What you need to know

The COVID-19 pandemic has lifted the once sluggish nail color and care market. In the absence of salons during lockdowns, even consumers who typically rely on professional salon services took a DIY approach to their routines, growing sales across segments. However, category frustrations still exist and challenge sustained market growth post-pandemic. Brands have the opportunity to use the current momentum to make headway on category hurdles, especially when it comes to product application methods and at-home results.

Key issues covered in this Report

  • The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior and the nail color and care market

  • How the market will fare in a post-COVID-19 down economy

  • Motivations and barriers toward at-home care post-pandemic

  • Attitudes toward press-on nails and at-home care

  • Product claims and interest in nail color and care innovations

Definition

For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

This Report covers the US market for nail color and care products and includes products specifically intended for use on the nails, not the hands or other parts of the body. Mintel defines the nail color and care market as follows:

  • Nail polish

  • Nail accessories and implements (ie nail files, clippers, trimmers)

  • Nail treatments (ie nail strengtheners, ridge fillers, top coats, base coats)

  • Artificial nails and accessories (ie press-on nails, nail tips)

  • Nail polish removers (includes both acetone and nonacetone polish removers)

Salon nail services are excluded from the market size, segment performance and brand sections of this Report but are covered in the consumer and market perspective sections.

COVID-19: market context

The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the US in January 2020. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global health pandemic; on March 13, former President Trump declared a national emergency in the US.

Across the US, state-level stay-at-home orders rolled out throughout the months of March and April, remaining in place through May and in some cases June. During this time, referred to as lockdown, nonessential businesses and school districts across the nation closed or shifted to remote operations.

During reemergence, all 50 states have relaxed stay-at-home orders and allowed businesses to operate with varying levels of social distancing measures in place. The continued spread of COVID-19 infections has driven some states to slow down or reverse course on reopening plans. Mintel anticipates the US will remain in a state of flux through 2021, until vaccinations are more widely available.

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