The beauty and personal care industry is witnessing a slowdown and “value” is being redefined. It’s no longer about luxury for luxury’s sake, but about making smart, purposeful choices.
Euromonitor explores these five key trends impacting beauty and personal care in 2025 and into 2026.
Recession Glam
As beauty consumers become more mindful of their spending, they are prioritising smarter purchases and opting for brands that offer quality without compromising their budget. With a heightened focus on value, consumers are signalling a shift towards more thoughtful consumerism during a time of restrained beauty spending.
Price sensitivity paints the varying shifts in consumer behaviour when prices do rise, eg trading down from premium to mass, stocking up during promotions, or utilising loyalty programmes.
Clinical Confidence
Beauty consumers are increasingly drawn to brands with clinical positioning, seeking products backed by science and medical endorsements. As the consumer journey becomes more complex, shoppers rely heavily on the path to purchase of brands that incorporate medical endorsements, looking for clinical validation and expert-backed recommendations.
Dermocosmetics, which emphasise skin health benefits and proven results, have seen tremendous success as a rapidly growing space
Source: Euromonitor International
Dermocosmetics usage has risen dramatically globally – a trend that will accelerate in 2025.
Healthspan Plans
Beauty consumers are increasingly gravitating towards brands that align with their long-term health goals, selecting products that promise to contribute to their overall longevity and wellbeing, emphasising the importance of looking and feeling youthful for years to come. The growing trend towards healthy ageing sees consumers seeking out proven ingredients like collagen and vitamin C, which have been successful in other sectors like foods and supplements, to ensure that their beauty products offer scientifically backed benefits that promote vitality and support the skin’s ageing process at any age.
Loyalty Immersion
Beauty brands are focused on increasing engagement by encouraging consumers to stay longer on their beauty apps and dive deeper into video content, fostering brand loyalty through continuous interaction. Consumers are seeking immersive, entertaining, and shareable beauty experiences that are accompanied with a sense of community.
From Netflix shows to TikTok mini-series, these content initiatives serve as powerful tools to maintain a consistent presence on consumers’ screens.
Eco-Evaluation
Beauty consumers are placing higher focus on sustainability, seeking lighter-weight formats and details on how sustainable options “save” a quantity of waste from being produced. Beauty brands are exploring innovations in the end-of-product lifecycle and expanding claims in beauty and personal care categories less focused on sustainability.
The EU passed a new set of packaging laws in 2024 that set minimum packaging design requirements for consumer goods, including beauty and personal care. Refillable premium fragrances, skin care refills, and even plastic-free toothbrush packaging are the latest to disrupt beauty packaging in Europe. In economies where sustainability is less developed, such as in Asia Pacific, Eco-Evaluation is bringing awareness through greater usage of upcycled ingredients in both beauty-centric and personal care-centric categories.
Future growth opportunities
Recession Glam: Given the likelihood of a trade war in upcoming years involving the largest economies, consumers globally are anticipating higher inflation and rising prices. Beauty stakeholders must showcase the quality and effectiveness of their products to justify their value to consumers.
Clinical Confidence: As momentum in dermocosmetics is unlikely to wane in the near future, opportunities exist for brands to merge scientific approaches with natural ingredients for optimal efficacy.
Healthspan Plans: “Longevity” will still be the buzzword of healthy living in 2025 and 2026. This is leading to greater demand for products that address specific life stages as well as emotional and mental wellbeing.
Loyalty Immersion: By combining innovative, eye-catching products with collaborations involving creators, beauty brands can “let the content speak for itself”, using visually compelling storytelling to drive engagement and conversion.
Eco-Evaluation: Packaging and ingredient sourcing are at the crux of sustainability innovation in beauty and personal care, but areas that beauty players should focus on in 2025 and 2026 are format expansion and quantifying waste-saving metrics.
Learn more about these trends in our report, Top Five Trends in Beauty and Personal Care, to gain insights from case studies and see our predictions for the forecast period.