One of the world's largest and top ranked makers of cosmetics, L'Oreal recently posted complete years earnings and sales that fell below the estimates pegged by analysts, while stressing that profitability fell in all of its main markets, as demand for perfume and makeup weakened.

The giant company, based in Paris, posted an 8% decline in complete year profit to 1.79 Billion Euros ($2.44 Billion), a figure which managed to miss the 1.89 Million Euros mark set by analysts.

Sales for the past year's fourth-quarter declined by 3.5% as the global recession forced American and European customers to purchase fewer personal care and grooming products, or switch over to brands which are cheaper.

"The market might not be recovering as quickly as many investors hoped. Fourth-quarter organic growth of 1.5 percent showed only limited progress over the third quarter and was well below our expectations", said Andrew Wood, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Agon is, however, confident about the coming times and has predicted that sales could return to growth by the year's first quarter.