Three trends reshaping the beauty industry

Adore Beauty has released its inaugaral The State of Beauty 2023 report in collaboration with trend forecasting agency SOON Future Studies. The report, which gathered data from community members, industry leaders, and a databank of hundreds of local and global trend signals, presents an extensive overview of the beauty industry and where its headed. 

The report doesn’t just focus on the now, but identifies three key trends set to take over the beauty industry and reshape how we approach it, both consumers and retailers alike. Here are three trends we think stand out as ones to watch and may even have applications for retailers beyond the beauty industry.

Flourishing

This refers to an approach to physical and mental wellbeing. The report identifies ‘Languishing’ as the defining mood of the pandemic, and ‘Flourishing’ is its follow up. Forecasted as a $1.5 trillion global industry, this wellness trend encompasses skin care, supplements, home fragrances, aromatherapy and beyond. The report found that Adore Beauty community members are embracing a more holistic view of wellbeing, with a skincare routine focusing on biome building – and not just on the surface, getting that elusive glow to your skin starts from the inside. 49 percent of the Adore Beauty community is prioritising their health and wellness more than they were pre-pandemic, and looking for new opportunities to enhance their wellbeing. ‘Biome’ is pinned as being set to be the ‘it’ word of beauty in the coming years. Gerard Richardson, Head of Brands & Campaigns, Adore Beauty said that “Ingestible beauty is becoming increasingly sophisticated and holistic as more consumers look for ways to boost their routine with rituals that nurture the whole beauty system.” 

Peer-Reviewing

The younger, digitally native consumer base can easily identify artificial endorsements on social media, and these superficial celebrity endorsements no longer have any gravitas for them. With media consumption more personalised than ever, a one-size fits all approach to influencer marketing no longer works. Instead, the report found a decentralised, peer-to-peer, informative and anecdotal approach to product promotion works. Customers want to hear these informed reviews from their peers, not someone who is being paid to endorse it. The Adore community is most influenced by product reviews, with 75 percent of respondents identifying reviews as the best medium for them to understand what products meet their needs, astronomically beating out celebrity endorsements (1 percent), and retailer recommendations (6 percent) .“Beauty audiences have never had more choice about how and when they consume information. This has sharpened all of us to be more attuned to what works best for our unique needs. In a world of possibilities, community and curation is the new luxury,”  said Chelsea Healey, Head of Brand, Adore Beauty 

Joyscaping

This trend ties in with the ‘flourishing’ trend. Joyscaping looks to boost happiness and mental wellbeing by embracing and encouraging playfulness in self expression. Colourful makeup, nostalgic packaging and theming, and experiential products are key in riding this trend. Scent-scaping is one of the key tools identified in the report. Mood boosting scents, focus enhancing ones, and nostalgia inducing fragrances are a key mood augmentation tool and are being embraced by retailers and consumers alike. Another tool is in sensory packaging and presentation – an example used is Laniege’s  rounded packaging and its soothing colours and scents contributing to its night-time skincare beauty routine use. 

“While the last decade has been very much defined by homogenous aesthetics, the next era will be punctuated by more moments of play and exploration. This new desire for expression signals a rejection of the sea of sameness that social media has perpetuated,” said Sarah Owen, Co-Founder, SOON Future Studies.