The British Beauty Council is kicking off its 2024 edition of the British Beauty Week with an industry-wide census, said to be the “largest research project of its kind”.
The Beauty Census is launching this month ahead of the week-long event in October, and will ask questions about what beauty means to more than half a million industry workers and consumers.
This is part of British Beauty Week’s 2024 theme of ‘A Beauty Industry That Looks Like You’.
Event organiser the British Beauty Council said it aims to use the survey to change outsider perceptions of the beauty industry – which is worth £24.5bn a year to the UK economy – and help it further thrive.
This year’s British Beauty Week will also spotlight beauty’s power to enhance people’s lives and its effect on mental health, as well as encouraging more young people into careers in the sector.
“We want to hear from everyone from those working in the head office to shop floor assistants, local salons, at-home hairdressers and warehouse workers,” said Millie Kendall, CEO of the British Beauty Council.
“Beauty really does ‘look like you' and we need to know what you think so we can address the problems, maximise the opportunities and make the industry better for those who work in it and its customers.
"It's time for the industry to unite in confronting its challenges head-on, so we can reveal its true value to all."
It comes after 2023’s British Beauty Week renewed its focus on business to business (B2B) companies and was said to see “record breaking” results, reaching more than 12 million people, according to the British Beauty Council.
“Everything we are doing is focusing around businesses, and how to get them to grow,” Kendall told Cosmetics Business at the time.
“Whether that be having a more diverse workforce, or whether that is informing beauty therapists on what needs to be done for the upcoming licensing scheme for prosthetics.”
The event included a two-day hub in London’s Covent Garden featuring panel discussions from influential figures in the beauty industry.
It also featured consumer-facing events such as the Beauty Night Out in the UK capital’s West End, which allowed shoppers to tour the district’s beauty stores including MAC, Skin Laundry, Too Faced, Kiehl’s and Experimental Perfume Club.
Consumers could also attend talks from hairstylist Adam Reed, journalist and The Tweakments Guide founder Alice Hart-Davis and Tumi Siwoku, Principal Chemist of Beauty Science Labs.