Sabrina Faramarzi is a trend forecaster, futures researcher and journalist who’s obsessed with all things trend, innovation and design. When she’s not uncovering patterns across socio-cultural phenomena, she can be found at the latest electronic music night, swimming marathon lengths at her local pool, or worshipping cats on the internet.

Lockdowns changed the pace at which people consumed beauty, resulting in 

 for many. “The role of beauty in consumers’ lives has seen quite a shift in the last year to a more ritual-focused lens on beauty,” says Shannon Peter, the beauty director at Stylist. “Before COVID-19, everything was about convenience and speedy beauty – that trick that will help you do your eyeliner in seconds, the mask that works in less than a minute, or the multipurpose product that will kind of cut your routine in half. It was all about efficiency – get the job done, get me out the door.”

As the pandemic reduced the need for speed, beauty buyers shifted their focus from convenience to escapism. Social media platforms have seen a surge in posts about ‘

 say they’d love to receive a spa day as a gift. The lines of beauty and wellness are continuing to blur, with 

 gaining more importance than aesthetics and physical appearance, according to a survey conducted by Euromonitor International. While just a fifth of people define beauty as 'glamour' and about ‘being on trend’, the majority believe that ‘looking healthy’ (50%), ‘hygiene and cleanliness’ (almost 50%), and 'inner confidence' (42%) are beautiful.

Hygiene-focused and medical-grade products have also experienced an uptick in consumer appeal. Drugstore brands like CeraVe, for instance, 

 for their accessibility and affordability, and the Palm of Feronia’s 

 offers a way to clean hands and protect them at the same time. “I think it's because over the last year we've had to rely heavily on science and so there has been a surge of products related to cleanliness,” says Peter. ”Brands like SkinCeuticals and CeraVe had a massive moment because the product just looks like it means business. It’s not fancy or branded in Millennial pink.”

In this chapter of Canvas8’s 2022 Expert Outlook, culture and wellness expert Shabana Ebrahem talks us through how ancient rituals are bleeding into modern lifestyles, beauty director Shannon Peter highlights how routines are slowing down, and Dr. Alvaro Jarrín highlights the game-changers decolonising beauty.

People’s beauty routines will become holistic and healing

Shabana Ebrahem is a global contemporary culture and trend expert specialising in wellness, beauty, luxury, lifestyle insight and advisory.

What has changed in the beauty sector over the past year?

For the longest time, the beauty industry was so heavily focused on image – on physicality, the outer shell. With beauty no longer just focused on aesthetics, that inner-outer wellbeing – that symbiotic relationship between the inside and the outside – is what consumers are now looking for, and they want to buy from beauty brands that do no harm. I think there's more and more emphasis on products not necessarily being clean but being principled. Where I think consumers and brands will find inspiration – especially that relationship between mind, body, and spirit – is within ancient wisdoms. If you look at the three powerhouse markets of beauty (South Korea, China, and Japan) it's not coincidental that they are so significant. They incorporate ancient wisdom into their R&D. All of the innovations around ingredients are coming from systems that are thousands of years old, and it's really important to recognise that provenance.

I think these products boomed during the pandemic because they became a way of experiencing culture without getting on a plane. I think people also became very aware of where those wellness rituals come from. We are already starting to see this manifest with rising interest in Indian beauty and Ayurvedic traditions, with products like the kansa wand emerging.

What predictions do you have for your sector in 2022?

Great skincare is no longer limited to three-, five-, or even ten-step beauty. It’s beyond routines and into rituals of preservation – saving, reusing, repurposing, and repeating ancient traditions. We are also going to see a lot more in-home and DIY beauty, though with people coming back to work and things kind of picking up, the convenience element has also crept back in. Really, I think healing is going to be the most important message in beauty and wellbeing moving forward. In the past, we've talked about holistic from a Western lens, but now when we talk about holistic, it’s referenced from Eastern traditions.

