Gen Z and the Beauty Industry: Brand Data and Audience Behaviors
The bottom line up front
Gen Z is rebuilding the beauty category from the inside out, and the brands that built the category are losing the awareness battle in this group. Across fragrance, skincare, haircare, and makeup, legacy mass brands have lost an average of 15 to 24 points of awareness moving from the broader market to Gen Z — with the steepest collapses in the categories Gen Z engages with most often. Beauty for this audience isn’t a single hierarchy with prestige at the top; it’s a mosaic of concern-led, creator-credentialed, accessibly priced brands that Gen Z is assembling on their own terms. The brands actually winning — Bath & Body Works in fragrance, CeraVe in skincare, Dove in haircare, e.l.f. in makeup — share a structural formula: high category breadth, high mental availability, strong emotional connection, and presence in the channels where Gen Zers actually learns the category. The strategic question is whether legacy brands can rebuild visibility in spaces — TikTok, dermatologist creators, ingredient-led narratives, inclusivity-by-default — set by brands that didn’t exist a decade ago.
In this briefing, we use the Category Advantage research framework. A few terms you should know:
- Mental Market Share (MMS) measures a brand’s "mental availability"—how often it comes to mind, compared to competitors, when consumers think of buying in a category
- Category Entry Points (CEPs) are the specific needs, motivations, situations, or feelings that trigger a consumer to consider a product category and the brands within it
- Network Size refers to the average number of distinct usage occasions or buying situations that consumers mentally associate with a brand
The Category Today
Each of the four beauty verticals — makeup, haircare, skincare and fragrance — have a different brand that’s become Gen Z’s category default. Bath & Body Works owns ~18% of Gen Z fragrance Mental Market Share, CeraVe owns ~15% of skincare, Dove owns ~16.5% of haircare, e.l.f. owns ~16% of makeup among Gen Z women (but Loreal wins amongst men). All four share a structural profile: 80–94% Mental Penetration among the Gen Z who know them (the highest in each category), Emotional Connection scores above 4.0 on a 7-point scale, and consistent presence in the social and creator channels where Gen Z learns the category. They are different in posture — a candle-and-body-care empire, a dermatologist-credentialed value brand, a heritage personal-care brand, a TikTok-native dupe brand — but identical in formula.
The legacy-mass awareness collapse intensifies the more often Gen Z engages with the category. In fragrance, the heritage prestige brands have total awareness levels that are, on average, 15 points lower amongst Gen Z (Chanel -12pp, Calvin Klein -15pp, Ralph Lauren -18pp). In skincare, the legacy mass leaders have lost ~20 points (Olay -23pp, Estée Lauder -26pp, Clinique -17pp, Neutrogena -15pp). In haircare, the everyday brigade has lost ~22 points (Pantene -22pp, TRESemme -23pp, Herbal Essences -29pp). In makeup — the highest-frequency, most-expressive category — the collapse hits ~24 points (Revlon -27pp, CoverGirl -25pp, Maybelline -23pp). The pattern is consistent: the more often the category gets used, the more dramatically the legacy brands have disappeared from Gen Z’s mental map. These aren’t rejection signals. They’re absence signals. The shelves and broadcast investments that built these brands’ Total-market dominance compound poorly against a Gen Z buyer who builds category understanding on TikTok.
The rising tier is creator-built, concern-led, or ingredient-led — and often all three. Across the four categories, the brands gaining awareness with Gen Z share the same shape: Sol de Janeiro in fragrance (+7.5pp), The Ordinary in skincare (+11.5pp), Olaplex in haircare (+5.6pp), and Rhode, Huda, Glossier, Fenty, and Rare Beauty in makeup (each +6 to +10pp). They own a specific problem credibly (bond repair, INCI transparency, body-warmth-and-scent), they distribute through creators rather than counters, and they price for accessibility. The aggregate effect is a beauty mental map being rebuilt by brands the legacy industry once filed under “indie” — and those brands are no longer marginal.
