As Sam Cooke crooned 'A change is gonna come ' and I feel like this change is imminent in the beauty industry. In this post I'm going to go through a few things that I think and hope will change in the industry, things that will continue on from and expand on some changes we've seen in 2017.
Packaging
Never before have people been so environmentally aware, and that is inevitably going to seep into the consciousness of beauty lovers and the brands that supply them. While in previous years I used to stare covetously at €60 prestige creams housed in beautiful glass and gold containers, this type of packaging is starting to look and feel out-dated and unnecessary. I'm a big fan of Clarins as you know and I've always enjoyed the simplicity of their packaging, it's like the atypical Parisian woman - sleek, no frills, functional, practical and chic. No ridiculous gold handles, no cut glass jars or unnecessary nonsense. Most of the bathroom and flat lay pictures we see on Instagram seem to favour simplicity and style over fuss and clutter, so I feel like packaging will start to reflect this. Think of Ouai, January Labs, Pixi or my beloved Alpha H (although I wish the hand cream tube wasn't white, it's wrecked after two months in my handbag!) - I feel like this is an aesthetic we will see more of. Personally, as much as my inner magpie loves some glitz and glamour, I would much prefer a brand to spend their dollars on research rather than over-blown packaging that will end up in one of the worlds over-flowing dumps once it's been used. Add to that the hightened frequency at which people travel nowadays, and heavy glass jars are just impractical.
Diversity
If you're an Instagram regular you know about the ongoing Tarte Shape Tape Foundation fiasco. If not, let me break it down for you - they are releasing a foundation version of their cult concealer Shape Tape and the swatches they uploaded to IG caused an absolute firestorm. Almost every colour caters to a lighter/medium skintone and I think there was only one or two darker options. For a brand like Tarte who are (or, were) at the top of their game not to realise that dark skin, like lighter skin, comes in more than one shade is inexplicable. Obviously it costs money to cater to as many skintones as possible, but the last time I checked Tarte was one of the worlds most popular make-up brands and aren't exactly looking down the back of the couch for spare change. Almost everyone cites Fenty as ground-breaking when it comes to shade range (yes, Fenty has a great shade range but MAC did it first) as I believe there are 30 or 40 options, and other brands need to be doing this too. I have a notoriously hard time finding a match in foundation and I'm pale, so I can't imagine what a woman of colour has to go through. This needs to be taken care of in the near future, surely these brands must realise that ignoring a large percentage of women when it comes to the shades of their products is both wrong and bad for business. While I don't think that you can cater to every single skin-tone in the world as we are all different, you at least need to damn try. The excuse 'Oh we're going to add more shades later' trotted out by Tarte just doesn't cut it. I can understand it from a smaller, indie brand but from a global make-up powerhouse it sounds false and ass-covering. Do I think that Tarte are racist, as many have stated? No. Being stingy by cutting costs? Yes. Rushing out a product to make as much money as possible even though it's clearly not ready for the mass market? Yes. Do better, people.
Ingredients
The demand for cruelty-free, bio, paraben-free, SLS-free and vegan products has never been so high. Peoples personal concerns and morals have crossed over into what they buy and consume and this is no different for the beauty-industry. If you're a PETA-supporting, vegan eater it hardly makes sense that you would want to cover your face in products that have been tested on animals and contain a host of chemicals. While I'm not that picky myself (although I prefer my products to at least be SLS-free and I do hope that animal testing is phased out) I have had messages from people asking me to recommend these types of brands. The main issue is not finding them, it's buying them. A lot of 'green' and cruelty brands are painfully expensive (think Tata Harper) and while they are within budget for some people, they just aren't an option for many. So hopefully we start to see this demand being met and more organic/cruelty-free/vegan budget-friendly beauty brands coming to the forefront to cater to those of us who just dont have €60 for a cleanser, green as it may be.