We will also look to the African continent. Africa has always had a really rich, diverse range of ingredients. There are so many products that come out of there, yet it's been on the sidelines. Our modern idea of wellbeing is so rooted in culture, heritage, and provenance. The Culture Steward will want to know the wisdom behind products and brands, and I think that won’t just be limited to small, niche brands. They’ll expect those stories from large brands as well. Brands that tap into ancient wisdom are really interesting – not just because they tap into these ancient systems but because their founders are usually people of those cultural origins.

Slower lifestyles have prompted people to take re-examine their daily rituals

People expect beauty brands to be accessible and emotionally attuned

Shannon Peter is the beauty director at Stylist and a freelance beauty copywriter and brand consultant.

We’ve seen beauty really slow down and consumers are looking for products that grant them permission to dedicate time in their day to the ritual – not just seconds. We're seeing lots of bath products that encourage you to take that time to indulge in a nice long soak or products that might elevate your shower routine. This all hinges on beauty being a ritual rather than a means to an end and enjoying the experience of beauty rather than the end result.

Another thing that we’re starting to see is the emergence of functional fragrance, where brands are looking at the neuroscience of smell and how that connects to our senses and the parts of our brain that are associated with emotion and memory. Brands like 

 are doing amazing things with mood supplementation, with fragrance playing one part of that. The next thing that consumers want is those products to do more for them than just the kind of aesthetic benefit they might get. I think products that work to hack your mood or emotions – that can actually do something on a neurological level – are a fascinating area of beauty that more brands should look into.

One thing that I predict for next year is a greater consideration when it comes to inclusivity around disabilities and accessibility in beauty. Pantene has partnered with Lucy Edwards, a blind influencer, for a campaign and it has created a code of conduct that’s all about trying to make sure that beauty content online is accessible to all. 

 has a massive blind fan base because its products are so heavily scented that customers can use the smells to navigate them. That is a really useful thing for a massive part of the population. Other brands are adjusting make-up brushes for people who might have motor difficulties and difficulties holding things. That's going to be the next frontier that we are going to see more of – building products for people who feel sidelined because they can't physically interact with them.

I also think a rewriting of the semantics, lexicon, and vocabulary used around beauty will emerge. Unilever announced that it would no longer use the word ‘normal’ on its packaging and I think we'll see more brands starting to think about honing in on the language they're using. There’s a curl brand called 

 that has made a point of including only positive language on its products. So, where we're used to seeing terms like ‘fighting frizz’, it is using terms like ‘curl liberating’, putting a positive light on it and not just focusing on this idea of taming yourself. I do think a lot of the beauty vocabulary is used without realising it’s borrowed from the vocabulary of warfare. It harks back to the whole concept of beauty being a secret weapon – the ‘lipstick that lets you take on the world’ or ‘waging war on your dark circles’ or ‘battling wrinkles’. These are all just natural processes, not a war. We’ll see more of this undoing of language, framing beauty as less like something you must do to fit into society and more about what beauty can actually give you on a sensorial or emotional level.

From marketing to product design, inclusivity is now a priority for many brands

The acceptance and celebration of varied types of beauty will no longer feel novel

Dr. Alvaro Jarrín is an associate professor of anthropology at The College of the Holy Cross. They are the author of The Biopolitics of Beauty: Cosmetic Citizenship and Affective Capital in Brazil.

Beauty is changing a lot in Brazil. It used to be very hegemonic with this emphasis on White, thin women with straight hair. That was the norm and every famous person resembled that in magazines and media. The Black movement – the Black feminist movement in particular – has really challenged that. Now you have a lot of people who are discussing Black beauty, trans beauty, talking about bigger bodies, and pushing back against traditional beauty norms.

Plastic surgery is also on the rise, including risky treatments, but I think in the long run, because there's this push towards more natural beauty coming from oppressed groups in Brazil, more people will be opposed to plastic surgery. I think people will be saying, ‘I don’t want to change my face or body. I just want products that align with them, such as hair products for afro hair and skin products for darker skin’. I think a lot of transnational brands, in particular, would be smart to cater to these audiences because that's where the tide will go, as opposed to reinforcing the more extreme kinds of procedures that people go for with plastic surgery.

