The future of the beauty market? 8-year-old girls

(Fred Sweet)

According to a new report by consumer research company, the NPD Group, tween girls - those aged between eight and twelve years - are upping their beauty usage, while teens and young women have cut down on their spending.

"Tweens reported increases in regular usage of mascara, eye liner, and lipstick, relative to 2007 levels," NPD said. "In fact, regular usage of mascara almost doubled in the past two years."

Interestingly, the group didn't link this development to diminished self-esteem. Instead, girls said they "look to their parents and siblings to see what they are using to help decide what to buy and use."

For teens and young women, the "overall regular usage is at much lower levels across most beauty categories," NPD said. Foundation was the only beauty product in this age group's overall top ten, which also include acne treatments or lip gloss, for which usage didn't decrease significally in the past years.

For more information, visit http://npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=beauty-categories_s.html.