HOW LOCKDOWN CHANGED OUR LOOKS
WHEN THE PANDEMIC HIT AND LOCKDOWN SET IN, SALONS SHUT AND PRIORITIES SHIFTED. SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR OUR FACES?
With salons shut and priorities shifted, our post-pandemic approach to beauty has changed. But is it for the better?
For years, it’s felt like the business of beauty has been unstoppable. Conglomerates insatiably cannibalised startups, social media became a beauty-based money-making platform and landfills overflowed with plastic waste generated by the industry.
But, for those on the inside, the landscape was starting to change. In 2O18, the UK beauty industry experienced slower growth, * with consumers going on a ‘drastic beauty diet’, due to an increasing ‘spend less, waste less’ mentality. Then in 2O2O came coronavirus, hitting fast-forward on the emerging trends, and changing the way we do beauty dramatically, possibly forever and – potentially – for the better.
Online sales surged, with beauty retailer LookFantastic seeing a 2OO% increase in customer sign-ups following lockdown. At first, there was the panic. ‘The first wave of Covid-19 brought a focus on basics,’ says Alexia Inge, co-founder of digital beauty retailer Cult Beauty. ‘This meant sellouts for some brands, and a huge boost for categories such as soap and hand wash.’ Unsurprisingly, Cult Beauty’s ‘relaxation and stressrelieving’ category also blew up by a whopping 317%.
But, as lockdown continued, our mindset evolved. Habits shifted. We rabidly started buying things we never knew we needed: hair dye, face masks and vitamin C supplements – sales of which went up by an explosive 55O% as we looked to up our immunity. And priorities changed.
At a time when nurses can’t even access hand sanitiser, do we really need a seven-step skincare regime? With companies teetering on the brink, shouldn’t we be supporting independents? Can I save money and learn DIY beauty practices? Are these products even good for me? Even when total normality returns, the landscape will remain altered by what we’ve been through. Of course, production lines will pump out newness, and shop door counters will click-click-click with customers returning. But perhaps some of the lockdowninduced habits – buying less, buying better, making do – will become the new norm.
”AT A TIME WHEN NURSES CAN’T EVEN ACCESS HAND SANITISER, DO WE REALLY NEED A seven-step SKINCARE REGIME?”