Specific Concerns
The days of people laying down €50 for a face cream that claims to brighten, smooth, protect against the sun, diminish pores, tackle redness, reduce scarring, clear up acne and give you a goddess-like glow are gone. No-one is buying that crap anymore, literally. The explosion of beauty on social media over the last number of years has led to an explosion of information that many of us were not previously privy to. With a quick search online you can connect with a host of legit skincare experts who blog, tweet, review and reveal. Any beauty savant now knows that no fix is a miracle. 2016 was the year that acids for exfoliating and brightening exploded onto the scene through products like Pixi's Glow Tonic, which then led us (or me, anyway) to previously unknown gems like Alpha H Liquid Gold, and more. 2017, as @nadinebaggott said, was the year of hyaluronic acid. Most of us in the beauty communities of worth-their-salt bloggers, IGers and YouTubers now have it on the best advice that no one 'miracle product' is going to fix all. Layering is in, spending a small fortune on a cream with deceitful claims is out. I feel like we are going to see more and more brands coming out with a range of acids, serums, creams, masks and more - each catering to specific concerns, so that we can customize what we use on our skin for the best results. The Ordinary is a brand that is leading the way on this, and doing it at an incredible price-point, all that remains to be seen regarding this brand is whether their pricing structure can stay the same within the Lauder umbrella as they were recently bought by this powerhouse company.
Marketing
In 2017 @carolinehirons had a bit of a rant concerning how brands market, specifically how they market to mature women and she started the #thatsnotme movement, which I hope is still going strong. Her concern was brands using young, naturally flawless and unnaturally photoshopped women to market anti-ageing products to women over a certain age - I have a bit of an issue with the term 'anti-ageing', to be honest. Fun fact - unless some enterprising beauty brand has found the Fountain of Youth or the Philosophers Stone, you can't stop ageing. Anyway, I agree. I invest heavily in beauty products, and most of you reading this probably do too. If we were to tally up the amount we spend in a year, bank managers the world over would recoil in horror. So I don't want to feel like beauty companies are going to forget about me once I'm older than Cara Delevigne or Jennifer Lawrence (Another fun fact, I already am...Crap). And bearing in mind that our Moms, aunts, older sisters, older friends, and grandmothers are often more financially stable than the typical millenial, it doesn't make sense at all from a business point of view. No-one older than Cara wants to see her perfect face advertising an anti-wrinkle cream that is supposed to be aimed at mature women, it's condescending - not to mention false advertising. L'oreal did a great job having Jane Fonda for their Age Miracle campaign and Julianne Moore for a couple of campaigns, and we need more of this, and less of 20 something year-old models claiming that a cream perfected their already perfected skin and counter-acted the wrinkles they won't have for another twenty years. You couldn't get away with this type of false advertising anywhere else, so I don't see why the beauty industry should be any different.
An explosion of Indie brands
Everyone wants a piece of the lucrative beauty market pie. While this is, overall, a good thing it also means that we need to be more careful of what we buy and who we buy it from. For example, a previously unheard of Australian brand who have one product have been working overtime on paid advertising of their clay mask that claims to smooth, brighten, clear up acne and presumably cook dinner. Unfiltered horsesh*t, says I. A good clay mask can clear the gunk out of your pores, exfoliate and contribute to keeping your skin clear and that's about it. I don't spend more than €5 on my clay masks, and if I wasn't so lazy I'd do what I've been saying I'd do for years and just buy a bag of clay and mix it myself. This Australian mask retails for a whooping £39.90 on Cult Beauty. While I could stomach that for an Omorovicza or May Lindstrom clay-based mask because of the research and know-how behind the brands, from an unknown brand that seems to pop up everywhere I go online it's a hard no. On the positive side, we now have indie brands like Indie Lee, LeahLani and Jordan Samuel whose beautiful ingredients lists, fuss-free yet stylish packaging and rave reviews are bringing them to the forefront of every beauty addicts wish-list.
In the interest of keeping this post to a decent length, I'll leave it here. I'm sure once I've clicked 'post' I'll think of 157 other things I wanted to mention, and if that happens I'll do a second post sometime in the future. These points are, at least for me, some of the most important changes that I think need to happen and keep happening in beauty.
Is there anything you would like see change in beauty?
Let me know!
Have a great week, everyone!
