THE FUN FACTOR
A new breed of skincare products is set to infuse your beauty regimen with a sense of playfulness.
A new breed of skincare products is set to infuse your beauty regimen with a sense of playfulness.
It’s 8:30 on a Sunday night, and I’m blanketed in a thick, charcoal-coloured clay-like mask. According to the label of Dr Brandt’s Magne-tight Age-Defier Skin Recharging Magnet Mask, I need to wait five to 10 minutes before removing the mask, not with water but with a nifty triangular magnet which satisfyingly vacuums every speck of the iron-based formula straight from my skin. “You have to see this,” I said to my husband as I magnetically (and rather magically) removed every last brushstroke of the mask, leaving a hydrated and glowing trail in its wake.
Truth be told, my Sunday night beauty routine has never been so enjoyable. More than ever, beauty brands are creating formulas that are both efficacious and outrageously entertaining to use. Dubbed by one Korean beauty blogger as “skintertainment” (take my word that a Google search presents results that quickly venture beyond skincare into unsavoury territory), it’s the notion that, when it comes to our beauty rituals, effectiveness and enjoyment are not mutually exclusive: it’s perfectly acceptable for a cleanser to buzz, pop and fizz while soothing, calming and clearing.
“In Korea there’s a very big focus on the entire sensorial experience,” says Alicia Yoon, aesthetician and founder of New York-based Korean beauty retailer Peach & Lily, of the brands bursting out of the country at the moment. With more than 9,000 beauty brands in Korea alone, the need to stand out from the pack has raised the bar for products, and that extends beyond souped-up formulations. “I would say that, ultimately, brands need to deliver on the texture, the scent has to be great, the formulation has to be great and the packaging needs to stand out,” says Yoon, adding brands need to “have the whole nine yards to succeed in Korea”.
An upsurge of doctor’s-office beauty brands, increasingly advanced formulations and information-hungry beauty consumers who know their hyaluronic from their lactic acid have ushered in a new era of advanced beauty that is both informed and interactive. According to a 2015 study by marketing intelligence agency Mintel, “unusual textures, mood-changing fragrances and interactive packaging offer strong ways to draw users closer to their products … Consumers are making a clear link between sensory factors of a product and its functionality.” Put simply, it’s form and function.
In fact, a dose of fanfare ultimately takes the boredom out of an otherwise same-same skincare regimen. Caolion’s Hot & Cool Pore Foam Cleanser Duo employs heating and cooling stages, steaming the skin’s surface to draw out impurities before shrinking pores via a cooling effect. “We found that most consumers,” says Caolion founder Jinyoung Joo, “especially those who are interested in functional skincare products, tend to feel the need to acknowledge how their products are actually making a difference on their skin.”
Meanwhile, Glamglow’s GravityMud Firming Treatment has received as much acclaim for its lifting and firming capabilities as its colour changing skills: it morphs from a ho-hum white goop to an intergalactic silver resin as it sets. And if we want to talk serious skin theatre, the Face Shop’s Cherry Cherry Lips Modeling Gel Patch delivers 20 minutes of comical relief via the oversized cartoon-like jelly lip patch infused with cranberry and cherry extract to nourish and plump (actor and beauty entrepreneur Jessica Alba is a fan of a similarly photogenic lip mask, which she shared to her eight million-plus Instagram followers).
Until now, although you might be investing in the very best skincare on offer, other than an obviously radiant complexion it’s not as if the words “I use La Mer” are etched across your forehead for the world to appreciate. Like Alba’s amusing lip treatment, selfie-centric products like sheet masks imprinted with animal motifs and coloured foaming cleansers that triple in size on application (venturing into gimmicky territory, some even come complete with cat-ear headbands) lend themselves to social sharing. “The most savvy brands definitely consider when someone takes a picture: ‘Is this going to properly convey everything this brand stands for?’ and the part two is: “Will they even want to take a picture of this?’” explains Yoon. “I wouldn’t say it’s just about: ‘How do we get everyone to post this on social media?’ but it’s more that when this is shared visually, is it conveying the right thing without people having to read too much about it? It’s just they see it, and they get it.”
“IN KOREA THERE’S A VERY BIG FOCUS ON THE ENTIRE SENSORIAL EXPERIENCE”