Two legacy brands are quietly executing the new playbook and holding their position: Dior Beauty in makeup and L’Oréal across both makeup and haircare. Dior Beauty gains 4 points of awareness moving to Gen Z and posts 6.3% MMS in the segment — the only heritage prestige makeup brand actively building here. L’Oréal loses far less awareness than its peers across both categories (haircare -7pp, makeup -18pp) and gains MMS share in both. The common thread is sustained creator and influencer investment plus a multi-line architecture that lets the brand show up across multiple Gen Z concerns simultaneously
The Moments That Matter
Across the four categories, the rising CEPs follow a consistent shape: concern-specific, social, experimentation-led, and styling-driven. The declining CEPs are also consistent: maintenance, replenishment, and special-occasion.
Concern-specific triggers are rising across all four categories. Acne flare-ups (+7.5pp) and oily skin (+6.5pp) rise in skincare. Frizz (+5.2pp), textured hair (+6.3pp), and oily hair (+6.6pp) rise in haircare. Date and romance triggers rise in fragrance (+3.8pp); shade match remains a structural concern in makeup. The brands that own a specific category problem credibly — The Ordinary on niacinamide, Olaplex on bond repair, Cantu on textured hair, Fenty on shade range — capture these moments better than generalists do.
Social and creator-mediated triggers are rising. “Trying products recommended by influencers or social media” rises across every category (+4.5pp on average). “Keeping up with makeup trends” rises 7pp. “Discovering or browsing” rises in skincare and haircare. Gen Z is learning the beauty category through creators, and the brands without creator infrastructure don’t enter the shortlist.
The prominence of maintenance and replenishment triggers is falling. “Replacing a product I’ve run out of” drops 8 points in haircare and 10 points in makeup. “Replacing a fragrance I’ve used a long time” drops 7 points (amongst Gen Z, compared with the total sample). The category logic that built the legacy mass brands — repurchase your shampoo, replace your foundation, replenish your signature scent — is meaningfully less important to Gen Z.
Trade-up and dupe-hunting coexist. “Trading up to premium” rises 5 points in fragrance and 3 points in makeup, while “lower-cost alternative” also rises 4 points in both categories. Gen Z is mobile in both directions. The buyer who can afford only e.l.f. today is the buyer who will spend on Rare Beauty next season. The brands competing only at one price tier — premium-only legacy luxury, mass-only legacy drugstore — miss the buyer at the other end.
How Segments Differ Within Gen Z
The gender split is the most consequential cut across all four beauty categories, but its character differs by category in ways that should reshape strategy.
In skincare and haircare, Gen Z men and women are effectively buying different categories. Gen Z men reach for value-and-derma in skincare (CeraVe, Vaseline, Aveeno, Neutrogena) and a tight near-duopoly in haircare (Dove ~21%, Head & Shoulders ~20%). Gen Z women reach for derma plus indie in skincare (CeraVe plus The Ordinary, Cetaphil, and La Roche-Posay) and a fragmented field in haircare (Dove leads but only at 11%). Indie and specialist brands have little to no presence in the men’s segments of these categories.
In fragrance, the divergence is sharpest at the prestige tier. Gen Z women’s prestige map is led by Dior and Chanel; Gen Z men’s by Dior, Ralph Lauren, Versace, and Gucci. Versace specifically is twice as strong with Gen Z men as with Gen Z women — a striking inversion of the brand’s broader cultural reading. Chanel reaches only 36% awareness among Gen Z men; for half its young audience, it has limited mental presence.
In makeup, the gender pattern inverts. e.l.f. dominates Gen Z women at ~16% MMS, but the Gen Z men’s segment (interpret directionally given thinner base) is led by L’Oréal and Dior Beauty — likely reflecting limited-but-growing male engagement in skincare-adjacent makeup products. Across all four categories combined, the strategic implication is consistent: Gen Z men should be approached as a distinct strategic audience with its own brand map, its own media (gaming-adjacent, soccer, NBA), and its own retail logic (pharmacy, mass), not as a sub-segment of the broader Gen Z plan.