A x
Doyouevencleanse Instagram (shameless selfies, mini product reviews, skincare routines, new house posts, beauty and life)
Doyouevencleanse Facebook (it's been a bit neglected and I need to deal with it)
Doyouevencleanse Twitter
Packaging
Never before have people been so environmentally aware, and that is inevitably going to seep into the consciousness of beauty lovers and the brands that supply them. While in previous years I used to stare covetously at €60 prestige creams housed in beautiful glass and gold containers, this type of packaging is starting to look and feel out-dated and unnecessary. I'm a big fan of Clarins as you know and I've always enjoyed the simplicity of their packaging, it's like the atypical Parisian woman - sleek, no frills, functional, practical and chic. No ridiculous gold handles, no cut glass jars or unnecessary nonsense. Most of the bathroom and flat lay pictures we see on Instagram seem to favour simplicity and style over fuss and clutter, so I feel like packaging will start to reflect this. Think of Ouai, January Labs, Pixi or my beloved Alpha H (although I wish the hand cream tube wasn't white, it's wrecked after two months in my handbag!) - I feel like this is an aesthetic we will see more of. Personally, as much as my inner magpie loves some glitz and glamour, I would much prefer a brand to spend their dollars on research rather than over-blown packaging that will end up in one of the worlds over-flowing dumps once it's been used. Add to that the hightened frequency at which people travel nowadays, and heavy glass jars are just impractical.
 |
| Beautiful, but impractical and unnecessary (image from Guerlain.com) |
 |
| Better. (Image is my own) |
Diversity
If you're an Instagram regular you know about the ongoing Tarte Shape Tape Foundation fiasco. If not, let me break it down for you - they are releasing a foundation version of their cult concealer Shape Tape and the swatches they uploaded to IG caused an absolute firestorm. Almost every colour caters to a lighter/medium skintone and I think there was only one or two darker options. For a brand like Tarte who are (or, were) at the top of their game not to realise that dark skin, like lighter skin, comes in more than one shade is inexplicable. Obviously it costs money to cater to as many skintones as possible, but the last time I checked Tarte was one of the worlds most popular make-up brands and aren't exactly looking down the back of the couch for spare change. Almost everyone cites Fenty as ground-breaking when it comes to shade range (yes, Fenty has a great shade range but MAC did it first) as I believe there are 30 or 40 options, and other brands need to be doing this too. I have a notoriously hard time finding a match in foundation and I'm pale, so I can't imagine what a woman of colour has to go through. This needs to be taken care of in the near future, surely these brands must realise that ignoring a large percentage of women when it comes to the shades of their products is both wrong and bad for business. While I don't think that you can cater to every single skin-tone in the world as we are all different, you at least need to damn try. The excuse 'Oh we're going to add more shades later' trotted out by Tarte just doesn't cut it. I can understand it from a smaller, indie brand but from a global make-up powerhouse it sounds false and ass-covering. Do I think that Tarte are racist, as many have stated? No. Being stingy by cutting costs? Yes. Rushing out a product to make as much money as possible even though it's clearly not ready for the mass market? Yes. Do better, people.
 |
| This just doesn't cut it, Tarte. |
Ingredients
The demand for cruelty-free, bio, paraben-free, SLS-free and vegan products has never been so high. Peoples personal concerns and morals have crossed over into what they buy and consume and this is no different for the beauty-industry. If you're a PETA-supporting, vegan eater it hardly makes sense that you would want to cover your face in products that have been tested on animals and contain a host of chemicals. While I'm not that picky myself (although I prefer my products to at least be SLS-free and I do hope that animal testing is phased out) I have had messages from people asking me to recommend these types of brands. The main issue is not finding them, it's buying them. A lot of 'green' and cruelty brands are painfully expensive (think Tata Harper) and while they are within budget for some people, they just aren't an option for many. So hopefully we start to see this demand being met and more organic/cruelty-free/vegan budget-friendly beauty brands coming to the forefront to cater to those of us who just dont have €60 for a cleanser, green as it may be.
 |
| You're effective, organic and cruelty-free but OH SO EXPENSIVE |
Specific Concerns
The days of people laying down €50 for a face cream that claims to brighten, smooth, protect against the sun, diminish pores, tackle redness, reduce scarring, clear up acne and give you a goddess-like glow are gone. No-one is buying that crap anymore, literally. The explosion of beauty on social media over the last number of years has led to an explosion of information that many of us were not previously privy to. With a quick search online you can connect with a host of legit skincare experts who blog, tweet, review and reveal. Any beauty savant now knows that no fix is a miracle. 2016 was the year that acids for exfoliating and brightening exploded onto the scene through products like Pixi's Glow Tonic, which then led us (or me, anyway) to previously unknown gems like Alpha H Liquid Gold, and more. 2017, as @nadinebaggott said, was the year of hyaluronic acid. Most of us in the beauty communities of worth-their-salt bloggers, IGers and YouTubers now have it on the best advice that no one 'miracle product' is going to fix all. Layering is in, spending a small fortune on a cream with deceitful claims is out. I feel like we are going to see more and more brands coming out with a range of acids, serums, creams, masks and more - each catering to specific concerns, so that we can customize what we use on our skin for the best results. The Ordinary is a brand that is leading the way on this, and doing it at an incredible price-point, all that remains to be seen regarding this brand is whether their pricing structure can stay the same within the Lauder umbrella as they were recently bought by this powerhouse company.
