Was 2025 the end of the “clean girl”? The short answer is no — glazed lip glosses, dewy skin tints and barely-there blushes and bronzers still reigned. But a slightly longer answer is not yet. Makeup sales grew only slightly over the past year, dwarfed by larger gains in skincare, hair and of course, fragrance. Consumers are tiring of the same old look. What’s next?
The years makeup best-sellers tell a particular story. There was One/Size, the brand from makeup artist Patrick Starrr, and its On Til Dawn Setting Spray, the diffusing priming-or-finishing spray that became Sephora’s number one makeup item overall. There was Jones Road, the DTC success story, which launched its “Classic” lipsticks and drew a perfect nude loop back to founder Bobbi Brown’s eponymous line’s 1990s launch.
But if the year had a defining lip — say, an Index Lipstick? — it was probably La Beauté Louis Vuitton’s $160 bullet, which shot through the upper end of the price spectrum at double the price of its competitor Hèrmes’ own offer, setting a new luxury beauty standard for better and for worse. In direct contrast stands Mco Beauty, which has disrupted the beauty industry with its cheap, viral dupes of products from Dior and Charlotte Tilbury. (Tilbury herself clapped back!)
Cosmetics continued to innovate, with skin-caring foundations and lash-growing mascaras, while the look they’re achieving hasn’t evolved much. Even the holidays feel slightly more muted this year; the mood is less than glittering. But maybe that means the glam is yet to come.
Top Stories
1. What Comes After the ‘Clean Girl’? The trend, characterised by glowing skin, fluffy brows and fake freckles, successfully ended an era dominated by high-glamour makeup. The standards it has set will shape the kinds of cosmetics that consumers will want for years to come.
2. Exclusive: Charlotte Tilbury Comes For Her Copycats. The makeup artist and mogul is taking aim at rampant “dupes” of her best-selling products with a campaign called “Legendary. For A Reason.”
3. Full Coverage: How A Big Risk Paid Off For Patrick Starrr’s One/Size.This week, I take a look at the need for innovation in beauty, Drunk Elephant’s proposed comeback and Carisa Janes’ new makeup line.
4. Is Now the Moment for $160 Lipstick? Louis Vuitton Hopes So. The fashion house’s reveal of its debut cosmetics line has fired off a hot debate about the limits of what brands can charge for beauty. Will that noise translate into sales? Or did luxury’s biggest brand misjudge the moment?
5. The Eyelash Economy Looks to the Future. The lash category has moved on from the strip lash of yore, and an increasing swathe of consumers are forgoing lash products — including mascara — altogether.
6. Haul of Fame: Can You Dupe Your Way to the Top? MCoBeauty is blatant in its copycat approach. Today, it enters Target.
7. Bobbi Brown: I Still Believe in Miracles. The makeup artist and serial entrepreneur was finally ready to start her next venture. First, she needed a hero.
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