Makeup Grew 16%, Premium Skincare Stalled

What is the signal?

Premium Beauty News and Perfumer & Flavorist reported Puig's third-quarter results on 22 October 2026: Q3 net revenue of EUR 1.39 billion, up 5.6% like-for-like and 7.2% as reported. The first nine months came to EUR 3.74 billion, up 4.8% like-for-like and 4.1% as reported. The company left its full-year outlook unchanged — outperforming the premium beauty market on a like-for-like basis with stable adjusted EBITDA margins.

The segment order has changed. Makeup grew 16.1% like-for-like in Q3 to EUR 269.7 million, and 12.0% over nine months to EUR 628.5 million, making it the fastest segment. Reporting attributes that to sell-out gains, continued value market share gains across regions and Charlotte Tilbury launches. Fragrance and Fashion reached EUR 2.70 billion over nine months, up 3.8% like-for-like, with niche fragrances in double-digit growth and Carolina Herrera performing strongly in Q3.

Skincare came to EUR 414.1 million over the same period, up just 1.3% like-for-like. But it did not move in one direction. Dermo-cosmetics, led by Uriage, grew at a double-digit rate in Q3, while premium skincare was reported as subdued. In other words, skincare demand did not cool across the board — it split between tiers.

By region, Asia-Pacific was fastest: up 17.9% like-for-like over nine months to EUR 430 million, which reporting credits to digital channel momentum. The capital moves point the same way. On 14 September Puig agreed to acquire the remaining 50% of the dermo-cosmetics brand ISDIN for EUR 900 million in cash at closing plus EUR 300 million deferred, with closing expected in the first quarter of 2027.

A note on scope. This is one company, and its portfolio sits in premium, selective distribution across fragrance, makeup and dermo-cosmetics. The rates here therefore cannot be read out to the whole beauty market or to mass channels. Like-for-like figures exclude currency and perimeter effects, and the reported Q3 figure of 7.2% includes 1.7 percentage points of currency. The 16.1% for makeup is a quarterly figure and the 1.3% for skincare a nine-month one, so the two cannot be used as a same-period comparison. The figures used here were confirmed in trade reporting; the company's own Q3 release could not be opened within the search scope, and segment absolute amounts are given only in euros because currency conversions differed between outlets.

Still, one sentence translates to development. The decision this changes is not which category to pick but which tier — and the tier rewrites the specification, the data file and the volume plan all at once.

1. Skincare did not stall; its tiers split

Even as the same "serum", a dermo-tier product and a premium-tier product are different specifications. Going dermo narrows the formula: fragrance and colourants come out, the number of contact ingredients is reduced, the preservation system is kept simple, and use-test design around irritation is pulled forward. Going premium reverses the order — sensory feel, fragrance, container material and weight are settled first, and those decisions take a larger share of the cost structure.

What bites in practice is that cost accumulates in opposite orders. In the dermo tier, data cost comes before the cost of the contents. Irritation testing, use testing and the substantiation that labelling and advertising claims will need have to enter the budget before the formula is locked, and that data has to be rebuilt when the item changes. In the premium tier, container, secondary packaging and fragrance development come first, so mould and component schedules set the overall lead time.

Start without writing the tier and you pay both. Make samples on a fragranced formula and then strip the fragrance to meet dermo channel requirements, and the sensory and stability results are void; ask a formula built on a low-irritation premise to deliver premium sensory feel, and the emulsion design starts again. Writing the tier on the first line of the brief is not a wording choice — it fixes the schedule and the cost first.

One thing is worth separating out. What these numbers confirm is that within one company's portfolio dermo grew faster than premium; they do not say dermo products work better than premium ones. It is safer to use this only as a signal about what consumers are choosing on, not as an efficacy comparison.

• Whether the first line of the brief says "dermo tier" or "premium tier"
• Whether, for the dermo tier, the premise of simplified fragrance, colourant and preservation design was fixed before the formula
• Whether irritation and use testing, and claim substantiation, are in the budget before the formula is locked
• Whether, for the premium tier, mould and component schedules are confirmed as the basis of the overall lead time
• Whether it is written down which test results would be voided by a change of tier

2. Makeup volume accumulates by shade, not by item

Translate double-digit makeup growth into a product brief and the first thing to bite is not the format but the number of items. In skincare one formula is usually one item; in makeup one formula carries shades. As shades are added, the colourant blend differs shade by shade, and with it the ingredient list, the stability checks, the production changeovers and the inventory all multiply per shade.

This is where volume plans go wrong. Our own project consultations start at an MOQ of 1,000 units, and whether that is actually achievable depends on the formula, container, raw materials, process and specification. In makeup, that floor tends to apply per shade rather than once per item, so planning five shades moves the initial production assumption well away from the first calculation. Starting with fewer shades and widening after seeing the response is the order that reduces inventory risk.

