Macro Forecast

WGSN | Big Ideas 2023:

Beauty
Beauty routines and products will be reshaped by a
sharper focus on health, science, sustainability and social
justice in the post-pandemic era. Here are the five need-to-
know directions that will impact the industry in 2023

Clare Varga & Emma Grace Bailey

01.15.21 · 8 minutes

Farmacy Beauty
Executive summary and methodology
Against a challenging economic, social and environmental backdrop, we
present five areas that will impact product development for beauty
businesses by 2023. The following pages explain these areas, explore the
opportunities they present, identify early adopter companies, and outline
what you should do to succeed. The areas are:
Push for Progress: the urgent need for inclusive and regenerative
change will drive demand for proactive products and business practices
that actively improve the world
Embracing Frugality: long-lasting, reusable and circular products will
gain importance as consumers look to save costs and reduce waste
Mastering Wellbeing: with wellness now core to consumer priorities,
brands should explore hi-tech and lo-fi solutions that respond to mood
and improve wellbeing
Tech-ceptance: digitised design will go mainstream, opening up new
retail channels and boosting the importance of customisation and
flexible design
Intentional Community: emerging social and values-led networks will
become more influential on consumer purchasing decisions, and brands
will need to implement new strategies to reach these communities
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Each January WGSN produces the Big Ideas series of reports (one for each
of our platforms – Fashion, Lifestyle & Interiors, Beauty, and Food & Drink),
which highlight the industry-specific trends you need to know now, so you
can start developing products and services that will resonate with
consumers in two yearsʼ time.
The five trends in our Big Ideas reports evolve from the broader themes
explored in our two annual flagship forecasts – Future Innovations, which
showcases the creative and cultural directions that will shape the next two
years, and Future Drivers, which chronicles the social, economic and
political factors that will affect businesses in 2023. Big Ideas takes shape
alongside our Future Consumer forecast, which is published in January and
outlines the key consumer profiles you will need to engage with over the
coming years.
These reports are produced by WGSNʼs global team of experts and analysts,
ensuring they have broad relevance across all regional markets. Our trends
are validated by data, industry examples and our unique STEPIC
methodology (encompassing developments in society, technology,
environment, politics, industry and creativity) so you can apply them with
confidence to your product development.
Overview
The  ve need-to-know Big Ideas for 2023
The Halo Collective
Push for Progress
 
The urgent need for ethical,
inclusive and sustainable
change will drive consumers
to seek proactive products
and business practices that
actively improve the world.
Transparency will be non-
negotiable.
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Live Tinted
Embracing Frugality
 
Beauty consumers will
prioritise efficacy and
efficiency as they look to
make smart purchases that
donʼt harm the planet. The
skinimalism trend, which
champions simplified
skincare routines, will unite
frugality and sustainability
in hybrid products.
Superegg
Mastering Wellbeing
 
Beauty and health will be
one and the same, with
products and treatments
formulated to support
physical and mental
wellbeing. Cellular beauty
will combine science and
therapy.
Opulus Beauty Labs
Tech-ceptance
 
Beauty consumersʼ
newfound tech-ceptance
will create ʻbeauty
moonshotsʼ in product
design. Advances will focus
on new bio-engineered
ingredients and enhanced
potency and delivery
methods.
54 Thrones
Intentional
Community
Beauty communities and
customer collaboration will
increasingly shape product
development. Consumers
will migrate to brands with
shared values, which treat
networks and co-creators
equitably.
Push for Progress
In 2023 products will need to be t to function in a trading
environment where collective activism has increased and industry
practices are being continually challenged on environmental and
social grounds. 

Regulators, investors and consumers will coalesce to demand services,

systems and products that accelerate regenerative change and deliver
inclusive and equitable outcomes at a local and global level. Proactively
designed products that do more good will stand out to consumers as
markets become inundated with products designed to do less harm.
Beauty implications
As we put the turmoil of the pandemic behind us and economies return to
growth, itʼs important that the lessons of 2020 are acted upon. Brands and
retailers must seize the opportunity to reset or be held accountable as the
beauty industry recreates itself as more ethical, inclusive and sustainable.
In 2023, a brand that doesnʼt participate positively wonʼt participate at all,
as beauty consumers look to invest in products that support their needs
and the needs of others. Standing for something other than the bottom
line will propel brands to the forefront of much-needed radical change,
Tatabi Studio
and complete transparency will be non-negotiable. Products must help
heal the world, and be created by processes that boost biodiversity and Tatabi Studio’s IKI design concept reimagines the classic toothpaste tube as a re llable shape,
demonstrating a need to disrupt and subvert longstanding product expectations
leave no footprint behind. Now is the time for progressive transformation.
Future Drivers: Community 3.0, Radical Reform, Environment: From
Urgency to Emergency
Future Innovations: Design Is a Social Practice, Collective &
Regenerative, Science Will Save Us, SuperNature

