Longevity: Is This Beauty’s Biggest Makeover Yet?

From the ancient Egyptians using minerals to create the first kohl eyeliner to more recent examples like Hayley Bieber’s ‘Glazed donut’ skin, the beauty industry has always been at the forefront of innovation.

However, the Future Face of Beauty report reveals that at no time in history has the industry undergone its biggest reformulation than right now. And at the centre of it all? Longevity.

Consumers don’t simply want products that promise to make them look better. They want products that compound over time, address underlying causes and support overall wellbeing. The global longevity market, which is already worth $740 billion, has exploded with products that sit at this intersection of beauty, wellness, health, and technology.

Think AI-powered skin diagnostics, ingestible beauty supplements and functional skincare.

In the face of these industry changes and consumer expectations, the brands that won’t blend in are the ones that move beyond innovation for innovation’s sake and create distinctive design and product systems people can understand, experience, and rely on.

Brushing Up on Consumer Habits

As consumer behavior evolves, so too does the language of beauty. Anti-aging messaging has been replaced by everything pro-vitality and savvy beauty shoppers have found a new way to navigate the category with AI’s ingredient breakdowns and tailored suggestions.

According to Nielsen IQ, 49% of shoppers use AI to get personalized recommendations. This is no surprise to me. AI translates overwhelming ingredient lists and conflicting views into digestible and personalized advice, whether that’s getting luscious glossy hair through scalp treatments or achieving glass skin just in time for a wedding.

For brands, the opportunity lies in being able to articulate product ingredients, technologies and benefits in a way that’s clear for both consumers and AI.

Not Just a Pretty Face

One of the byproducts of longevity has been a huge uptick in the semiotics of science across all beauty categories.

Inspired by classic pharma and medicinal codes, more and more beauty companies are investing in ingredients that would once have sounded more at home in a lab than the beauty aisle. Peptides, ceramides, and retinol are no longer niche vocabulary but are part of the mainstream beauty lexicon.

This marks a change from past behavior, as historically consumers either bought into serious science-based brands with clinical credentials or cute, aesthetic ones. Today, for brands to be chosen, they have to be both.

This doesn’t diminish the importance of proof, which is non-negotiable for current shoppers who are wise to vague claims and “miracle” products. Credibility doesn’t mean every brand needs to try and become a dupe for NIOD or The Ordinary, which pioneered the clinical minimalist category. Beauty standards have changed, and brands can present themselves in a way that’s layered, rich, and emotive, and still be taken seriously.

Take Byoma. Its brightly colored packaging and playful visual identity doesn’t diminish its scientific proposition. What’s more, listing the ingredients on the side of the pack appeals to a young Gen Z audience, who are hungry to become skincare literate, in a way that’s empowering, not patronizing.

Getting this balance right is vitally important for any beauty brand because no matter how effective a product is, understanding it should feel accessible and using it should still feel enjoyable – not like taking medicine.

All Systems Go

Forget 12-step Korean beauty routines. Today consumers see beauty as a 24/7/365 ecosystem. Skincare influencers like Natalie O’Neill, who captions her posts with lines such as “Rinse and repeat for the next five years,” highlight a growing understanding that results don’t happen overnight.

Not to mention that as people increasingly try to ‘maxx’ every moment, there’s also been a steady rise in the number of celebrities and influencers who are speaking candidly about the ‘tweakments’ they’ve had done.

Technology is also playing a leading role in this ‘beauty maxxing’ culture. The US beauty devices market, now valued at $24.53 billion, shows how consumers are embracing wearables to monitor biometrics, including everything from sleep to hydration.

Amorepacific, South Korea’s beauty giant, recently debuted an MIT-collaborated “electronic skin” patch that tracks lifestyle and ageing markers including tightness, moisture, UV/blue light exposure. It then feeds this data to an AI app that maps the wearer’s ageing trajectory and delivers personalized skincare recommendations as well as tips of sleep, diet, supplements and complementary therapies.

The takeaway for brands? Don’t just focus on the product. Think about how you can build interconnected systems to deliver the hyper-personalized, diagnostic-led experiences that consumers crave.

Time to Break With Tradition

As part of this broadening of what beauty brands can offer, they should consider how they present themselves holistically. Every touchpoint – including visuals, tone of voice, packaging, website experience, and real-world interactions – should feel unified, creating a cohesive brand universe that connects product truth to brand expression.

Rituals and experience are central to this approach. Creating a ritual isn’t necessarily about pausing, but rather about using positioning, language, and design to create a moment of wellbeing.

You can see this clearly with Ceremonia, which became Sephora’s first Latina-owned hair care brand to be carried nationwide. Founded by Babba Rivera, a Swedish-Latina entrepreneur, the brand uses visual and product languages that draw on the richness of her Chilean heritage. It’s evident in everything from the color palette to the use of fragrances and ingredients, including guava and papaya.

Then there’s Rhode by Hailey Bieber. The brand has built an entire world around the “clean girl” mood – from the simplicity of its product positioning through to its wider aesthetic.

It’s a beautiful example of how rituals in beauty don’t have to be one thing. For instance, the campaign which used shots of founder Hailey Bieber pouring milk over herself, created a visceral sense of how the product feels on your skin, turning the act of use into a ritual itself.

The key to these brands’ successes is something I often say: know who you are. Because if you don’t, you can’t introduce yourself to the audience.

And who you are is so much more than the product alone. It’s your packaging, the language you use, and the experience you create for consumers. In today’s era of beauty, the only contest is being true to yourself.

About The Expert

Rosalind Michaluk is a London-based Strategy Director at Pearlfisher. She specializes in brand strategy, portfolio architecture, new product development, and helping established global icons evolve and new-to-world brands launch.

She combines analytical rigor and creative strategy across categories including spanning beauty, FMCG, tech, and spirits for clients including L’Oréal, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Google Pixel and Jameson.