Tamara Southward is a copywriter at Condé Nast Britain. She focuses on commercial articles and social media campaigns across nine titles, including 

People are redefining status for themselves using a broad range of factors beyond solely economic ones. This new iteration of status is often based around increasingly niche and local signifiers, and status is becoming a mode of belonging and connection with like-minded people.

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Manchester-born makeup brand REFY has become an essential beauty brand in the zeitgeist. They recently launched Skin Base, a Korean-formulated, buildable tinted moisturiser said to look like natural, perfected skin. 

hypebae

At the end of 2025, they celebrated their fifth anniversary with a Middle East launch. 

Grazia

Financially, they are thriving: for the year ending 31 August, 2024, the female-founded company reported £40.3 million in turnover. 

Yahoo! News

 Then, REFY became the inaugural partner for Selfridges’ experimental new beauty destination, The Beauty Spot. Simpler routines have propelled the brand’s success. “In an oversaturated market and industry, we felt there was space for a brand that brought simplicity,” says co-founder Jess Hunt. “Simple products that give high performance results, so you can do more with less, but also simple branding, education and messaging that aligns with what the audience wants.” 

Forbes

“For REFY, reflecting timelessness and the need for fewer products in its brand messaging reinforces the idea that its products work anytime, anywhere, and are not just useful in specific instances,” says Haley Crawford, marketing correspondent at the 

Interview with Haley Crawford conducted by the author

 “It’s communicating that it’s a brand for life, able to tell this story in different ways – with multigenerational campaigning and a curated, lean product offering.”

For UK adults, effectiveness was the most valued purchase factor at 47%. 

YouGov

As the ‘essential’ product category being redefined by UK shoppers, with 46% reporting they consider beauty products to be essential and national beauty spend being up 7.3% year on year, it’s an imperative time to invest in products worthy of UK shoppers’ ‘essentials’ baskets. 

Barclays

 Meeting this demand, just how have REFY managed to reach the apex of skincare?

 – inspired by co-founder Jess Hunt’s own bold brows – it was step one of a climb of products driven to simplify routines with next-level results. 

Glossy

REFY’s tight product edit and ‘face architecture’ system (brow, sculpt, lip) taps directly into this desire for streamlined, multipurpose routines. Gen Y and Gen X in the UK yearn for simpler routines as they had in the 90s, which is accelerating the ‘skinimalism’ trend, according to Olay insights. 

Cosmetics Business

 And brands leveraging this are winning. “

’s sets, such as its ‘Five Minute Morning’ and ‘Intro’ bundles, strip back makeup routines to key essentials – all while incorporating skincare ingredients – which is particularly important for people who are overwhelmed by shelves and shelves of products and don’t know where to begin when they step into a beauty retailer,” says Crawford. 

In 2024, REFY selected a handful of dedicated community members from their Instagram broadcast channel and flew them to Mallorca. 

Brand Insider

Brands such as Tarte and Topicals followed suit, organising similar ‘community trips’ focusing on ordinary customers instead of influencers. 

Business of Fashion

 These are a clear example of ‘community as marketing’ versus traditional influencer marketing. “We’re past the age of sponcon fatigue, and community members who have been supportive of a brand want to be involved,” says Crawford. “It’s not just a way of giving back; it’s a way to drive genuine, long-term loyalty. Beauty lovers are tired of seeing brand events held only in major cities such as London and New York or of watching influencers have all the fun. They want in on these moments and will be all the more excited to share them online with their own communities – among whom they likely wield influence – as they aren’t daily occurrences like they are for influencers.” 

To celebrate women across generations who embody confidence, authenticity and timeless beauty as well as the launch of its new lipstick, REFY’s 

 Campaign leaned into inclusivity at the heart of the brand. The campaign was a transparent celebration of women of all ages and drove home the mantra that ageing should be synonymous with embracing confidence and showing up as their truest selves. 

Pretty Little Marketer

 REFY’s approach also stands out because it doesn’t position inclusivity as a campaign moment but as a core brand narrative, tying directly back to its simplicity ethos: beauty that works for everyone, at every stage of life, without overcomplication or exclusion.

UK shoppers face choice fatigue and are actively reducing non-essential purchases. This is where multifunctional, result-driven products resonate. Brands should focus on curated routines: products that solve multiple steps with clear visual guidance. Think ‘pre-assembled beauty architecture’ – modular, easy-to-follow routines that give professional results without decision fatigue. Brands such as Merit and Ilia Beauty are also effectively delivering multipurpose products that pack more punch, such as Merit’s great 

. “Brands such as The Inkey List have also embraced simple, black-and-white branding that focuses on the main ingredients in each product, rather than trying to compete on packaging on technicolour shelves,” adds Crawford. 

With Britons increasingly distrusting traditional influencers, favouring authentic voices, there’s space to create more community-leaning narratives. 44% of Britons lose trust in influencers if they seem fake or scripted, whereas 36% disengage if recommendations appear profit-driven 

Corporate Vision

 Brands should tap community-first perspectives as the new currency of trust and product development. Fans can also help shape launches and co-curate experiences, creating emotional investment that influencers alone cannot replicate. “

 campus activations are another way to get shoppers involved in more genuine ways, and is a very effective way to drive conversion,” notes Crawford. “A 2025 Guizio event at the University of Wisconsin had a line-up of 2,000 students, and nearly every single attendee walked away with a purchase.” 

Brands need to highlight diverse life stages – not just race and gender inclusivity. UK beauty lovers value representation across age, identity and lifestyle and campaigns highlighting multi-generational confidence. 50% of people prioritise inclusive beauty and 31% actively avoid brands that fail to represent them. 

 Brands should embed inclusivity into product storytelling and show beauty as adaptable for every age, look and lifestyle – not as one-off marketing angles. Leaning into marketing that celebrates multiple life stages, with interactive experiences like AR try-ons and community stories, reinforces multi-generational confidence. For REFY, the simplicity of the products likely makes them more diversity-friendly, too. “Offering a core, stripped-back product is an effective way of giving a wider range of people simple guidelines they can easily digest when scanning rows of products and brands, facilitating conversion,” says Crawford. 

 of women over 35 said a simplified skin care routine is more appealing

In the first quarter of 2025, the average number of likes on sponsored beauty posts dropped by 

 collective growth rate for inclusive brands versus 

In an oversaturated beauty market, people are craving simple yet effective skincare routines and products that let them do more with less

Brands should lean into their community as a path towards both product development and long-term emotional investment from people

By building an ethos around inclusivity – specifically when it comes to age – brands have the opportunity to position themselves as adaptable to every life stage

Haley Crawford is a marketing correspondent at the Business of Fashion, having worked previously as a consumer marketing insights manager at Coty. With strong experience in the fashion, beauty, travel and publishing industries, she’s a strategic and creative thinker, building engaging digital and print content, storytelling, trend forecasting and connecting with customers.

United Kingdom

Skincare

Make-up

REFY’s growth over the last five years is underpinned by the brand’s results-driven simplicity for all philosophy. By prioritising multifunctional products, it takes a “less is better” approach; its inclusive, multigenerational storytelling reflecting a broad range of stages – reinforcing relevance.

Analysis

Tamara Southward

Haley Crawford

Related Macro behaviours

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