Resilience and brand confidence: Key takeaways from the latest Value of Beauty report

The British Beauty Council's latest Value of Beauty 2026 report is out, offering a fascinating snapshot of the UK personal care sector in 2025.

One statistic that immediately caught my eye was the divergence between industry performance and trade mark filing activity.

Last year, there appeared to be a fairly close correlation between sector growth and trade mark applications, with both showing modest increases. This year, however, the picture is rather different. While the beauty industry's growth slowed significantly, UK trade mark filings tell a much more optimistic story.

The report shows that, after several years of strong growth, the sector faced more challenging conditions in 2025. Consumer spending on beauty and personal care products broadly flatlined amid continued cost-of-living pressures. The personal care industry contributed £14.4 billion directly to UK GDP in 2025, a slight decrease of 0.2% compared to 2024. Including supply chain and employee spending impacts, the sector contributed a total of £28.3 billion to the UK economy. Despite this small decline, the industry's direct contribution remained larger than that of the UK's creative, arts and entertainment sector.

The report also highlights the ongoing impact of post-Brexit trade barriers. Exports to the US fell by 5.4% during 2025 following the introduction of tariffs and changes to import rules for low-value shipments.

Looking ahead, however, the outlook is more positive. Oxford Economics forecasts a recovery in 2026, with consumer spending on beauty products and services expected to increase by 3.9%, and the industry's total GDP contribution projected to rise to £29.4 billion.

From a trade mark perspective, the figures are particularly interesting. There were 14,968 UK trade mark applications (including national filings and IR designations) covering Class 3 in 2025, compared with 12,342 in 2024, marking a 21.3% increase. Of course, these figures do not tell the whole story. Class 3 includes products beyond traditional beauty goods, such as certain cleaning and laundry preparations. Equally, the beauty sector extends into other trade mark classes, including Class 44 for beauty treatments and services and Class 8 for beauty and grooming tools.

Nevertheless, the filing figures show a striking rise of trade mark filings against a backdrop of softer consumer demand and slower sector growth. Could this indicate a wave of new beauty brands preparing to enter the market over the coming years?

Unlike last year's report, where growth was the dominant theme, this year's findings are centred on resilience. The beauty industry remains a major contributor to the UK economy, but 2025 was characterised by weaker consumer demand, softer employment figures and increasing pressure on exports. Yet the continued surge in trade mark activity suggests that brand owners remain confident about the future. From an IP perspective, that's certainly one trend worth watching.
 

Subscribe to receive more articles like this here.