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Push for Progress: case studies
Brands must become activists, inspiring and helping consumers to do better
while creating an eco-optimist mindset that protects, celebrates and
supports humanity. Products that give back to the environment, rather than
just take less from it, will be expected, as regenerative design becomes the
norm. Businesses must protect the planet for future generations and the
future of beauty, too.
Kloraneʼs anti-pollution haircare line uses aquatic mint, which has an ability
to purify polluted freshwater. It means the shampoo does not contaminate
the water as it is rinsed away down the drain.
Dow has saved $500m thanks to its Valuing Nature goal, proving that
working with nature – not against it – delivers financial rewards.
Supply chain tracking technology will be essential for all businesses to
securely and efficiently prove their actions on a local and global platform.
This transformative approach to traceability will become the industry
blueprint, empowering brands to become more trusted in an increasingly
discerning society.
By 2023, the ʻrefillutionʼ will be in full effect, with ʻbottles for lifeʼ and
milkman-style delivery services becoming an easy and affordable everyday
habit, such as Meiyumeʼs new jar with removable inner cup, which allows Maison Made
the weighty outer jar to be refilled quickly.
Maison Made is the rst luxury skincare brand to be certi ed as biodynamic, through Demeter
Brands that stand for humanity will be the new leaders, setting a standard Association Inc. It limits production rather than manipulating crops and land to over-deliver

for the industryʼs accountability around its impact on the world. Financial
implications for brands that fall short will be commonplace, as investors
look to lend more positively. The Halo Collective is a newly founded group
fighting to end discrimination against Black hairstyles. Unilever is the first
company to commit to the groupʼs code, pledging to protect workers with
afros and dreadlocks. In 2023, brands that prioritise the protection of
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people and planet will see profit follow.
Embracing Frugality
Income insecurity and recession will have been experienced by
many by the time we reach 2023, leading consumers to reassess
their priorities and needs. 

Frugality will be embraced as a life skill – one that can be mastered,

shared and celebrated as a new form of smart consumption. To appeal to
this mindset, it will be imperative to develop products that can be made
and used efficiently, and that enable self-sufficiency, aligning with your
core consumersʼ values and interests. The motivation to be more frugal
and less wasteful will not only emerge from financial constraint, but also
from a newfound interest in DIY, and as a way to better sync with the
seasons, the environment, or with a community or locality.
Beauty implications
As beauty consumers continue to reassess their priorities and needs,
brands and retailers must empower these newly confident and self-
sufficient shoppers to make smart decisions for their pockets and the
planet. In 2023, value will increasingly be equated with efficacy and
efficiency. Buying well and making judicious and thri y choices will be
celebrated and respected. Products with proven results will be the new
Frances Prescott
measure of value for money, irrespective of price tag, while products that
enable sustainable consumption will be in high demand. Brands must Frances Prescott’s collection of three luxury multitaskers includes the facial Tri-Balm which
cleanses, exfoliates, and moisturises in one step
ensure consumers can enjoy guilt-free use of their favourites. Items must
come without the fear of creating more waste, and celebrate the
satisfaction of frugal choices.
Future Drivers: The Recession Generation, Environment: From Urgency
to Emergency, Community 3.0
Future Innovations: The Lifecycle Lifestyle, Collective & Regenerative,
Design Is a Social Practice
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Embracing Frugality: case studies
Skinimalism (the trend for simplified skincare regimens and products) will
evolve from limitarianism, uniting frugality and sustainable design.
Enhancing efficacy and efficiency, the skinimalist approach will streamline
routines, with hybrid products blurring lines between categories and
reducing the need for multiple products.
US brand Merit will soon launch a "well-edited" collection of essentials,
centred around The Minimalist complexion stick. Neither a concealer nor a
foundation, it replaces both in make-up bags. Live Tintedʼs revolutionary
Huestick in five inclusive shades can be used as a lipstick, eyeshadow, blush
and colour corrector.
Evolving beyond copies of cult favourites, 'dupe culture' will enable
financially pressed consumers to find affordable or more sustainable
alternatives with similar results, offering accessibility and authenticity.
Brandefy is a community-powered beauty dupe platform and app where
users review and find comparative products, including vegan or fragrance-
free versions. With around 30,000 monthly active users, it saw 330% year-on-
year growth in accounts in 2020. Supergreat's community of "real beauty
fans" shares product reviews and routines via short videos.
Efficacy will be a key purchase driver for frugal-minded shoppers, as they Live Tinted
equate proven results with value for money. Informed consumers will
Live Tinted’s Huestick, which comes in ve inclusive shades, is a lipstick, eyeshadow, blush and
question product claims and favour evidence over brand name, especially colour corrector all in one. Packed with hyaluronic acid and vitamins, it has attracted a waitlist of
for high-price products. New beauty app Myrror helps consumers more than 10,000

understand a product's effectiveness through its Personal Progress Tracker

and Product Validation Tool, which compare and evaluate skincare. US
skincare brand Proven is backed by "the worldʼs largest skincare database,"
The Skin Genome Project, which carries data on the effectiveness of more
than 20,238 skincare ingredients, more than 100,000 products, and more
than
7 8m user testimonials.
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