Beauty Deserts

Beauty Deserts is a term similar to Food deserts and Healthcare deserts that describes people who have inadequate access to fundamental personal care, skincare, cosmetic products, and fundamental beauty services to people of color.

Food deserts is a term originally coined in 1995 in the UK to indicate a “disadvantaged geographic area in which residents have restricted access to healthy, affordable, fresh food from a supermarket” (Brînzac et al., 2023). Building upon the initial defining research of “food deserts”, the USDA has further defined “food deserts” as areas where access to a supermarket is limited, with urban zones having a distance of at least one mile to the nearest supermarket and rural areas exceeding 10 miles.

Similarly, Healthcare deserts is a term that originated in France in the 2000s, inspired by “food deserts” (Brînzac et al., 2023). These deserts are characterized by an area, typically a region or a community, where access to healthcare services and facilities is limited or non-existent.

Definition

To appropriately address the inequities of beauty deserts, which mirror the inequities of healthcare and food deserts, established definitions for the terms beauty and deserts were constructed for consistency throughout the research.

Beauty

• Fundamental personal care, skincare, cosmetics, and hair care products
• Fundamental beauty services
• Personal care: basic products for personal hygiene, such as soap and deodorants
• Skincare: essential products created for the health of our largest organ, the epidermis
• Cosmetics: products that meet consumer needs across all skin tones
• Hair care: fundamental products for all hair types and textures

Deserts

• Areas where consumers lack access to fundamental personal care, skin care, cosmetic products and fundamental beauty services.
• Areas that require longer travel times and distances to purchase beauty products and services to purchase beauty products and services.

Case Studies

In ‘Black representation in the beauty industry’, McKinsey & Company conducted quantitative and qualitative research to highlight inequity experienced by Black beauty consumers. Despite spending $6.6 billion on beauty in 2021 ⎯ 11.1% of the total US beauty market ⎯ yet representing only 12.4% of the total US population, McKinsey & Company uncovered that equity remained elusive for Black beauty consumers and Black beauty brands. However, effectively addressing the inequity experienced by Black beauty consumers and brands is a $2.6 billion opportunity.

The first survey queried 1,268 Black beauty consumers' satisfaction with current beauty offerings and their willingness to spend on more tailored and effective beauty products. The second survey of 6,200 Black consumers asked more general questions about spending habits and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, McKinsey & Company:

• Conducted a virtual focus group of 110 Black consumers who purchase at least $20 of beauty products each month.
• Conducted a geospatial analysis comparing 102 retail outlets across the country that Black beauty consumers commonly frequented.
• Conducted in-depth interviews with more than two dozen beauty Black beauty founders, Black retail executives, and Black chemists.

The quantitative and qualitative research uncovered a variety of findings that indicated Black beauty consumers and brands face deep challenges related to equity within the beauty industry, notably that many Black neighborhoods are in consumer deserts with insufficient access to goods and services. McKinsey & Company uncovered that Black consumers have few options when shopping for beauty and that they have to travel further than White consumers.

For example,

• On average, Black consumers travel nearly five and a half miles to a department store and 3.36 miles to a specialty beauty store, about 17% and 21% further than white consumers. When traveling to mass and grocery stores, Black consumers experience a similar inequity where they travel over three miles to access, about 15% further than white consumers.
• Despite a preference and affinity for Black-owned brands, Black brands on average represent 4% to 7% of beauty brands found in specialty beauty stores, drugstores, grocery stores, and department stores.
• Black consumers are three times more likely to be dissatisfied than non-Black consumers with their options for hair care, skincare, and makeup.

Per McKinsey & Company’s findings, if Black consumers are traveling further than White consumers and have limited shopping options, they not only live in a consumer desert, but they live in a beauty desert. Hypothetically, if Black beauty consumers are significantly impacted by a lack of accessibility to stores and a lack of product availability, other communities of color and low-income communities are also significantly impacted.

See also

• Food desert
• Medical desert