The Future Laboratory’s recent webinar, Beauty, Health & Wellness Futures provided insights from a panel of industry experts on beauty and wellness shifts, analysing brand strategies, with a sharp focus on the current consumer demand for science and data behind beauty and wellness products.
This new mactrotrend – the thirst for consumer knowledge, demand for scientific evidentiary transparency – is known as Accredited Beauty.
The consumer demand for honesty and transparency are not new themes here at The Collective. They hold hands with ethics and sustainability, and you’ll see that twisted through the thread of many of our articles. There has been a cosmic shift in recent times towards responsible consuming and purchasing and this movement has now reached the creation process itself. Consumers want what the Future Laboratory is calling ‘the four new pillars of a new age of products: expertise, exploration, evidence and certification’. That is exactly what Accredited Beauty is.
What does that mean? Due to the pandemic, consumers have analysed their lifestyle and habits, looking at how those habits and choices have affected them mentally and physically as well as what impact their actions or inactions had on their body, mind, and spirit. Your health being your wealth has never rung truer. Many indulged in beauty and skincare self-care routines over lockdown that drove people to look at the products and ingredients they were using. After all, skin is the body’s largest organ. With Covid-19, most of us put our faith in the scientists, doctors and research bodies looking for answers. Our trust in the experts during this time, combined with a good dose of self-reflection, has led to what is being called the ‘healthification’ of the beauty industry and the demand for Accredited Beauty.
It would appear that in a post-Covid landscape consumers are driven to products that have medical-grade approvals and standards as they are deemed to be more trustworthy and more effective. When there is a cost-of-living crisis happening, many beauty and wellness products are a luxury and you want to know that when you are spending your hard earned, doesn’t-go- as-far-as-it-used-to, pay cheque on those items, that they do what they claim to do on the aesthetically perfect packaging.
The purpose of Accredited Beauty is to prove the worthiness of the product (and subsequently the brand) and ultimately inspire consumer trust by hiring the right experts, exploring new ways to make product ingredients or amalgamate existing wellness and beauty products, evidence real results and give accreditation by way of certification from a professional in that field. Consumers want the reassurance that an expert has given that product, that process and that particular ingredient their qualified stamp of approval. In doing this, brands are not only answering the scream of the eco-warrior consumer (for it is so loud now, it could not be dismissed for a cry), they are also trying to safeguard their industry by creating innovative and responsible products and experiences at the very start of the process.
This future proofing doesn’t only go as far as securing a loyal customer base, it even transcends into the supply chain. Imagine a world where all the ‘natural’ ingredients that we love to see in products could be lab grown. This would tackle a myriad of issues; ‘plant X’ across the world has been depleted because it’s so in demand and it can’t be grown fast enough, ‘berry Y’ has been wiped out due to crop failure, ‘ingredient Z’ is unavailable due to transportation issues. The possibilities are endless.
Accredited Beauty continues to gain traction amongst consumers who have shifted from simply trusting what they are being told to now demanding insight into the process; where the ingredients came from, proof of worthiness of the product and evidence through results. Science is becoming the key ingredient in Beauty, Health and Wellness products.
Want to join The Collective, and contribute to the debate?
Email us at: The.Collective@lewissilkin.com