Beauty has been labeled a recession-proof category supported by the history of the Lipstick Effect. US prestige beauty industry sales amounted to $14 billion in the first half of 2023, a 15% increase compared to 2022. In comparison, the mass beauty market generated $28 billion and grew 9%, according to Circana.“Beauty continues to be the darling of retail through the first half of 2023, maintaining its position as the only industry to grow based on units sold across the general merchandise and consumer packaged goods categories Circana tracks,” Larissa Jensen, Beauty Industry Advisor at Circana, shared about the first half results. “The beauty industry is hitting the right notes, meeting consumers’ emotional needs through new and existing products, which is especially welcomed at a time when spending power continues to be squeezed.”Even as beauty has proven to be a resilient category, the reality is many businesses are still feeling the after effects of the pandemic compounded by supply chain pressure, rising inflation, fierce competition, and changing market dynamics. For many brands, trouble was brewing before COVID-19 hit. Government assistance and a spike in high-margin DTC online sales prolonged the inevitable.Commercial Chapter 11 filings rose 30% year over year in October, with 6,081 new filings compared with 4,677 in the same period last year, according to data from legal services firm Epiq AACER. Small business filings in that time rose 41% to 1,419, according to the research. After recent declines thanks partly to pandemic-era financial support, consumer filings increased this year, up 17% to 313,458.