Race shapes the categories where texture, tone, and skin compatibility carry the most weight. Black Gen Z buyers reshape the haircare and makeup maps in ways the aggregate picture obscures: SheaMoisture posts 7.9% MMS in haircare among Black respondents, Cantu 5.9%. Fenty Beauty’s 86% Mpen among Gen Z reflects that shade-inclusive positioning has moved from differentiation to minimum table stakes. Brands without credible textured-hair offers or comprehensive shade architectures are conceding meaningful and growing share.
Getting ready for a night out or special occasion (~22-23%) -- the category's emotional core. MFK leads the formal occasion CEP at 38%, Le Labo dominates night-out at 36%. Dolce & Gabbana is the only fashion house in the night-out top 3. Chanel ranks #6 on special event, #8 on night out; Dior #7 and #4 respectively — present, but owning nothing.
Replacing a fragrance used for a long time (~22%) -- the loyalty renewal trigger. Bath & Body Works leads again, but Le Labo (~29%) and Byredo (~26%) over-index sharply relative to their awareness. Brands with high repurchase share relative to total awareness are building genuine lock-in, not just trial.
Wearing fragrance every day (~27%) and looking for affordable options (~15%) -- the volume and value occasions. Bath & Body Works dominates both: 48% on the daily routine CEP, 55% on affordability. Sol de Janeiro is the only brand to meaningfully challenge on routine occasions (~32%). Any challenger for this volume tier needs a story that competes on accessibility, not just aspiration.
What's Blocking Conversion
The barrier mix has shifted in the same direction across every beauty category, and that consistency is itself the story.
Price has dropped as a purchase barrier in every single category. Makeup -15.5pp. Skincare -9.2pp. Fragrance -5.1pp. Haircare -3.2pp. Gen Z has solved the price problem by migrating to brands priced for this audience — e.l.f., CeraVe, The Ordinary, Dove, accessible prestige tiers. The conversion problem in beauty isn’t pricing. It’s something else.
Findability and relevance have risen as barriers in every category. “Hard to find” frictions rise in fragrance (+5.3pp) and haircare. “Not available for online ordering” rises in skincare (+5.9pp), haircare (+5.9pp), and makeup (+5.5pp). “Not available for my specific hair concern” rises 5.6pp. “Brand or product not available at the stores where I shop” rises 6.4pp in makeup. Gen Z shops fragmented — Sephora, Ulta, Amazon, TikTok Shop, direct-to-consumer — and expects clean omnichannel availability. Brands without coherent multi-channel presence are losing conversions before any messaging investment can earn them back.
Skin and ingredient safety has emerged as a distinctively Gen Z barrier. “Fear of skin reactions or irritation” rises 7pp in skincare. Shade-match concerns rise 4pp in makeup. “Not suitable for my skin tone or condition” rises 4pp in skincare. These are ingredient-transparency and personalization concerns — precisely the territory where The Ordinary, La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, and Fenty have built their positions. The buyer is more cautious about what they put on their skin than older buyers were, and rewards brands engineered for transparency.
Trial and sampling friction is declining as a barrier across every category that measures it. Skincare -7pp, makeup -3pp, fragrance -1pp. Gen Z trusts dermatologist creators, influencer reviews, and ingredient transparency as substitutes for physical sampling. The brands building credentialed content libraries are externalizing their sampling infrastructure to TikTok — and gaining a durable conversion advantage. The brands still leaning on counter testers and sniff strips are losing it.\
About this research
Morning Consult conducts over 30,000 daily proprietary surveys in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands and 50 economic indicators.
Our category advantage research is aimed at understanding the needs driving consumers in your category — and how your brand can own more of them. This research is built on validated principles of brand-driven growth and powered by Morning Consult’s industry-leading sampling technology.
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Category Advantage measures the drivers of brand strength by capturing both mental availability (likelihood a brand comes to mind) and emotional closeness (how strongly consumers connect with a brand) among all competitors.