my regular French clients have been going for nail art and glitter like crazy lately and I have a lot of clients that go hard out in nail art one time and then fairly simple the next but I am constantly buying new colours and glitters, bows etc but on the other hand I never really sell nail polish as my clients just seem to prefer me to paint their toes or nails instead