Barclays consumer spending data showed that pharmacy, health and beauty was the UK’s best-performing category in 2025, growing 9.5% in a year when spending on essentials actually fell. So where is all that money going, and are we spending it wisely? Welcome to the smile economy.
Beauty: the lipstick effect
Economists have a rather charming name for what happens to our shopping habits when money gets tight: the “lipstick effect”. When big treats become unaffordable, we swap them for small ones.
If that sounds like a recession quirk, the past few years suggest it has become a lifestyle. Barclays found that the average shopper in the category spent £324 over 2025, up from £291 the year before, and the category has now grown for close to five years without a break. Market researcher Circana reports that 62% of UK consumers are holding their beauty spending steady, even as 39% trim what they spend on groceries.
Wellness: the category that ate everything
Not so long ago, “wellness” meant a yoga mat and some good intentions. Today it covers sleep trackers, gut-health supplements, cold plunges, meditation apps, protein everything and, for a brief and confusing period, celery juice. McKinsey’s Future of Wellness research values the global consumer wellness market at around $1.8 trillion, growing by 5 to 10% a year.
McKinsey found that sleep ranks as consumers’ second-highest wellness priority, yet it is also the area where people feel least well served. Around a third of UK consumers say they wish there were more products to support their gut health. We are, in short, spending heavily on the parts of ourselves we cannot actually see.
Healthcare: the queue meets the credit card
Not all health spending is a treat; some of it is simply what happens when the usual route is blocked. NHS England’s analysis of the 2025 GP Patient Survey found that only around two-thirds of people who tried to get an NHS appointment managed it.
An Ipsos poll for the PA news agency found that, among those who could not get an appointment, 26% had treated themselves and 19% had gone abroad for care, with dental implants in Turkey being one of the most researched options among British patients.
The sensible questions are the same wherever you go: who is the dentist, what are their qualifications, and what happens if something needs attention once you are back home?
How to spend well in the smile economy
Spending on looking and feeling good is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It simply pays to do it with your eyes open.
- Separate needs from wants. A cracked molar is healthcare. A seventh serum is a hobby.
- Remember that prevention is the bargain. Regular check-ups, decent sleep and a daily walk cost far less than fixing problems later.
- Price the whole journey. For any treatment, at home or abroad, add up aftercare, follow-up visits, travel and time off work.
- Audit your subscriptions. Supplements, apps and “subscribe and save” deliveries have a habit of multiplying quietly in the background.
