Skincare is the one beauty category that almost all customers, regardless of age or gender, interact with on a daily basis. A smear of moisturiser or face cleanser is the starting point for most routines, but in 2025, skincare’s growth was more muted. Some of it is a normalisation after years of blockbuster growth after the pandemic. But there’s also shifting power dynamics: affordable brands are gaining speed as customers scrutinise luxury brands more closely, and buzzy brands like Bubble and Augustinus Bader have had to recalibrate their efforts to reach a wider audience. The once white-hot Drunk Elephant’s fall from grace has made the industry aware of how fickle Gen Z and Gen Alpha shoppers are, increasing pressure to serve a broader customer group.
While innovation drives growth for most brands — signature ingredient complexes are powerful marketing bait — there have been bumps along the way. Sunscreen has had a tricky year, with a number of indie brands embroiled in an efficacy testing scandal that saw products pulled off shelves. A more consistent bright spot has been skincare and makeup hybrid products, with tinted serums and lotions or cosmetics with skincare claims rebounding in popularity.
In 2025, skincare brands will need to keep innovating to win over customers, with proprietary ingredients and expert approval paramount across the price spectrum. Scaling up clinically backed brands is tricky, as customers increasingly trust their own doctors and aestheticians over influencer recommendations, but the potential payoff is enormous.
Top Stories
1. Augustinus Bader and the Celebrity Science Experiment. After announcing a lower-priced sub-brand with pop star Dua Lipa, onlookers wondered just how far A-listers can take the luxury label.
2. Bubble Was Built on Gen Z. Now, It Must Grow Up. The colourful, affordable skincare line wants to attract older customers as it readies for its next stage of expansion. Like its peers Starface and Byoma, there may be growing pains along the way.
3. Drunk Elephant Was Never for Kids. The clean beauty brand has faced significant challenges in the years since it was acquired by Shiseido, but its embrace of young consumers may have been its biggest misstep.
4. Trendy Sunscreen Gets Burned by Regulators. With multiple voluntary product recalls and testing inconsistencies, hip sunscreen startups are in the social media spotlight as they navigate an unprecedented level of SPF scepticism.
5. The Hottest Trend in Makeup Is Skincare. A wave of new launches from brands like Versed, Glow Recipe and Rhode Skin show how skin-first brands are approaching colour cosmetics without leaving their value propositions behind.
6. How to Scale a Premium Skincare Brand. Beauty retailers excel at creating interactive, playful shopping experiences, but science-backed, pricey skincare brands looking to find growth must think outside the box.
7. Why Sunscreen Launches Keep Missing the Inclusivity Mark. Sunscreen is the latest product to attract consumer ire, with numerous brands releasing so-called ‘universal’ offerings that, in practice, often don’t work on darker skin tones. Fixing formulations, however, isn’t easy.
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