Cosmetics are big business. Statistics have shown that the most profitable company of 2011 was L'Oreal, who made a profit of 16.1 billion pounds. The second highest profit was reached by Estee Lauder, who made 13 billion. Such high profits are testament to the strength of this industry. In support of this, the top twenty leading cosmetic companies made a collective profit of just less than one hundred billion pounds globally. This suggests that such companies are able to achieve successful levels of profit even in times of consumer belt-tightening.