The Insatiable Appetite for New Science in Skin Care
How innovation from high-end clinical products and Korean skin care are upending the traditional luxury skin care market
This is our second edition of the Beautyverse Momentum Tracker - and it documents what luxury buyers are actually using. Our Beautyverse is one of our Cultivated Communities (1,000 strong, created with white glove outreach) that weighs in with pictures, comments and answers to our polls.
This is information that is not available from panel companies that track mass or masstige audiences.
WHY THIS MATTERS: luxury buyers are forward-looking and what they are saying, buying and feeling predicts future behavior.
The chart below is an example of a shift that is happening
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While I think I will always have a decadent moisturizer because I do still love the beautiful packaging and the velvety feeling of La Prairie or Guerlain, I am now more focused on ingredients that target cellular health, mitochondrial activity and regeneration on a more scientific level.”
- J, Gen X, NYC
In other words, traditional luxury brand products that offer lovely scents, packaging and textures are slowly being replaced with products that sometimes sound strange, do not have fancy names, are not perfumed, but feature remarkable before and after benefits.
As I noted in last week’s newsletter, it’s not as much about brands now as the ingredients that capture luxury buyer’s imaginations. Peptide-rich plasma, exosomes, spicules, salmon sperm (yep), snail mucin, and NAD+ Boosters are the equivalent of fashion, now, in luxury skin care. Social media is driving some of this, but women are also hearing about these ingredients from their doctors (plastic surgeons and derms) and their aestheticians.
Download the full report below! And let us know in the comments what else you want to know about beauty. Next month we are thinking of focusing on internal beauty, so send us your burning questions. For more information on our insights work, visit our website at LookLook. For learning from our LuxuryVerse (which covers a broader array of topics), give us a follow on IG and TikTok: @luxuryverse100.
Stay curious, Malinda



So interesting! Can’t wait to hear about what’s happening in the wellness space!