Export plans split again on colourants. Permitted lists and conditions for colourants differ by country, and permission also varies by application area, such as the eye area or the lips. When the colourant combination differs by shade, which shades are viable differs by export market — so checking after the formula is locked means dropping some shades or re-matching them. Writing the target markets into the brief is what narrows the shade-matching range from the start.

Container and filling differ from skincare too. Powder, stick or liquid changes the filling equipment and the defect criteria, and when printing and labels differ by shade, the number of component SKUs becomes a scheduling variable. Alongside checking sensory feel at the sample stage, it is worth counting the components per shade.

• Whether the volume plan was recalculated per shade rather than per item
• Whether the brief starts with fewer shades and widens after the response
• Whether colourant conditions in target export markets were checked before shade matching
• Whether differing colourant conditions by application area (eye area, lips) are reflected
• Whether component SKUs per shade, such as printing and labels, are in the schedule

3. The growth came from Asia-Pacific and digital

The regional number is the one Korean brands can use most directly. Asia-Pacific rose 17.9% like-for-like over nine months to EUR 430 million, with reporting crediting digital channel momentum. A global group confirming growth in this region through digital also means that, for a brand starting in the same region, competition arrives in that channel first.

Assume online-led sales and the specification items that change are clear. The product travels and is stored in its packaging before reaching the consumer, so checks for drop, vibration, leakage and temperature change move ahead of where they sit for a shelf-led product. Secondary packaging gets decided on protection and volume rather than display effect, and volume feeds straight into shipping cost.

It also matters not to read Asia-Pacific as one market. Hot, humid regions and dry ones return different sensory and stability results from the same formula, and different storage temperature conditions mean the stability protocol itself has to be re-set. Write the region broadly and the test conditions loosen; results obtained under loose conditions get demanded again later in a specific country.

The channel changes the configuration too. Online, fill size, price point, set composition and whether there is a refill become the variables that decide a purchase, and those decisions attach to the container and the quantity rather than the formula. So writing the target region and main channel into the brief first is what lets fill size, container and volume be settled in one pass.

• Whether the target region and main channel (online or offline) are stated in the brief
• Whether, for online-led sales, drop, vibration, leakage and temperature checks were pulled forward
• Whether secondary packaging was decided on protection and volume (shipping cost)
• Whether stability protocols were set separately for hot-humid and dry regions
• Whether fill size, sets and refills were decided together with container and volume planning

4. Dermo positioning is a data file, not a phrase

What the ISDIN deal says is that the dermo tier is where capital is going right now. On 14 September Puig agreed to buy the remaining 50% of that dermo-cosmetics brand for EUR 900 million in cash at closing plus EUR 300 million deferred, with closing expected in Q1 2027. A brand is unlikely to follow an area moving at that scale with wording alone.

What dermo positioning actually asks for is data. "Low irritation" or "for sensitive skin" is not a positioning in itself; what has to remain is which test was run, under what conditions, on how many subjects. Making such a claim in Korea requires substantiation behind the sentence, and if the wording falls under functional cosmetics, that route has to be reviewed separately. This judgement has to arrive before the formula is drafted, not after it is locked, for the cost to be paid once.

The channel changes the specification as well. Assume a pharmacy or dermo shelf and the amount of information the packaging has to carry and the fill sizes differ from a general shelf, while any explanation that assumes a professional recommendation only holds if the product's data can support it. Going online-only instead, the same data has to be organised so it can be used sentence by sentence on the detail page.

The ingredient side narrows too. In the dermo tier, a formula that targets one problem narrowly is easier to explain than one that claims a longer ingredient list, and fewer contact ingredients reduce both irritation risk and the scope of data required. Writing the problem to be targeted first and then reducing ingredients costs less in this tier than choosing a claim ingredient first and fitting the formula to it.

• Whether the test endpoints, conditions and panel size behind a phrase like "low irritation" are set
• Whether claim substantiation and any functional-cosmetics route were reviewed before the formula
• Whether, for a pharmacy or dermo shelf, packaging information and fill sizes were re-planned
• Whether each detail-page sentence is linked to its supporting data
• Whether the targeted problem was written first and contact ingredients then reduced

The first question for the brief

Instead of writing "skincare or makeup", change one line: is this product dermo tier or premium tier? That single line settles whether fragrance and colourants are in, the premise of the preservation design, the container material, and where data cost lands in the schedule. Leave the tier blank and take samples first, and one of those costs gets paid twice.

For makeup, the second thing to write is the number of shades. The volume floor tends to apply per shade rather than per item, so how many shades you start with sets the initial production run and the inventory risk. And write the target export markets on the same line, so colourant conditions can be checked before shade matching.

The last is region and channel. Write it as broadly as "Asia-Pacific" and the stability protocol loosens, and loose results get demanded again in a specific country. Narrow the target countries and the main channel, then decide the drop, leakage and temperature items together with fill size and set composition under those conditions.