In the latest report Spate in collaboration with The Red Tree, a leading UK consultancy firm, has analysed the skincare trends of UK citizens.
Double cleaning on the rise
One of the highlights highlighted by Spate in this report is that double cleansing is becoming more and more common among consumers. On the same point, it points out that products such as serums with ceramides and moisturising peptides are becoming one of the must-haves among British consumers. As the research agency specialising in beauty and cosmetics trends explains, there is a strong increase in the search for oil-based cleansing balms or cleansers that can be incorporated into a double-cleansing routine. "The interest in the double cleansing phenomenon has not gone unnoticed in the UK. Consumers are exploring new trends such as 'oil-based' and 'water-based' products for the first and second steps of facial cleansing," argued Emma Poole, Asistant Brand Manager, The Red Tree.
According to the Spate report, the UK consumer's top search terms are 'face serum', 'toner' and of course, retinol also has a strong presence in the UK, in this case, in the form of 'retinol cream'. Other terms searched for on Google are 'lip oil', 'eye cream' and 'vitamin c serum'. In year-on-year comparison, retinol has grown the strongest in terms of search volume, followed by 'lip oil' in the search for juicier lips.
Patch fever: immediacy and effectiveness
British consumers, like everyone else, are looking for efficacy and speed in their treatment and so there is a frenzy of patches. This trend imported by Korean beauty routines has become very popular especially in the area of dark circles, to combat acne. As The Red Tree team indexes, this has forced brands to continue to evolve and innovate in order to offer quick and effective solutions for different needs and imperfections, such as acne itself, blemishes or the fading of dark circles and signs of fatigue in the skin.
It follows that consumers are looking for specific solutions to address their problems: intense hydration, anti-ageing, juicier lips... And this becomes an opportunity for brands to innovate while at the same time meeting and satisfying the most particular needs of customers.
The peptides triumphed in 2023
In terms of ingredients, peptides dominated skincare routines and trends. The UK consumer chose to prioritise hydration through ceramides and hydrating peptides and these helped to offer alternative solutions by adapting to the most innovative solutions.
The phenomenon Cerave
Cerave tops the list of the most 'googled' brands by British consumers. Compared to last year, it has grown by more than 25%, although the most notable increase is that of Drunk Elephant, a brand that has managed to viralise its cream through thousands and thousands of skincare routines on TikTok. Glow Recipe is the second fastest growing brand with an increase in searches of almost 90% compared to last year. Also on this list are brands also recognised by followers of beauty content on TikTok such as The Ordinary, La Roche-Posay and Cosrx.