Looking thinner, living longer: What dominated the year in beauty

2024 was a dynamic year for beauty. M&A activity slowed, while product innovation was put on the back-burner. The wellness and fragrance categories reached new heights, while Ozempic (used off-label) and similar weightloss drugs took the industry by storm, shifting beauty ideals and norms. Looking thin, reversing ageing, living longer and shopping smarter all became dominant themes — keeping brands on their toes. All the while, the industry grew. The global beauty sector is on track to make $548 billion by the end of the year, up 4.5 per cent from 2023 with a forecasted 3.2 per cent growth rate for 2025, according to data analytics firm Euromonitor. “Growth has been supported by easing inflation and resilient spending,” says Carmen Silva, senior consultant for beauty and personal care at Euromonitor. The US, India and Brazil are particularly strong markets, while Europe continues to recover from inflation changes, and China remains muted but aided by its recent stimulus measures. Looking to the year ahead, however, she warns: “Growth prospects are weaker than pre-pandemic levels, with risks from high interest rates, low confidence and geopolitical uncertainty.” Investment and acquisition were quieter in 2024 than is typical for the beauty industry — setting up for a potentially busy 2025. Some deals of the year included Spanish conglomerate Puig snapping up Dr Barbara Sturm and Bic acquiring hairbrush brand Tangle Teezer for €200 million. Otherwise, much of the movement came from brands pocketing cash through mid-size investment rounds and series funding, like L Catterton investing in perfume brand Vyrao, private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners’s cash injection in Summer Fridays and makeup brand Violette_FR securing undisclosed funding, led by Silas Capital. The larger beauty and personal care companies had other pressing priorities. “In general, the beauty and personal care conglomerates were inward-focused this year, primarily driven by shifts at the executive level and an increased focus on optimising their existing portfolios,” says Marissa Lepor, director and head of beauty at M&A firm The Sage Group. Puig went public in May and L’Occitane was taken private in July, while L’Oréal offloaded skincare brands Decléor and Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc for an undisclosed sum to newly formed French group Cospal. Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson, newly appointed CEO of Unilever’s prestige division, started in November, and incoming Estée Lauder CEO and president Stephané de la Favarie — alongside new executive VP and CFO Akhil Shrivastava — will begin in January 2025. “Typically, it takes at least a few months for a new executive team to pursue large transactions, but now that they have had some time to develop near-term goals and strategies, they will likely have a stronger M&A appetite in 2025,” says Lepor. Executive shuffles aside, here’s what happened in beauty in 2024. A new era for appearance Appearance was heavily scrutinised in 2024 as weight loss aids Ozempic, WeGovy and Monjaro flooded mainstream markets and fuelled a ‘thin is in’ culture. It’s a divisive shift for an industry that had only recently made strides to embrace body positivity, and experts believe it’s only the beginning. As weight loss aids normalise, experts say they’re being repackaged as a form of ‘wellness’, with the Ozempic boom directly tied to everyone’s desire to live longer. “Thin was trending again — not ’90s trending — but appreciated again. However, now what comes with that is the acknowledgement and attention to overall health and well-being. The attention to wellness is being emphasised alongside weight loss,” says TikTok-famous, triple board-certified dermatologist and co-founder of skincare brand, Beautycore, Dr Mamina Turegano. Ida Banek, founder of London-based longevity and aesthetics clinic Ouronyx, agrees. “As consumers experience longer lifespans and healthier years, they will naturally seek ways like Ozempic’s ability to aid weight loss as a contributor to maintain overall longevity,” she says. But, Banek warns, “the full effects of Ozempic are not yet fully understood and new challenges will likely emerge.” That hasn’t stopped some brands from jumping on the increasing market opportunity. Supplement brands Lemme, owned by Kourtney Kardashian, and Arrae now offer GLP-1-adjacent supplements as a ‘natural’ alternative to the medical drug, while fitness group Equinox introduced The Equinox Fitness Training Institute, a new class for its coaches to become “GLP-1 certified”. Younger consumers were also obsessed with preventative ageing in 2024, bringing about trends like ‘the morning shed’ or ‘looksmaxxing’ while ditching facial fillers in an attempt to maximise a natural, healthy-looking complexion. Brands tapped in. Skinceuticals launched its P-Tiox Anti-Wrinkle Serum, Goop its 3x Retinol Regenerative Serum and Solawave an Eye Recovery Pro, all claiming advanced formulas and technologies to slow down ageing without the need for dermal fillers and botox. Preventative ageing also introduced consumers to the next generation of aesthetics, coined as the ‘undetectable’ era with muses Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera and Anne Hathaway causing a buzz around their seemingly ageless appearances. As a result, biostimulating treatments like polynucleotides (a firm favourite of Kim Kardashian and designed to stimulate the skin’s collagen for a youthful appearance), exosomes and laser resurfacing gained momentum this year, according to Dr Kristy Hamilton, board-certified plastic surgeon on the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. She predicts the trend will become a key part of aesthetics next year, spurring brand innovation. A big year for fragrance Fragrance boomed, reaching $63 billion in revenue in 2024, up from $59 billion in 2023. This year, scents were redefined by younger consumers who no longer seek out a ‘signature scent’ to represent their identity. Instead, they embraced owning multiple fragrances to suit moods, occasions and seasons. This shift made them more open to exploring different price points and brands. The wider fashion industry’s economic slowdown also fuelled growth in small luxuries, as consumers increasingly became influenced by value and affordability. As a result, luxury fashion houses like Bottega Veneta, Fendi and Balmain leant in with scent offerings to capture the engaged audience. Jil Sander and Miu Miu plan to launch scents in 2025. “Gen