The Beauty Reset
How has 2020 changed the way we consume beauty? Big question…
The glamorous allure of beauty halls with spritzed perfume filling the air and glossy counters displaying rainbows of lipsticks is an escapism we have all missed.
The pandemic has shaken up the way we buy, consume and use beauty. Our appetite is still there of course but reinvented and adapted as we become more resourceful with our beauty routines and self-care habits. Here is how our ‘new normal’ has effected the future of beauty.
The Kindness Effect
Cast your mind back to lockdown round one. We all emerged with uncut locks, grown out nails and pale bodies. Our usual reliance on professional hairdressers, salons and spa’s, gone. Last year approximately £8.6 billion was spent in hairdressing salons and personal grooming establishments across the UK (stat by statista.com).
While we were busy hibernating inside, the beauty industry responded to the crisis with an overwhelming number of positive initiatives to help the vulnerable. Brands big or small all did their part; companies used their manufacturing lines to produce thousands of tonnes of hand sanitiser for hospitals. Brands offered free soaps to key workers, sent hand creams to NHS staff and donated care packages to the homeless, Age UK and Hygiene Banks. Empty salons posted unused PPE to care homes and free beauty services and haircuts were offered to front liners.
The power of kindness shows what a huge collective difference we can make. Will this inspire more beauty brand initiatives or personal charitable ventures long after Covid-19?
These are the brands that boast great products as well as kind hearts.
Miller Harris Tea Tonique Hand Lotion, £26 for 300ml
Offering a beautiful bath and body collection that is sustainable to the core, British perfume house Miller Harris knows a thing or two about caring for bodies and the environment simultaneously. Their Tea Tonique Hand Lotion contains rich shea butter, argan oil and soothing aloe vera to deeply moisturise and soften dry hands. When the pandemic hit, the brand turned their attention to the elderly, donating over a huge £150,000 of retail stock to Age UK. A mixture of hand washes, lotions and soaps made their way to those self-isolating alone and in need of some TLC. Talk about kindness…
Oskia Rest Day Cleansing Milk, £38 for 150ml
Hot on the heels were Oskia, a British, clean and naturally-derived brand specialising in skin nutrition. As lockdown round one hit, Oskia generously donated thousands of hand sanitisers and hand creams to local community care homes and hospitals, as well as creating goodie bags for NHS staff. Bringing them a little care and comfort when needed most. A must-try is their Rest Day Cleansing Milk- healthy lockdown skin in a single bottle. The hydrating formula packed with rose and lavender flower waters and organic cactus extract helps to soothe irritation, remove greasy makeup and support the skin’s natural barrier function and pH balance.
Weleda Pomegranate Firming Facial Oil, £40.95 for 30ml
Doing their part to lend a helping hand…vegan beauty brand Weleda kindly donated a huge 65,000 products to those in need during the pandemic. The majority being their iconic Skin Food cream that tackles the roughest of skin. However, a winter favourite is their new Pomegranate Firming Facial Oil. A 100% natural formula that harnesses the botanical power of eight organic oils rich in antioxidants to encourage cell renewal, which protects against facial pollution and keeps skin firm, smooth and radiant.
DIY Wellness
Not leaving the house has served us with the unanimous liberation of not wearing makeup and letting our skin truly breathe. A recent study by Mintel shows there has been a 5% decline in colour cosmetics sales. By contrast skincare has rocketed and forecasted to reach £1.19 billion in 2020. Skin, hair, bath, body and nail products are benefiting from this self-care surge. While candles, aromatherapy, and detox lines are booming under the climbing pampering trend.
Forgoing our usual beauty services, we have become resourceful with what is around us. Giving time to listen to our bodies and self educate ourselves about the beauty products we use. From DIY face masks to self facial massage and at-home hair dyeing, we have been forced to be our own beauty therapists and perhaps take a ‘spend more, waste less’ mentality. Whether that be buying in bulk, or treating ourselves to products with high quality ingredients that are ethical and environmentally minded.
As a way to manage the stress and anxiety of 2020, self-care has never been more needed or accepted. Downloads of health and fitness apps have grown by 46% worldwide this year (stat by World Economic Forum). We are realising that self-care is not selfish. We have all fallen in love with a ‘Self Care Sunday’ and long may it continue.
The best 'do it yourself' beauty products to stock up with at home.
111Skin Y Theorem Bio Cellulose Facial Mask, £20 each
The liberating realisation that self-care is not selfish had to be a silver lining from all our time spent at home in 2020. The ultimate ‘Self Care Sunday’ indulgence is a treatment and these Y Theorem Bio Cellulose Facial Masks by clinically-inspired skincare brand 111Skin are certainly a treat for the face. The bio-cellulose technology acts as a second skin and helps ingredients penetrate further. Silk amino acids help condition surface damage and liquorice root reduces pigmentation, leaving your skin brighter and plumper.
Wella Professional Color Fresh Mask in Mint, £15.70 for 150ml
Having sadly not had access to hair salons, lockdown has forced us to quickly grow confident in the art of at-home hair dye, when taming to our locks. The fear-filled trial and error of box-dyes is a thing of the past, these Wella Professional Color Fresh Masks deliver efficient temporary colour in just ten minutes without the need for a patch test. Whether you want a natural golden re-fresh or a vibrant minty wash, your hair will be left conditioned, glossy, true-to-tone with reduced hair breakage- all within a single tube.
