As I’m sure we’ve all noticed, there’s been a huge uptick in DIY nail product sales from crackle nail polish to nail decals to at-home gel-polish kits; indeed, for the 52 weeks ending on April 15, 2012, dollar sales of mass market nail care products grew by 26%, according to a recently released Packaged Facts’ report titled The Nail Care Market in the U.S. However, that same report says that “all signs now point to a return to popularity of nail salon services.” The question is whether DIY nail care sales will decline as women return to salons to get professional manicures and pedicures. According to David Sprinkle, the publisher of Packaged Facts, "The data strongly suggest that the reverse will be true”: The more women go to salons for manicures, the more they buy and use DIY nail care products.

According to the report, one in four (25%) “salonistas” (defined by this study as women receiving two or more professional manicures in the past six months) used DIY nail care products five times or more in the past 30 days, compared to only 15% of other women. Thus, rather than resulting in a decline in dollar sales of DIY nail care products, the expected post-recession growth in professional manicure and pedicure services is likely to contribute to continuing growth in the mass nail care market, the report finds.

The idea that consumer nail services and professional nail services each drive the growth of both the consumer and professional categories is terrific news. We so often hear of them being at odds with each other, but I love the idea that they can both co-exist and have explosive growth. I hope to see more studies exploring this tie. And, of course, this means you should seize the opportunity to retail products at your salon that will keep these “salonistas” happy between their salon appointments.

Another neat tidbit from this report that I didn’t know is that black women are 46% more likely and Latinas are 30% more likely than women on average to have used nail polish and nail products five or more times in the past 30 days. Non-Hispanic white women are significantly less likely to do their own nails with this degree of frequency, according to the report. That sounds like another nail salon opportunity waiting to be seized.

For more information or to purchase the full report, visit http://www.packagedfacts.com/Nail-Care-Retail-6488979.

—Sree