The beauty resurgence among Gen Z

Anyone that knows me will know that I love beauty. I have never been much of a makeup collector, and tend to just stick to what I know, however when it comes to skincare I can’t get enough of it.

As a member of Gen Z, I am constantly being bombarded with ‘gen z specific marketing’, and so I think that I have a good insight into styles and trends of branding and marketing, particularly in my favourite beauty sector.

There has defiantly been a kind of beauty revival in recent years among my generation. Before a few years ago the beauty and skincare sector was largely dominated by brands such as Olay, No7, Clarins ..etc, all of which I feel are aimed at an older target market. It also seemed that skincare and beauty in general for younger age groups was neglected from a marketing perspective. Perhaps it was the rise of the beauty youtuber, or greater expectations and beauty standards from Instagram, but there has defiantly been a rise in the want for good skincare and stylish professional makeup among younger generations.

These factors either came about because of, or where the catalyst for specifically online beauty retailers such as kylie cosmetics, that now fill my Instagram feed with aesthetically pleasing bottles and very desirable results. We know that gen z’s predominant way of shopping is online, however beauty seemed to take a little longer to catch up with this trend mainly due to the nature of wanting to test products physically. Thanks to new innovations such as being able to upload photos of your face to swatch products online, the process has become easier and more common.

   

I think that another big factor in the beauty resurgence that was aided by the online beauty industry, is diversity. A big issue for Gen Z is lack of diversity and they don’t stand for it in any way. There has always been an issue in beauty of a lack of diversity in makeup, and again beauty seemed to be one of the last fashion and lifestyle sectors to make changes. It seemed that weather due to lack of physical space in stores, or just sheer ignorance and lack of inclusivity, traditional in store beauty brands did not offer enough diversity.

Online stores have the capacity, and particularly if marketing to gen z, the knowledge to understand how important providing diversity is.

Another factor in the beauty resurgence among ‘gen zers’ is the massive rise in personalisation of beauty products. A well known Gen Z characteristic is the urge to feel recognised for their individuality and be bold and different, they don’t want to be seen as trend setters or as ‘basic’. Brands such as function of beauty, that allow you to create your own unique hair care formula specifically for your hair type, not only tackles gen z’s need to be different, but also supports diversity and provides a product suitable for all.