People are now starting to change their ideas of what being beautiful is or what beauty can be, with an increased emphasis on self-love and accepting your body as it is. Black and trans influencers such as 

 are really changing the narratives around beauty right now. We have all these smaller brands that focus on diversity, non-Whiteness, and gender non-conforming, which seem niche but there are so many of them and more people than ever are consuming from them rather than the bigger, more mainstream brands.

Beauty ideals are no longer limited by what brands and media outlets spotlight

How our mindsets will shape the beauty sector

When it comes to beauty, the Culture Steward is looking for hyper-local products that tell a story. “In terms of beauty, the Culture Steward will be looking at heritage origin ingredients that come from a specific culture as well as borrowing and trying things out – without appropriating,” says Ebrahem. The backlash against 

 shows that people are pushing against appropriation in beauty. Brands such as 

 are already rewriting the narrative. Its ‘

’ campaign was produced by a 95% Indigenous crew and sought to amplify the voices of Indigenous people in Canada. Meanwhile, the 

 is an online holistic healing platform that provides wellness knowledge for underrepresented groups, Black hair care brand 

 is disrupting the wig-purchasing journey, and Olay’s 

 campaign looked at how algorithmic biases impact beauty ideals and standards.

The Systems Sceptic is challenging what beauty means to them, unpicking both beauty standards and consumption. “Consumers are now questioning how the beauty industry came to exist in the first place,” says Peter. “Take acne positivity, for example. Although we look at it as being a really positive movement, consumers are now going back further to unpick why acne wasn’t considered beautiful in the first place. Why have we been conditioned to think that glowing skin is the pinnacle of everything and that we need to participate in beauty culture to get anywhere in life?” Brands are helping address this cynicism. Neutrogena’s 

 is debunking Gen Z skincare myths and helping them distinguish between fact or fiction, while 

 is helping consumers find out which beauty brands are really ‘clean’.

The Systems Sceptic is a keen environmentalist so they want brands to prove their eco-credentials, whether that’s 

 into skincare products. They are also early adopters of 

more radical types of beauty and wellness

 so offering them opportunities to test products at early stages will quell their initial scepticism.

For the Contrarian, beauty is a source of entertainment and relaxation, but they also want relatability and body-positive narratives. “The Contrarian is where the mass majority of people live. There's a realism, a pragmatism about these people, and we all know these people, and sometimes we are these people,” says Ebrahem. “Where big brands could potentially look to position themselves is through educational pieces done in a playful way through social media. There’s a space for non-judgemental [narratives] about progression rather than perfection, and I think that's what this cohort wants.”

 overcome negative self-perceptions in its autumn 2021 campaign, while the 

 from Indian skincare brand Mamaearth aims to normalise body hair. Entertainment brands are also jumping into beauty to offer more to their fandoms. The 

 to offer fans six collections of products that align with their league teams. That wasn’t ColourPop’s only high-profile collaboration in 2020 – in the summer, the brand released 

a limited-edition Powerpuff Girls collection

 for nostalgic Gen Zers keen to fine-tune their Y2K looks.

 is an online community and membership platform providing trauma care and healing through a lens of creative wellness. It's shifting the narrative around trauma healing and putting the Black female experience at the centre.

 is a DTC brand offering innovative products of African origin. Recommended by women, for women, it’s tapping into the power of community cohesion and trust.

 is a science-backed skincare brand that provides medical-grade products and is a favourite among dermatologists.

 is an inclusive, gender-neutral cult brand that has skyrocketed in popularity among young Brazilian beauty consumers.

Alvaro Jarrín is an associate professor of anthropology at College of the Holy Cross. They are the author of 

The Biopolitics of Beauty: Cosmetic Citizenship and Affective Capital in Brazil

, which explores the eugenic underpinnings of raciological thought among plastic surgeons as well as the aesthetic hierarchies of beauty that condense race, class, and gender inequalities in Brazil. They are also co-editor of two edited volumes, 

Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope, Despair, and Resistance in Brazil

Remaking the Human: Cosmetic Technologies of Body Repair, Reshaping, and Replacement

Shabana Ebrahem is a global contemporary culture and trend expert specialising in wellness, beauty, luxury, lifestyle insight, and advisory.

Global

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