 |
| More affordable, effective, customizable skincare please!(image elle.co.uk) |
Marketing
In 2017 @carolinehirons had a bit of a rant concerning how brands market, specifically how they market to mature women and she started the #thatsnotme movement, which I hope is still going strong. Her concern was brands using young, naturally flawless and unnaturally photoshopped women to market anti-ageing products to women over a certain age - I have a bit of an issue with the term 'anti-ageing', to be honest. Fun fact - unless some enterprising beauty brand has found the Fountain of Youth or the Philosophers Stone, you can't stop ageing. Anyway, I agree. I invest heavily in beauty products, and most of you reading this probably do too. If we were to tally up the amount we spend in a year, bank managers the world over would recoil in horror. So I don't want to feel like beauty companies are going to forget about me once I'm older than Cara Delevigne or Jennifer Lawrence (Another fun fact, I already am...Crap). And bearing in mind that our Moms, aunts, older sisters, older friends, and grandmothers are often more financially stable than the typical millenial, it doesn't make sense at all from a business point of view. No-one older than Cara wants to see her perfect face advertising an anti-wrinkle cream that is supposed to be aimed at mature women, it's condescending - not to mention false advertising. L'oreal did a great job having Jane Fonda for their Age Miracle campaign and Julianne Moore for a couple of campaigns, and we need more of this, and less of 20 something year-old models claiming that a cream perfected their already perfected skin and counter-acted the wrinkles they won't have for another twenty years. You couldn't get away with this type of false advertising anywhere else, so I don't see why the beauty industry should be any different.
 |
| WHAT WERE YOU THINKING DIOR |
 |
| More of this, please!👏 |
 |
| Julianne could NOT be more perfect, LOOK AT HER💗 |
An explosion of Indie brands
Everyone wants a piece of the lucrative beauty market pie. While this is, overall, a good thing it also means that we need to be more careful of what we buy and who we buy it from. For example, a previously unheard of Australian brand who have one product have been working overtime on paid advertising of their clay mask that claims to smooth, brighten, clear up acne and presumably cook dinner. Unfiltered horsesh*t, says I. A good clay mask can clear the gunk out of your pores, exfoliate and contribute to keeping your skin clear and that's about it. I don't spend more than €5 on my clay masks, and if I wasn't so lazy I'd do what I've been saying I'd do for years and just buy a bag of clay and mix it myself. This Australian mask retails for a whooping £39.90 on Cult Beauty. While I could stomach that for an Omorovicza or May Lindstrom clay-based mask because of the research and know-how behind the brands, from an unknown brand that seems to pop up everywhere I go online it's a hard no. On the positive side, we now have indie brands like Indie Lee, LeahLani and Jordan Samuel whose beautiful ingredients lists, fuss-free yet stylish packaging and rave reviews are bringing them to the forefront of every beauty addicts wish-list.
 |
| Image from LeahLaniskincare.com |
 | |
| Just bought this, can't wait to try it! Look at that gorgeous, simple packaging💓(image from Cultbeauty.co.uk) |
In the interest of keeping this post to a decent length, I'll leave it here. I'm sure once I've clicked 'post' I'll think of 157 other things I wanted to mention, and if that happens I'll do a second post sometime in the future. These points are, at least for me, some of the most important changes that I think need to happen and keep happening in beauty.
Is there anything you would like see change in beauty?
Let me know!
Have a great week, everyone!
A x
Doyouevencleanse Instagram (shameless selfies, mini product reviews, skincare routines, new house posts, beauty and life)
Doyouevencleanse Facebook (it's been a bit neglected and I need to deal with it)
Doyouevencleanse Twitter
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