Consumer spending on beauty in the UK reached £27.2 billion in 2018, according to a new report commissioned by the British Beauty Council, which aims to quantify, for the first time, the total contribution made by the beauty industry to the UK economy in 2018.

Care and maintenance products accounted for the lion’s share of purchases, totalling £10.4 billion, while personal enhancement products generated £8.7 billion and beauty services £8 billion.

The beauty industry’s total contribution to UK GDP was £28.4 billion, equivalent to 1.3 percent of the total. The industry itself contributed the most, with its share totalling £14.2 billion, while the industry’s procurement stimulated £5.9 billion via its domestic supply chain and £8.4 billion via its workers’ consumer spend.

The industry supports a total of 590,500 jobs, with one person in every sixty working in this sector and contributed £7 billion in UK tax revenues in 2018.