Patchology Moodmask™ The Good Fight Sheet Mask, £5
Riding the wave for some time now, on the self-care surge are facial masks. While in lockdown and unable to book in for those routine facials, we all became more self-sufficient when dealing with over-stressed and blue light induced breakouts. Easy to wear while working from home, these Patchology sheet masks are doused in peppermint to sooth inflammation, while tea tree and willow bark extract rid the skins surface of clogging bacteria. Think of this as a 'one packet wonder' for unhappy skin.
Virtual Beauty
We are living in the ‘Zoom Boom’ with every meeting or quiz now online, sadly gleaming complexions with strong contour and high-definition highlighter don’t transfer on fuzzy video calls. But colour cosmetics will recover. Wearing face coverings means we are having to adapt our beauty looks, with the lower half of faces covered our eyes have taken on a new importance. We can focus on eyeshadow, liners and brows to express our individuality and rediscover makeup in a playful way. Roshida Khanom, Head of Beauty and Personal Care at Mintel says, ‘Makeup-skincare hybrid products, such as BB and CC creams could have more appeal as women cut back on using heavy foundation.’
We also need to explore the idea of contactless beauty. We are verging on becoming a ‘touch free society’ during this pandemic. We have not been able to go out and swatch shadows, or test glossy lipsticks. Will this change how we shop our beauty products forever?
Ahead of the game are online-savvy millennials and ‘Gen Zers' who are driving the demand for online ‘virtual beauty tools’ and ‘personalised shade matchers’. The likes of MAC and Estee Lauder are leading the way in online makeup try-on tools and Charlotte Tilbury has launched one-to-one virtual consultations with a makeup artist. This could be fuelled by the industry’s tech boom, including fitness trackers, artificial intelligence therapy robots, vanity mirrors (capable of face mapping and analysing your skin’s condition) and advancements in 3D makeup (makeup-producing printers that customise shades at home). Beauty is leaning further into digital first with thanks to devices such as the L’Oreal Perso and Procter & Gamble Opte.
These beauty brands are leading our lockdown beauty needs.
Code 8 Radiate Beauty Balm, £41
With little need for full coverage foundations in recent times, the skincare make-up hybrids are in high demand for when you need a veil of light coverage and colour for those endless Zoom meetings. Known for their high-performing scientific formulas, Code 8’s lightweight BB cream is easily bendable and velvety to the touch. While giving you a glowy flushed tint, added argan seed oil brings radiance to the skin and SPF15 protects you from UVA and UVB rays, perfect for those escapist lockdown walks.
Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes Mascara, £23
‘Virtual beauty try-on tools’ are not particularly new but now evermore pertinent. With the luxurious past time of browsing makeup counters on hold, beauty empress Charlotte Tilbury has ‘try it on me’ buttons across site that let you virtually wear the lipstick or eyeshadow shade via your web cam, making ’try before you buy beauty’ a regular shopping hack. Tilbury’s Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes Mascara speaks for itself, the micro pro precision paddle brush combs and lifts each lash. While natural carnauba wax adds body and hold, giving you an unbeatable glossy lash look.
Shop Local, Shop Sustainable
Let it be known that we all have the power to support the British economy through our beauty regimes. With 2020 challenging every business, it is surprising to hear just how many start-ups have been born out of this pandemic.
Once dreamt of projects or home-born hobbies are flourishing into brilliant under-the-radar hair, skin and makeup start ups, made with love. It is often these smaller independent brands that have greater control over their productions lines, ingredient sourcing and sustainable choices, compared to the big conglomerates. There is something satisfying knowing you are using a face cream that was first born around a kitchen table. Shopping small and local will help bring up a new wave of innovative brands to lead the way with future trends and cult beauty must-haves.
So have no fear, the beauty industry as a collection of artists, brands and consumers is resilient. The way we rebound says a lot about us as humans. The new reality of working from home, wearing masks and socially distancing has not stopped us yet.
Even when normality returns, we will remain altered. Of course, brands will pump out exciting new beauty launches and we will return to the tangible enjoyment of browsing makeup counters. However, its inspiring to think that some of these lockdown-induced habits will stick. Buy less- buy better, support local and do our own little part to help the planets cry for help, with recycling bathroom empties or investing in sustainable beauty brands- now is the time to think about your own personal ‘Beauty Reset’.
Worldly eco-conscious beauty brands to know about now.
Milanesi Purifying Mask, £72.68 for 110ml
This is an Italian pot of skincare goodness. 100% certified organic, vegan and made in Italy, (where the climate gives it one of the best plant biodiversities in Europe) Milanesi is eco-friendly through and through. The Milanesi x Chitè Coffee Kit Purifying Mask is a gentle scrub treatment that uses coffee to exfoliate away excess dead skin. While added ginseng extract helps with elasticity and brightness, green coffee extract is packed with essential fatty acids and vitamin E to protect the skin from environmental damage. Not to mention the packaging is of course recyclable.
R&R Luxury Liquid Black Soap, £15
Delivering 100% natural skincare straight from Ghana, R&R Luxury is the sustainable, plant-based African brand making a difference. Their face and body oils, soaps and balms are made using the purest form of shea butter, whilst always sourcing ethically and empowering hundreds of Ghanaian women in rural communities through its supply chain. Their Liquid Black Soap is an ancient African cleansing secret, rich in vitamins A & E to deeply moisturise and renew all skin types.
This PIBE online exclusive has been produced by:
Photography & Artwork / Studio PIBE
Words / Sarah Barnes