Millennials' Lust for Makeup Is the Lipstick on Retail's Pig

Meghan Roark isn't too proud to admit she has an addiction. Her habit? Makeup.

Ms. Roark, a 27-year-old who works in retail in Abingdon, Va., estimates that she spends $300 a month on cosmetics and skin care. She watches at least three hours of tutorials each week on YouTube, learning new techniques or keeping up on emerging brands. Her morning makeup routine takes 30 minutes and involves up to 15 products.

Young shoppers like Ms. Roark are the driving force behind a boom in the cosmetics industry. Always camera ready, they are buying and using almost 25 percent more cosmetics than they did just two years ago and significantly more than baby boomers, according to the research firm NPD. And millennials who identify themselves as "makeup enthusiasts," NPD found, are using six products each day.

Revenues at Ulta Beauty, which sells both prestige and drugstore brands and has been opening about 100 new stores annually in recent years, are expected to top $5.9 billion this year, up from $3.9 billion two years ago. Revenues at Sephora have doubled since 2011.

The success illustrates the way that millennials — who may spend hours on social media platforms watching video bloggers and following so-called influencers — are rewriting the rules. And brands are racing to evolve with the quickly changing market.

Cosmetic companies are shifting ad dollars from traditional television and print platforms to Instagram and YouTube. But brands and influencers are walking a fine line as they form tighter bonds.

Beauty influencers who grew their subscriber base by providing honest reviews risk losing that trust if their audience believes that they have been paid to give only glowing reviews. For brands, there are other risks. Unlike scripted commercials with paid actresses, the brands lose some control over the messaging and content on a video blog.

Gabriel Zamora, a 24-year-old "beauty boy" vlogger from Los Angeles, said he has relationships with about 20 brands. He said he mostly receives free products from the companies and has been selective about his paid endorsements.

Tarang P. Amin, the chief executive of e.l.f. Beauty said staying ahead of millennials is a tricky business. "Five years ago, no one talked about Instagram and today, Instagram is probably the number one social media platform for our products," said Mr. Amin, who has spent 30 years in the packaged goods industry. "And five years from now, it will be something else."

▍生詞好句

millennial /m??l?n??l/: n. 千禧寶貝 (廣義上指青春期成長在2000年后的人)

lust /l?st/: n. 情欲罩引；迷戀

lipstick on a pig /?l?pst?k/: 粉飾沒有內(nèi)涵的人或事

addiction /??d?k?(?)n/: n. 癮

cosmetic /k?z?m?t?k/: n. 化妝品

tutorial /tju??t??r??l/: n. 教程 (視頻)

emerging /??m??d???/: adj. 逐漸嶄露頭角的；新出現(xiàn)的

driving force: 驅(qū)動力量

boom /bu?m/: n. 繁榮

baby boomer: 嬰兒潮時期出生的一代人 (通常指出生在1940年至1960年之間的人)

enthusiast /?n?θju?z?ast/ /?n?θju?z?ast/: n. 對某事熱衷的人

revenue /?r?v?nju?/: n. 收入

prestige /pr??sti?(d)?/: adj. 名貴的

drugstore /?dr?ɡst??/: n. 藥店

influencer /??nfl??ns?/: n. 有影響力的網(wǎng)絡人物

walk a fine line: 小心行事

vlogger /?vl?ɡ?/: n. 視頻博主

selective /s??l?kt?v/?: adj. 精挑細選的

endorsement /?n?d??sm(?)nt/ /?n?d??sm(?)nt/: n. 背書枝笨；支持

tricky /?tr?ki/: adj. 復雜的袁铐；棘手的