Beauty Meets Wellness Initiative
Trends 2019

TREND 1: I Want to Be Me

I am the CEO of my health and wellbeing. As CEO, I am in charge of my health data and want to pick and choose customized products and services unique to my personal vision of health and wellbeing. Clinique iD is the latest launch of a new personalization technology designed to provide consumers with targeted solutions through packaging innovation. DNA-based diagnostics and skin gene therapy may obsolesce cosmetic surgery and noninvasive therapy as gene therapies affect/improve our appearance.

TREND 2: Sustainability 2.0

Clean beauty is the new black. The historical organic and natural versus synthetic debate must give rise to a new green science and sustainability conversation. The industry can block chain and provide this by arming consumers with data to prove transparency. The consumer packaging dialogue of the past will give rise to green science and manufacturing technology certifications where the entire supply chain will be scrutinized to ensure sourcing, solvents, extraction technologies, dispersants, active suspension mediums, delivery accelerators and preservatives meet strict sustainability and green chemistry standards. An example is the proliferation of bio ferments. For example, Genomatica makes a substitute for butylene glycol, a delivery enhancer, from fermented sugar. It’s safe, it’s non-irritating, and it has no heavy metals. Made from sustainable sugar feedstocks, it has 50 percent lower emission CO2 than petroleum-based technologies.

TREND 3: Wellness Lifestyles Demand Well Product Innovation

Contemporary wellness issues—sleep deprivation, urban living and poor air quality, environmental degradation, depression, social alienation, anxiety, stress, loneliness, excessive exposure to blue light, disrupted circadian rhythms, imbalances in the skin and gut microbiome—are challenging product line and brand executives to create products and services that better align with consumer needs. Consumers are overwhelmed with competing messaging, jargon and blatant misrepresentation. Evidence-based solutions and science must be translated into a language that inspires consumer trust and confidence. Education is essential and simplifying advances in epigenetics and scientific approaches to skin care. The evolution of “Multi-Functional Beauty”—fragrances that affect one’s mood, ease depression, or hone focus. Skin care/cosmetics that change color when exposed to extra pollution or UV radiation are additional areas of innovation.

TREND 4: The Pathology of Perfection Gives Way to a New Age-Embracing and Holistic Narrative

Neuroscience teaches us that beauty and emotional wellbeing are directly linked. The popular “selfie culture” has intensified the perceived need to look flawless and the expense of a healthy self-image and innate happiness with who I am.

TREND 5: Connected-Beauty

New consumer technology platforms that modify appearance through a connected digital device. Examples include:

  • Invisible smart patch applied to the bottom of your chin that can be thought controlled to modify the color and expressiveness of your face
  • Nanotech-infused second skin that can be modified by a hand-held device (or smartphone) to customize skin appearance and self-correct imperfections
  • Virtual Actualization—physical, emotional and cognitive virtual reality improvements to your appearance and perceived wellbeing. This may be a next generation trend on how we project our beauty and wellness. It goes beyond augmenting reality for testing beauty products on our digital selfie and/or using AI to formulate personalized beauty care and could become a new type of virtual “skin therapy.”

The Global Wellness Institute serves as an umbrella organization for numerous Initiatives, that are independently chaired and run. The resources, editorial, research and opinions presented by the Initiatives do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Global Wellness Institute.