CHALLENGING TIMES
Product development by beauty brands has been hampered by social distancing.
“As more skincare brands flood the market, it’s only natural that our interest is piqued and with the aid of the internet, information is readily available to us,” she adds. Her advice is to check in with your skincare expert “to ensure that new skincare products align with the results you want to achieve, and will work together with your current skincare.”
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, know that the flipside is also an option. ‘Skinimalism’, a term coined by Pinterest in its ‘Pinterest Predicts’ report for 2021, refers to the rising popularity of simplified routines and ‘slow beauty’. The report indicates a huge leap in searches for the likes of ‘face yoga’, ‘how to get glowing skin naturally’ and ‘homemade skincare’.
Of course, if you remain firmly in the camp of skincare devotees intent on gleaning everything they can about formulations and ingredients, here are a few to look out for over the coming year:
• Snow mushroom – offers hydrating properties to rival hyaluronic acid.
• Niacinamide – not new, but leaping to prominence as it addresses a number of skin concerns at once, including hyperpigmentation, elasticity, redness and acne.
• Sea buckthorn – rich in vitamin E, it deeply hydrates and plumps skin, repairs its barrier function and helps with signs of ageing.
• Algae – depending on the type, it has hydrating, anti-ageing, antioxidant, brightening and smoothing properties.
MINDFUL SOUL CARE
With home repositioned as a wellness sanctuary and quality time with a mirror or bathtub increasingly considered a self-care practice, we’ll see more products devoted to the mind-body connection, as the beauty and wellness sectors continue to fuse. Invoking a sense of calm is a top priority for this industry, as is giving consumers something more than just visible benefits.
Integrative beauty respects the connection between skin, body and emotional wellbeing, and encompasses ideas around inner health and supplements, promoting selfacceptance, prioritising rest, the use of adaptogenic herbal and botanical ingredients in skincare designed to help the body deal with stress, and mindfulness rituals to pursue while engaging with products.While a number of brands apply a holistic approach to everything they do, there are still more whose products embrace one or two elements – a scent designed to help you unwind, for instance, or a face oil intended to be applied with a rose quartz Gua Sha massage tool.
Leading fragrance and flavour company Givaudan has just released Vivascentz, a new technology designed to assist in creating scents that positively impact the user’s overall state of wellbeing. It follows the brand’s previous research into how scent can assist sleep, now being used in numerous well-known personal care products.
“THERE HAS BEEN A HUGE LEAP IN SEARCHES FOR FACE YOGA.”
GETTING PERSONAL
Stepping further away from a homogeneous approach to beauty, brands are recognising the need for products and services that offer greater relevancy to individuals. In the skin and appearance medicine industry, this looks like an abandoning of treatment menus in favour of a customised approach to every client. Caci recognises that some clients want a complex approach, while others prefer something more straightforward. “Our memberships are flexible and simple,” says marketing manager Melissa Soich. “Customers come in for a treatment every three or four weeks and our team will take the guesswork out, checking in on what their skin needs at each visit and tailoring treatments on the day to suit.
“In 2021, we are focusing on our advanced treatments that really make a difference in combatting pigmentation, scarring, skin elasticity and firmness, uneven skin tone and
texture, plus lines and wrinkles,” she says. “We are also perfecting our treatment plans for customers whose main concern is acne.”
NECK AND NECK
Local experts are in agreeance with global trend forecaster WGSN, which has indicated that in the coming months and years we’ll be hearing more about treatments for our ‘jeck’ – that’s the jaw and neck area.
“Driven by increased time spent chin-down on devices, jeck ‘tweakments’ will increasingly gain the attention of consumers and specialists alike, leading to products that deliver salon-grade results,” reports WGSN.
TEXTURE TWIST
Lest you think beauty has lost its sense of fun, another of our senses is bringing it back. Touch, or more specifically, texture, is set to drive our product selections as innovative new options budge boring from the shelves and we seek sensorial upgrades for traditionally straightforward products.
Traditional creams and lotions are on their way to being largely farewelled; in their place, modern variations of lightweight gel-creams, oils, balms, mists, mousses, jelly, powders, scrubs that fizz, and even colours that transform.
“The feel of a product on our skin is one of the primary reasons we purchase and use it,’’ says Dermalogica’s Emma Hobson. “Scientific innovations mean new textures are emerging all the time that not only feel better, but perform better. Going forward, we will be seeing lighter, softer and smoother products that disappear into the skin.”
Often the downfall of an otherwise impressive product, makeup brands have also been working on textural improvments, such as removing the stickiness from high shine lip gloss.
Elizabeth Arden’s just-released Flawless Start Hydrating Serum Primer has forgone a traditional cream or silicon-feel in favour of tiny droplets of oil that are suspended within a hydrating gel and burst imperceptibly on contact, offering numerous skincare benefits at the same time as laying down the perfect base for foundation.
It’s not all whizz-bang stuff through. Solid bar soaps are having a renaissance of late, and foam cleansers – previously cast off thanks to their drying reputation – are making a comeback with gentler and all-natural formulations.
SUPPLEMENT BOOM
The beauty slice of the supplements market has been growing apace in the past five years and shows no sign of slowing as the options dovetail with our increased interest in anything perceived to be related to health and wellness.
Collagen in general has gained much attention recently. Given that the natural collagen in our bodies begins to diminish with age, the idea of supporting the system with supplementation is appealing to many. However, wider studies need to be undertaken around how much of these supplements are absorbed, and the quantities that reach their intended targets (namely nails and skin), versus being used by other organs. To date, some small studies have shown promising results as far as their ability to support skin hydration, elasticity and smoothness.
The main conversation around collagen currently pertains to products formulated to be ‘bioavailable’, or easily used by the body. Sustainably sourced in France, the marine collagen peptides in Good Health’s Imaglow Skin Advanced Collagen Formula have been bundled with vitamin C to support absorption. This product also features New Zealand Blackcurrant extract for antioxidant support, vitamin C to support absorption and production of collagen in the body, and zinc to support skin protection and repair.