Global Personal Care Market: Unilever Results, Hygiene Share and Europe Toiletries

Personal care covers everyday products such as deodorants, soaps, shower gels and oral care. There is no single official global statistic for this market, so this report uses company results and industry association data.

L'Oreal estimates that hygiene products made up 10% of the global beauty market in 2024, a market it values at more than EUR 290 billion [2]. That share equals more than EUR 29 billion (FREEE.REPORT calculation) [2]. L'Oreal's beauty definition is narrower than many company personal care segments.

Unilever reported group turnover of EUR 60.8 billion in 2024 [1]. Its Personal Care business group had turnover of EUR 13.6 billion, down 1.5% reported, but underlying sales grew 5.2% with 3.1% volume growth, led by innovation-led growth in deodorants [1]. Personal Care was about 22% of Unilever turnover (FREEE.REPORT calculation) [1].

Unilever's Beauty & Wellbeing group had turnover of EUR 13.2 billion, up 5.5% reported, with underlying sales growth of 6.5% and volume growth of 5.1% [1].

In L'Oreal's ranking of beauty sales in 2024, Unilever ranked second at USD 26.2 billion and Procter & Gamble fourth at USD 15.0 billion [2].

Cosmetics Europe reports that toiletries were Europe's second-largest cosmetics and personal care category in 2025, at EUR 26.4 billion, behind skin care at EUR 32.3 billion [3]. The total European market was EUR 110 billion in 2025 [3].

Unilever reported that developed markets, 42% of group turnover, grew underlying sales 4.4% in 2024, with a big improvement in Europe driven by Home Care and Personal Care [1].

Unilever figures are from its Q4 and full year 2024 results announcement [1]. Underlying sales growth (USG) excludes currency, acquisitions and disposals; turnover is reported in EUR. The Personal Care share of turnover (EUR 13.6 billion / EUR 60.8 billion) is a FREEE.REPORT calculation. The hygiene share is L'Oreal's 2024 estimate [2]; its EUR value is a FREEE.REPORT calculation (0.10 x EUR 290 billion) and is a lower bound. European category values are Cosmetics Europe retail sales figures [3]. Company segment definitions differ, so segment totals cannot be added up into a market size.