Asia-Pacific was the clear growth engine of beauty Q2 2026. Puig grew 16.1% like-for-like in the region, L’Oréal’s grew an estimated 5.3% to 6%, Estée Lauder increased 8.1% and Coty by 7.0% while Shiseido grew 2.0% dragged down by slower sales in Japan and China.
The Americas were more mixed. L’Oréal grew 5.8%, Estée Lauder returned to 5% organic growth and Puig delivered a 3.2% increase. Shiseido, however, decreased 8% like-for-like as high-single-digit offline declines and NARS weakness outweighed strong e-commerce growth and momentum from SHISEIDO, Drunk Elephant and Dr. Dennis Gross.
EMEA remained resilient, but geopolitics continued to matter. L’Oréal’s adjusted growth was between 7.2% and 7.6%, Puig grew 2.1%, Estée Lauder 1%, and Shiseido 9%. Coty was the outlier, with regional sales down around 10%, mainly reflecting weakness in the Middle East, Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.
A strategically interesting point is L’Oréal’s geographic balance. Within, this peer group, L’Oréal is the least dependent on any single region while Estée Lauder is overdependent on APAC and travel retail, Shiseido on China and Japan and Puig on Europe. L’Oréal Q2 sales were spread nearly evenly between EMEA, APAC and Americas with growth in every region. That balance is a real competitive advantage: when growth in a region decrease, it can compensate with another geography.
