NEW YORK, Jan 26 — Change is afoot in the world of cosmetics. At the dawn of the new year, beauty routines are being revamped to focus on the basics. That means that skincare is taking centre stage at the expense of certain makeup products, driven by a growing interest in naturally fresh, luminous skin. The idea is no longer to conceal imperfections, but to enhance skin’s natural beauty.
Influencers and beauty content creators seem to be (re)discovering the art of skincare, and now swear only by makeup removers, cleansers, serums, exfoliants, masks, moisturisers and other products designed to care for the skin. After gaining popularity in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the concept of holistic beauty — characterised by a global vision of beauty (inside and out) — has risen in prominence to change the face of today’s beauty routines. Having dabbled with ‘no makeup’ looks, beauty fans now seem to have found a halfway house that better suits their lifestyle and needs. It’s not a question of skipping makeup altogether, but of doing everything possible to get healthy, glowing skin that’s ready to be enhanced by a subtle touch of makeup.
The boom in hybrid products
According to a report published by Circana (The NPD Group) last July, more than half of American makeup users (53%) are looking for hybrid makeup and skincare products, up six points on the previous year. This could involve nourishing skin while evening out skin tone with tinted serums and CC creams, moisturizing lips while colouring them with tinted lip balms, smoothing fine lines with anti-aging creams that are also tinted, or nourishing lashes while lengthening them with mascaras enriched with various active ingredients. These hybrid, or two-in-one skincare products have seen unprecedented growth in recent months. On TikTok — a hotbed of beauty trends — the hashtag #hybridskincare has already generated over eight million views, and that’s just the beginning.
Beyond the time-saving benefits of these products, these new beauty routines reflect a desire to take care of skin without ditching makeup completely. And this inevitably brings Korean skincare, often based on dual-purpose concepts, firmly back into the spotlight. This is supported by a report by the Fresha platform, which says that Google searches for “Korean skincare” rose to an all-time high over the past five years, by 258 per cent. On TikTok, the #koreanskincare has notched up over 7.5 billion views, further demonstrating the popularity of such products.
Optimising beauty routines
Looking at the new products presented by major cosmetics brands, as well as those promoted on social networks, the emphasis today is clearly on skincare. There are countless techniques and hacks designed to help people get a fresh, luminous, yet natural complexion, whether by making foundation look as natural as possible, concocting ‘miracle’ skincare products to mimic the effects of Botox, or making your skincare routine even more effective (than it already is). Once again, it’s not a question of giving up makeup, but of using a lighter touch, intended to enhance your ‘perfect’ — or well-cared-for — skin.
Today, this is reflected in a surge in beauty trends that that focus on this coveted fresh, luminous, but not overdone look. According to data provided by Fresha, searches for products designed to achieve a ‘glass skin’ effect, characterized by a naturally fresh, dewy complexion, have increased by 202 per cent over the last five years, while the aesthetic has accumulated over four billion views on TikTok. In the same vein, online searches for ‘glowy skin’ have soared by 178 per cent globally in the last seven days, driven by internationally renowned influencers including Hailey Bieber, with a hashtag nearing four billion views on TikTok.
All these trends — which are converging towards lighter, more natural makeup, without ditching it completely — seem to fall under the banner of the “clean girl,” the queen of fresh, natural aesthetics, originating sometime in 2022. It’s a phenomenon that has slowly taken hold, and which now seems destined to last and to shake up certain beauty habits. This is seen in the ‘high maintenance to be low maintenance’ trend, a beauty routine based on undergoing demanding and costly treatments from time to time in order to limit the time spent in the bathroom each morning. Add to that a strong interest in foods and supplements designed to nourish the skin from within, as well as in practices designed to enhance well-being, and we’re well on the way to a whole a new vision of beauty, based on a holistic approach encompassing aesthetics, as well as physicality and mental well-being. — ETX Studio
*Fresha used Google Trends to identify search peaks. The average search volume was calculated in relation to the highest peak value on the trends graph to find the percentage increase.
