It’s official. Everyone is obsessed with skincare. Need more proof? Over 420,000 people subscribe to Reddit’s “Skincare Addiction” sub, a 100 percent subscriber increase over the last year and a half.
Skincare podcasts are a new avenue for consumers and experts to share their opinions, reviews, and best skincare tips with loyal aficionados. And, most excitingly, the global skincare market is expected to reach $135 billion by 2021.
Why the growing cultural obsession with skincare?
There are several reasons. First off, today’s products have better efficacy than ever before, as the benefits of once-pricey, doctor’s-room-only treatments are now being offered in over-the-counter products to all consumers.
Also, skincare products today are the most innovative they’ve ever been, thanks to formulators harnessing the power of decades of science and research. Finally, social media is driving an information spike about skincare, and helping consumers get educated on the ingredients that actually work at improving their overall skin health.
Increased effectiveness, innovation, the Information Age and social media have all created a global skincare obsession and a winning scenario for consumers and producers alike. Consumers are able to buy the absolute highest quality skin care products – and formulators and manufacturers are able to create them.
Skincare products today are the most innovative they’ve ever been.
The democratization of skincare
Today’s skincare-obsessed consumer is enjoying an especially exciting era, since the most effective skincare products ever are being offered – over the counter. A great example of this democratization of skincare is the chemical peel.
Chemical peels contain a multitude of “therapeutic as well as cosmetic benefits when used on skin,’ according to the National Center for Biotechnology, but are costly and performed in a dermatologist’s office.
Today, the average consumer can skip the doctor’s office and still receive chemical peel-like benefits, just by purchasing products containing potent doses of super-exfoliative ingredient glycolic acid. Thanks to the strength and purity of ingredients manufacturers can now use in new or revitalized formulations, consumers can cleanse, moisturize, or face mask their way to their best skin ever.
Innovation fuels the way forward
As we’ve said before, consumer obsession with skincare continues to grow as product innovation grows too. With decades of scientific research backing new product formulation, consumers today can purchase multi-tasker products with multi-functional ingredients that perform double duty actions.
A few incredibly innovative skincare advancements include…
- Moisturizing facial cleansers that both remove oil and dirt and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
- Sheet masks, drenched in mixtures of nourishing and breakout-battling ingredients, offering consumers a fun way to practice self-care.
- Perhaps the most innovative of all is the serum world, where formulators are creating new products packed with multi-functional ingredients that can work overtime to do help consumers do things like battle acne and reduce signs of aging.
Social media: the formulator’s new friend?
Finally, the last key to this current global skincare obsession is the rise of social media.
In today’s social-media saturated world, influential Instagrammers and vloggers use the power of their platforms to offer up their best skincare information, product reviews, and tips. Thanks to the Internet, today’s consumer is the most well-versed and savvy skincare product shopper out there – which creates a winning situation for formulators.
Formulators now have an incredible opportunity to research trends via social media, as well as other channels, so they can devise products that help consumers seeking out niche needs, while also multi-functional products that can help wrinkles, fight acne, and exfoliate.
Our current cultural fixation on skincare has created an amazing opportunity for consumers and formulators alike. Producers can use the best, most effective ingredients available to create innovative new formulations, while consumers can happily indulge their skincare mania with exciting new products and facial care routines.
