• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, May 29, 2015

After years of focusing on high-tech — think serums, cellular restructuring and ladies in lab coats — beauty marketing has taken an ancient turn, with sales of oil and clay products soaring. 

The NPD Group says that in the U.S. prestige beauty market — products typically sold in department stores rather than mass channels — dollar sales of skincare oils tripled in the last five years, while sales of clay or mud-based products quadrupled. 

Skincare oil sales reached $58.5 million for the 12-month period ending in April, a 22% gain; clay and mud products jumped 53% to $27.9 million in the same period. And while the trend is strong in New York and Los Angeles, two of the biggest markets for such products, oil and mud are selling just as strongly in smaller markets, including Florida and Texas.

While oil products are most noticeable as facial moisturizers, they are also being blended with other products, including cleansers and sunscreens. Clay and mud, a treatment usually more associated with Cleopatra and spa retreats than with department-store counters, appears most often as a masque, says the Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research company.

At the same time, sales of such products such as serums and lotion/milk formats have been falling.

“The growth in oils and clay/mud comes on the heels of the shift to more primary facial care products we first began watching about five years ago,” writes Karen Grant, NPD’s global beauty industry analyst. “While corrective anti-aging treatments are still an important part of the facial skincare market, the consumer is increasingly recognizing that there are other vehicles that provide great looking skin. With innovative new applications of age-old beauty secrets, consumers are discovering the noteworthy benefits of products that soothe and nurture the skin as well as address environmental aggressors, a primary source of aging.”

In more news that beauty is booming, Ulta Beauty reports better-than-anticipated sales and earnings, with its best comparable-store sales growth in four years. Net sales climbed 21.6% to $868.1 million, from $713.8 million. And same-store sales jumped  11.4%. E-commerce sales rose 49.8% to $44 million. Net income for the retailer, based in Bolingbrook, Ill., advanced 34% to $66.9 million, compared to $50 million in the same period a year ago.