The skincare boom is about women understanding themselves

Our skin has become another part of ourselves to decode – and skincare is booming as a result. Susan Riley, Stylist's head of brand, joins up the dots.

The past few years have been defined by a period of intense self-examination for women, with many of us asking the fundamentals of who we are and what we want.

At Stylist, we call this The Psychology of Self; the art of women actively seeking content, experiences and frameworks that help decode their inner world. From attachment style and love languages to personality types and birth-order dynamics, there’s been a huge appetite for understanding why we think, feel and behave the way that we do.

The result is a generation who’ve become remarkably fluent in self-understanding. And it’s not confined to psychology – it's leaked into skincare in a major way.

Skin is another form of personal data

Skin is the latest thing we are decoding about ourselves. Forget identifying as dry or combination skin with an oily t-zone. We’re now seeking to understand what exact state our skin is in and why. Is our hyperpigmentation caused by hormones? Is stress triggering our breakouts? Have we damaged our skin barrier with harsh ingredients? Life stage, environment, nutrition and psyche all intertwining for us to self-identify and self-diagnose, with skincare now firmly sitting at the intersection of wellness, identity and emotional wellbeing.

It’s why 64% of women across Generations X, Y and Z identify skincare as their No 1 life essential, choosing it ahead of tech, entertainment, clothing, make-up and homecare in what can be seen as a powerful vote for the therapeutic value of everyday ritual. 

Bespoke continues to boom

As women seek a deeper understanding of our body’s largest organ, brands are responding in kind with increasingly personalised solutions. Derm clinics have been democratised with the likes of prescription services like Skin & Me and dermatology-led brands that target highly specific conditions and ingredients. K-Beauty ingenuity and skin diagnostics have also fuelled the power of the personal, the underlying promise being that you and your skin is unique, and your skincare should be too.

Notice too that many of the AI-powered tools and diagnostics analysing skin concerns (Haut.AI's Face Analysis 3.0 has been described as one of the most sophisticated skin evaluation technologies available) function like a personality test. Simply upload a photo, answer a few questions and discover something new about yourself. It’s self-discovery packaged in another way.  

In the same way that therapy has become a companion instead of solution, skincare has also moved away from being transformative to being about maintenance. Increasingly we are interested in not only how our skin will function and appear next week, but in the years ahead - explaining the continued growth of LED beauty devices and at-home treatment technology that support long-term skin health.

The current skincare boom is a  story of innovation yes, but more than that it’s a cultural story of a desire for self-knowledge and understanding. The brands best positioned for the future those that are helping women interpret themselves.

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