The Top 19 Beauty Trends of 2025

Men’s makeup sees a rise in demand

While makeup is strongly associated with femininity, there's a new beauty trend where male consumers are increasingly buying makeup products. The shift started in skincare: it was only a few years ago when men's moisturizer was looked upon as taboo, yet now there are dozens of men's skincare brands.

Now, that shift is expanding to cosmetics, leading men's makeup to become one of the top makeup trends.

In contrast to women's makeup, marketing for men's makeup mainly focuses on utility. A product description on a male cosmetics site reads, "Your eyes tell a story. Don't tell a tired one. Use our Wake Up Eye Stick with Caffeine to help de-puff the bags under your eyes."

These brands also push back against the stigma by using models with highly masculine features - thick beards and defined facial features. They also typically use masculine branding, black and red colors alongside bold and all caps text.

Consumers increasingly search for ingredients rather than brands

Ingredient-focused shopping, a movement largely driven by Korean beauty, has become one of the biggest trends in skincare, with consumers often caring more about what’s inside their products than the brand name.

As skincare information becomes more ubiquitous, consumers are employing this new knowledge and searching for ingredients directly, running alongside rising consumer demand for total transparency and simplicity.

Brands have taken notice of these shifts in consumer behavior and many have found that by focusing on ingredients like beef tallow, they can cater to both sides of the market – the novices who are looking for simple solutions, and the beauty aficionados who feel they can be their own at-home chemists by focusing on single-ingredient products.

Kids skincare on a rapid climb

In 2023, Sephora reported that the number of its customers aged 9 to 12 had doubled over the past five years. Social media’s role in shaping this trend is undeniable, with over 80% of teenagers reportedly watching beauty tutorials online, especially as beauty trends on TikTok go viral and influence younger audiences.

This growing focus on beauty among (pre)teens has fueled the explosion of brands like E.L.F., a standout in Gen Z beauty, which saw its revenue surge by a staggering 77% in 2024 to $1.02 billion and now commands 35% of the female teen market.

Kids’ products are heavily influenced by clean beauty trends and typically offering gentler, more hypoallergenic formulas to reduce the risk of irritating younger, more sensitive skin.

Some argue that beauty routines offer kids an opportunity for self-care and personal expression. But others are concerned that introducing complex beauty routines at a young age can send the message that looking good requires constant effort—and spending. This not only fuels self-consciousness as kids begin comparing themselves to curated ideals, but also normalizes costly habits that may be more about pressure than play.

Sun protection expands beyond traditional areas

With the growing focus on anti-aging and proactive skincare, consumers are looking for ways to protect all areas of their skin, from lips to eyes and beyond.

Shower water quality a growing focus

Filtering drinking water is not a new idea. But what about shower and bath water? That’s the idea behind the growing interest in the Jolie filter.

Authorities usually purify water supplies by adding a small amount of chlorine, but showering or bathing in chlorine also causes an unwanted side-effect: dry skin and hair. Given that consumers spend over $10B a year on moisturizing, and that hydration is one of the fastest-growing skin and hair care trends, it’s easy to see why a filter that removes chlorine would be a tempting investment.

In fact, Jolie pitches its product as a financial investment: “Women who invest in their appearance spend an average of almost $3,800 a year on beauty-related expenses…if you are combining your products with unfiltered water, you're foiling your investment in your appearance.”

As for the business model, Jolie’s customers first buy a special showerhead, then start a three-month rolling subscription for replacement filters.

Virtual try-ons and use of tech for shade matching

The key purchases for consistent makeup users like foundation or concealer involve experimentation and so have traditionally been bought in-store. Online instead serves mostly as a replenishment channel in the beauty industry once a customer knows what they want. In fact, for female teens, a demographic that spends more time online than almost any other, 90% prefer to make beauty experimentation purchases in-store rather than online.

However, companies like Il Makiage are capitalizing on advancing technology trends to match users with the right shade of these products, making it easier for consumers to find their perfect match.

At-home devices enable professional skincare on a budget

The staggering 98% drop in LED bulb prices over the past decade has allowed for new types of consumer products and is eroding the economies of scale that hold the salon industry together.

Not to be confused with surgical face masks, LED face masks are an increasingly popular treatment where a face mask with embedded LEDs bombards the skin with light, allegedly reducing acne. This would have been a ridiculously expensive product a decade ago, but the LED price drop helps these face masks replace what used to be an in-person treatment. Instead of spending $25 to $85 per session at a salon, users can order a single mask for $100 and get as many treatments as they want. And not only have LEDs gotten cheaper, but the lights have also gotten significantly longer-lasting.

The rise in popularity of LED face masks is also another case of the kit trend, where an in-person service gets replaced by a kit that can be used at home, alongside things like lash lift kits, beard growth kit, ebike conversion kits, fertility testing kits, and more.

"Non-toxic" emerges as the new label for clean beauty

Increasing concern over ingredients and allergic reactions has more people searching for "non-toxic" beauty products.

Rising K-pop influence fuels global Korean skincare demand

The global cultural influence of K-pop and K-dramas have affected a range of industries, popularizing skincare trends like “glass skin” and even sparking Korean-inspired alcohol trends.