Zs and Alphas (especially tween boys) jumping on the ‘smellmaxxing’ trend and experimenting with scented products like body and hair mists, supported fragrance’s dominance this year,” says Lisa Payne, head of beauty trends at forecasting agency Stylus. Fragrances also acted as a form of scent therapy, with consumers perceiving the category as an extension to their well-being and spiritual practices, which brands like Noyz and Charlotte Tilbury implemented into their offerings. Retail reframing To source the best deals, consumers were savvier than ever with their beauty purchases this year. As a result, their eagerness to shop across platforms and price points ushered in and popularised social commerce consumerism. It posed a challenge for luxury retailer Net-a-Porter who couldn’t keep pace and had to turn its beauty business into an affiliate model in September. But, for commerce platforms like TikTok Shop and Amazon, with their live shopping functionalities and ultra-affordable beauty deals, their popularity among shoppers soared and “created beauty on demand”, says retail expert Wizz Selvey, in their wake. Now, a beauty product is sold every two seconds on TikTok Shop, per the company, and its success has since seen the shopping platform roll out to Europe — despite its wavering status in the US. And Amazon is on track to overtake Walmart as the largest beauty retailer in the States next year, according to e-commerce and marketing agency Front Row. The social commerce boom did, however, amplify dupe culture. “It was taken to a whole new level of shrewdness and sophistication with consumers proudly sharing their finds and commercial kudos online this year after searching for alternatives to viral beauty products,” says Payne, adding that many of the viral beauty product dupes exploded on TikTok Shop and Amazon. For example, a search for the trending Biodance Bio-collagen Real Deep Sheet Mask (£19) on Amazon merchandises similar offerings from brands like Dejin (£10) and Yecuce (£15), among others. Makeup brands Rare Beauty and Charlotte Tilbury were also duped. Rare Beauty’s Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil (£20) and Charlotte Tilbury’s Beauty Light Wand (£30) sat alongside identical offerings on Amazon from brands like Newvenper, Lakerain beauty and Ofaniya in the same packaging and, sometimes, brand font. For Philip Atkins, founder of marketing agency Phidel Digital, “it [dupe culture] was to the detriment of innovation and quality this year”. The real test for brands in 2025 will be to prove that their product is worth purchasing over an imitation, with experts predicting that product education, brand awareness and customer loyalty will be key to achieving this. Innovation’s peaks and valleys In a 2024 Mintel report, global consumer packaged goods innovation hit an all-time low. The global market intelligence and research agency revealed that midway through the year, just 35 per cent of launches were new products, meaning 65 per cent of launches were ‘renovations’ such as line extensions, reformulations, new packaging or relaunches. L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said in L’Oréal’s third-quarter earnings call last October: “We need to bring new stuff to get consumers excited,” flagging that the biggest slowdown in the makeup division was the US market, where there had been few innovations. Payne agrees. “The big players will need to work harder in the new year to command attention, otherwise once again, independent and agile brands will lead the trends and take charge of consumer interest,” she says. To overcome the innovation struggle, Payne says that smaller brands will need to truly understand the customer and how they buy, which is the key to success. “For the heritage giants, being able to pivot quickly or invest wisely will be important to spur on excitement.” There have been small pockets of innovation growth. Prada Beauty and Mac Cosmetics used pH-activated technology to adapt to the pH of a user’s lips for a custom finish. Biotechnology hit a point of maturity where mass consumer brands can now tap into the tech to develop next-gen ingredients. Otherwise, 2024’s innovations focused on embedding artificial intelligence into brand operations and consumer thinking. “We now use artificial intelligence to boost and meet efficiency goals in product and ingredient research, demand planning and forecasting exercises. It’s helped us unlock a tailored strategy and operation going forward,” says Céline Talabaza, CEO and co-founder of skincare brand Noble Panacea. In November, Estée Lauder Companies went all in with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and extended its partnership to develop 240 custom GPTs that’ll directly shape and accelerate how the company creates and markets new products. Consumers locked in and Gen Z turned to ChatGPT as its skincare consultant rather than a dermatologist — highlighting AI’s potential and industry longevity to guide future thinking and strategies. What’s in the pipeline? With 2025 within reach, all eyes are on the wellness category. “Call it well-being on steroids, but we’ll likely see more well-being fragrance propositions — think sensual intimacy, nostalgic comfort and escapist freshness via supercharged formulas,” says Payne. Founder of skincare brand Raaie Katey Mandy says the intersection of industries will reshape what it means to be a modern beauty brand. “By embracing these connections, brands can tap into new audiences and redefine modern luxury as inclusive, forward-thinking and deeply connected to the customer.” The catch is that product innovation must be backed up with scientific data, regardless of the sector. “Proof, proof, proof, will be everything for a brand’s credibility,” adds Talabaza. As for category innovation, experts predict that sexual wellness, women’s health, oral care and hair well-being will benefit. Propelling a seamless and diverse retail experience will be more important than ever, says dermatologist Mamina. “We’ll see a stronger integration as live-streamed product sales become mainstream,” she says. “This shift will spur engagement in real time, and brands will need to be responsive to this next era of demand. There are bright spots because brands will be tapping into their customer’s needs more than ever. And brands can then leverage feedback to drive product development, prioritise ingredient transparency and proven efficacy over marketing buzzwords.” This article has been updated. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.

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