Falling out of love with the beauty industry
To the beauty world: it’s not you, it’s me
I recently found myself faced with a large amount of ‘empties’, as they’re called within the beauty community, and contemplated whether or not I should repurchase repeats. After a couple of days with the devil and angel on my shoulder and binging Skincare with Hyram, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t need the limited edition, novelty products I was once attracted to.
This revelation led to a long-awaited spiral as I spontaneously decided to purge my entire beauty collection later that evening. Let me tell you, for someone that doesn’t wear lip products, I sure had an array of lipsticks.
Guilt washed over me as I stared at handfuls of palettes, mascaras, concealers, eyeshadows, bronzers… you get it. Most of these products had gathered dust, barely hit pan and due to the short life span of beauty products, were about to meet their death.
“As Marie Kondo would say, this did not spark joy. ”
Among the mass, there was a prominent brand that stuck out. My first true love: Glossier. The revolutionary ‘indie’ beauty brand to achieve cult status. The brand that successfully exemplified the direct to consumer model causing hundreds of other beauty brands to throw their hat in the ring.
I initially fell in love with the dewy, natural, no-makeup-makeup ideology Emily Weiss presented. Their products focused on enhancing your skin rather than covering it up, their packaging was elegant yet simple and its exclusivity sealed the deal on why I had to have it. But over time, the bubblegum pink, millennial aesthetic didn’t speak to me anymore.
It wasn’t an abrupt change, no switch or anything. I think I just grew out of their fresh-tween demographic. I no longer felt the desire to enshrine the products in my bathroom. The pastel pink, glittery packaging didn’t excite me like it once did. The thought of standing in line to enter their store filled me with dread. I couldn’t justify spending money and time trying to get my hands on their latest products either.
I feel like Glossier is the bookend of a chapter in life where I first stepped into the beauty community. It was the surge of new beauty. Minimalism was at its peak. Niche brands and K Beauty started getting recognised, finally. Community prevailed. We learned about products together, we learned about brands together but more importantly, we learned to love our skin together.
The community was a blessing and a curse. Brands knew how to eat us up. They’d adapt and form personalities to infiltrate our communities and sell us more. And now, it’s almost as if we expect brands to have a personality and a relationship with us when in reality, they’re a brand. They’re made to sell us stuff.
According to McKinsey, the global cosmetics industry brings in $500 billion (USD) annually AKA: extremely profitable. Naturally, everyone wanted a little slice of this. From celebrities to influencers, they all came strolling in: hungry. And with the help of social media and the rise of the direct-to-consumer model, starting a beauty brand was simple. The beauty boom birthed Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, Addison Rae’s Item Beauty, Charli and Dixie Damelio’s collaboration with Morphe to name a few.
Prerequisites such as a passion for makeup or knowledge of skincare weren’t that important anymore. Having your own beauty products didn’t have to make sense, you just had to have one. What came next wasn’t an explosion, it was a carefully thought out bomb. Every other day a new brand appeared, a new product launched, a new influencer behind it. It’s almost as if starting a beauty line was a part of your career progression; were you truly an influencer if you didn’t have your own makeup or skincare line?
“The beauty industry pushes for constant consumption and while there are numerous conversations about fast fashion, there seems to be little discussion in the beauty realm. I find that a hefty amount of beauty products are often of poor quality made with cheap ingredients or white labelling. ”
Because it’s such a highly profitable industry, brands mimic the same strategies that have worked in the past. You know the one, it’s the limited edition, often seasonal, quick release. And it works.
That just wasn’t me anymore. I finally saw through the pretty packaging and expensive price tag. I grew out of my once bright-eyed, marketable, naive self that had just entered the beauty world. I was no longer desperate for validation from these brands. I no longer wanted to convince myself that I was their consumer.
Lately, I’ve been falling for drugstore, K beauty and indie brands that invest into their formulas. The brands that understand skin is skin. The brands that aren’t trying to fix all of my problems. The brands that just let me breathe. Honourable mentions go to Saie, Tower 28, InnisFree, CeraVe (yes, we love Hyram), Another Dose, Topicals and Bread Beauty Supply.
Who knows, maybe in a year or two, I’ll feel different and re-fall in love with the industry, but until then, I’ll be keeping my space.
Words — Anna Lowe
Images — Jessica Defino
