U.S. Prestige Beauty Sluggish but Stabilizing According to new statistics culled by NPD Group, Inc., Port Washington, NY, the U.S. prestige beauty industry is showing signs of stabilizing after a slow start to the year. The total U.S. prestige beauty market (defined by NPD as products sold in U.S. department stores) for the first half of the year was $3.8 billion, down 1% compared to the same period in 2007, but the declines are not as strong as they were in the first quarter of this year....