This article was originally published in The Future of Beauty Trend Report. Receive your copy here
As 2025 beckons, beauty is poised for another dazzling year.
All eyes have been on the category throughout 2024: Consumer engagement is strong, prestige beauty sales are soaring, new launches are up, and retailers are dedicating more space to the category.
One overriding message shines through: “There is a definite wave of momentum in beauty at the moment, and going into 2025, I think that is only going to continue,” forecasts Kantar’s Health and Beauty Business Unit Director Matt Maxwell.
“We expect more and more noise in the category, more and more engagement, and therefore more sales,” says Maxwell.
Circana’s UK Account Director, Emma Fishwick agrees that beauty will be buoyant in 2025: “We’ve seen so much exciting innovation come to market in the latest month alone and that, in itself, is only going to help next year’s performance.”
One of the biggest shifts will be how consumers shop for beauty.
Andrew McDougall, Director of Beauty and Personal Care at Mintel tells Cosmetics Business: “Shopping with intent is going to become a key driver for 2025. Consumers are going to be more mindful about how they’re purchasing.”
The 2025 Pure Beauty Global Awards is open for entries, featuring revamped criteria and new categories, offering you a chance to gain international recognition. Find out more here.
The clear, desired outcome that consumers will be seeking from beauty will take many forms.
In skin care and hair care, whether it's a product’s ability to answer a specific need or to help the customer feel good, proof will be critical.
Meanwhile, in fragrance, consumers – particularly young people – are already buying perfumes with specific intention in mind.
Marc-Antoine Barrois, the namesake founder of the luxury fragrance line, which is forecast to grow by 70% this year, has seen that the reason that younger generations are buying many different fragrances is to use them as souvenirs, to remind them of specific moments in their lives.
“They are collecting fragrances in a very special way,” says Barrois. “They’re not looking for a signature fragrance, they are looking for a fragrance that will remind them of this or that memory.
“They might buy a fragrance at travel retail that they intend to use as a memory of that vacation.”
Using beauty to intentionally create moments of escape, self-expression, to reflect their values, or to meet a specific functional or wellness need, will be an overriding consumer trend in 2025.
And brands that give consumers exactly what they need as they navigate through today's world will win.
Trends will be revealed in detail throughout December exclusively to subscribers, so don't miss out and subscribe.
Trend 1: The Ozempic effect
From ‘Ozempic face’ to ‘Ozempic butt’, the side effects of rapid weight loss on the skin from the use of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, have become a global phenomenon.
Plastic surgeons are seeing rising demand for procedures to restore facial volume and tighten sagging skin, creating trends towards a 'snatched' look with chiseled jawlines and defined cheeks, and the return of the so-called 'ballet body'.
In 2025, the skin care industry will also be impacted as focus shifts towards ingredients that can address the concerns associated with rapid weight loss.
This trend explores how ingredients such as tretinoin and other retinoids, collagen-boosting peptides, and antioxidant-rich compounds, like vitamins C and E will move into the spotlight in NPD that targets this emerging consumer demographic.
Trend 2: Eye make-up's bold return
Lip and blush may have dominated the make-up scene yet again in 2024, but 2025 is expected to see the grand return of eye make-up, as maximalist looks return to the spotlight and eyeshadow takes the glitter ball.
The latest data shows some early signs that consumers are returning to the category. During the month of October 2024, sales of eye make-up in the UK rose by 6%, outperforming the lower January to October average of 1%, according to Circana.
There has been a rise in brands launching new eyeshadow palettes in recent months.
Runway make-up artist Pat McGrath, founder of Pat McGrath Labs, tells Cosmetics Business: “Eyeshadow has always been a powerful tool for self-expression, but as we move into 2025, we’re seeing an even greater emphasis on bold, transformative eye looks.”
Trend 3: The rise of 'entertainment brands' in beauty
A music album, a romcom trailer and a reality-TV inspired mystery series might not be the type of releases you’d expect to see from beauty brands.
But to reach today’s Gen Z consumers, being just a beauty brand is no longer enough.
Investing in premium original content has become the next golden goose for leading Gen Z brands including e.l.f. Beauty, CeraVe and NYX Professional Makeup, as the line between beauty commerce and entertainment grows increasingly blurred with how they connect with young consumers.
So what might come to a screen near you in 2025? From beauty brands with their own Netflix shows to virtual try-on episodes and interactive storylines where viewers help decide product outcomes, this shift will take traditional advertising into a new age.
Trend 4: The new rebellion
2025 is shaping up to be a rebellion-fest for beauty, with two polarising trends, ‘brat’ imperfection and 'anti-woke' tradition, reflecting ideological differences among consumers.
The rise of ‘brat’, the messy, trashy anti-aesthetic, was 2024’s response to the hyper-curated perfection of the ‘clean girl’ look.
While it may have seemed like the fleeting trend of summer 2024, ‘imperfection’ will develop as a less polished aesthetic pushes through 2025 that embraces freedom of self-expression.
But a second, more polarising wave builds on the 'trad wife' movement with new brands launching with a “woke-free” mission.
Vincent Grégoire, Insights Director at Paris-based strategic consulting agency NellyRodi says: “We have seen the comeback of Trump in America, and a return to cultural stereotypes with a new rebellion that is seeing a wave of consumers being attracted to classic, traditional values.
“It’s politically incorrect, it’s controversial, and it’s attracting a lot of young people.”
Trend 5: Preventative skin care
A ‘baby Botox’ boom among Gen Z is giving way to a preventative approach, which prioritises skin health over striving for perfection.
Data from L’Oréal-backed skin care brand DEINDE found that 77% of skin care enthusiasts are now taking a preventative approach to their skin care.
Sophia Moradi, founder of exosome-based skin care brand SŌM Skin is already seeing “a clear shift as younger consumers move away from traditional aesthetic treatments, like Botox and fillers, in favour of a more natural long-term approach to skin health.”
For the beauty industry, the focus on long term skin health and the desire for sustainable results will open up a host of opportunities across ingredients and product development.