The clean beauty market is expected to exceed $11 billion by 2027, according to a report by Brand Essence, a market research company.
We spoke with two clean makeup brands — meaning their products are toxin-free with transparent labeling — about what looks are trending now.
“I launched Jones Road a week before the presidential election, in the middle of the pandemic. I wanted to create something that allowed people to just look better — to just look like themselves. To not look like they’re wearing a lot of makeup.”
“With the pandemic, what really changed was how people found out about the products. Our sales quadrupled overnight from TikTok. I opened a TikTok account and said: ‘Hey guys, I’m here on TikTok, what do you want to know?’ People went berserk. Our mascara is still not in stock; there’s a 10,000-person-long waitlist for it.”
“Besides giving makeup tutorials on TikTok, I just talked to people. Someone said to me: ‘I’m having a lot of trouble, how do I contour my nose? And I said, ‘You don’t contour your nose! There’s nothing wrong with your nose. You embrace your nose.’ And then I told the story about how my mother told me I was pretty when I was 20 years old and after I said thank you, she said, ‘But you’d be gorgeous if you had a nose job.’ I never did have a nose job.”
“I think that when we all had time to pause, we realized what the important things are. There’s a new way of looking at the world and looking at ourselves. People are taking things down a notch. Looking good but low maintenance is more important. It’s modern. It’s very pandemic-inspired. It’s like, let’s get healthy from the inside out.”
“I think this is a new era of beauty standards.”
“In my perfect world, anyone is considered beautiful. Any size, any color, any skin condition. Because what is beauty really? It’s something that pleases you to look at. And a lot of that is how you feel in your skin. Self acceptance is really big.” -Bobbi Brown, 65, makeup artist and founder of Jones Road Beauty
“People slowed down with Covid and became very wellness oriented. The idea of wellness has permeated how we think about every aspect of our lives now.”
“People are becoming more savvy. Things are becoming more transparent. You can look up everything. The Gen Z customer is all about fairness, equality, kindness and feeling like they’re in the future. And everybody comes in wanting clean makeup these days.”
“In terms of trends, we’re seeing the most growth in blush. The lip and cheek sticks are doing double-digit growth since the pandemic. I think everybody thought that when the masks came off, the trend would be lips. But for us, it’s been a surge in super pronounced blush. A “Euphoria High”* blush. There’s this healthy, horny flush that people are wanting to get into. I think it’s leaning into joy. Flushed cheeks make me think of happiness.” (*A reference to the high school in the HBO show “Euphoria.”)
“It’s always been a top-five product for us, but it’s now going through the roof. And the bronzer, too. Which is just a different version of the alive, joyful look. People want the ‘I’ve just gone on an adventure’ aesthetic.” -Georgie Greville, 42, co-founder of Milk Makeup
