The triumph of skincare products

If, as the saying goes, beauty is only skin-deep, you could take this to mean that beauty doesn’t matter much. Or you could take it to mean that skin matters a whole lot. Americans buy into the latter interpretation, judging by a report from The NPD Group. Skincare products have eclipsed makeup as the most-used type of beauty product, generating $5.3 billion in sales in the mass and prestige department-store channels. Eighty-nine percent of the women surveyed said they use skincare products, while 84 percent use makeup.