Final results were not yet available at press time, but Beauty was enjoying a great retail holiday, mid-December, according to recent data from The NPD Group. Weekly sales of makeup, skincare and fragrance in the U.S. had been consistently strong since NPD began tracking the 2017 holiday season in early November.

While the first week of November started out slow, with a 3% gain for Beauty, Week 2 experienced a 15% increase and Weeks 3 and 4 saw beauty sales really take off, posting the strongest gains of all the industries NPD was tracking for the holiday.

Here are some highlights:

—Beauty’s growth was driven by makeup, followed by skincare. Fragrance continued to lag, with Skincare gift sets contributing more volume during Thanksgiving/Black Friday week than Fragrance gift sets; Beauty sales grew +17%, for this week.

—In fragrance, home ancillary sets, which feature home scents like candles and reed diffusers, performed well.

—Lipgloss and false eyelashes—two beauty staples when glamming it up—were hot items.

—Cyber Week Beauty sales grew +9%, thanks to makeup sets and skincare sets.

Larissa Jensen, executive director, beauty industry analyst, The NPD Group—and a member of Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors—reveals her predictions for 2018 Beauty Trends on page 70 of this issue, see the column here.