Key Takeaways:
At the beginning of the year, Boots 2025 Trend Prediction Report called out three key trend movements: Beauty Without Borders, Enter the Health Hackers, and Moodscaping. As the year played out, these trends came to fruition and showed clear signs of continuing their legacy into 2026.
Closing up the year and reflecting on the prior report’s predictions, Boots’ latest Biggest Beauty and Wellness Trends of 2025 study explored science-backed skincare, K-beauty, adaptogens, and more, underscoring the categories consumers engaged with most from searches to sales.
“As we move into 2026, we expect our customers to evolve their increasingly holistic approach to their beauty and wellness,” said Grace Vernon, Head of Global Trends & Cultural Insights at Boots and No7 Beauty Company, in a company press release.
BeautyMatter outlines the key findings:
Serious Skincare
During a year where “clean” beauty was used profusely as a marketing term, consumers sought out scientific clarity. Boots shoppers prefer to shop for skincare products that clearly outline their clinically backed formulations. Brands including The Ordinary, La-Roche Posay, and No7 ranked the most popular, as the No7 Future Renew line sold every product every 10 seconds.
Extra-Love Exfoliants
In 2025, one thing was clear: Consumers wanted softly buffed skin. Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) including glycolic acid drove the demand at Boots. Searches for the ingredient on Boots.com surged by 64% year over year (YoY), as The Ordinary’s Glycolic Acid 7% Exfoliating Toner took the crown as the second best-selling beauty product overall. The trend moved beyond facial skincare and seeped into the pores of bodycare, as Boot’s wellness brand Modern Chemistry launched the Glow Body Scrub, containing glycolic acid and salicylic acid.
Craving K-Beauty
Consumers continued to flock to K-beauty offerings as Boots sold a product from the category every 15 seconds. Brands like Beauty of Joseon led the way, with its Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics product among best-selling items for the year. The surge follows Boots expanding its K-beauty offering into haircare, introducing brands such as Dane’s Gi Meo Ri and Kundal online and in-store.
Uptake of URL To IRL
Inflected by social media, consumers desired international beauty products. In response, Boots implanted over 400 new lines from global cosmetic brands to its UK stores over the summer. Notable names such as TirTir, Sacheu, and SheGlam stocked and flocked the shelves in quick succession. The retailer's three best-selling products were ones hot on TikTok: Maybelline Lash Sensation Sky High Mascara, e.l.f Power Grip Primer, and L’Oréal Paris Infallible Setting Mist.
Collagen Craze
Boots shoppers focused on holistic skincare support through vitamins and supplements, as collagen proved popular. Online searches for “marine collagen” rose by 227% YoY, as collagen sales grew by 62%. Key products included Boots Marine Collagen Gummies and Gold Collagen Forte Ageless.
Holy Hydration
Hydration remained a core pillar of beauty routines with #loadedwater reaching 214 million views on TikTok. In particular, consumers are looking for ways to include electrolytes in their day-to-day lives to support hydration. Online searches for electrolytes surged 755% YoY, as a product from the category sold every 14 seconds in summer. Liquid I.V. Passion Fruit continues to champion sales, with products from newly launched Humantra following a close second.
Glamourous Gut
Gut health resonated as a core interest among consumers looking to perfect their wellness regimens. Searches for gut health products increased by 70% YoY, with sales up 15%. Top selling SKUs included Boots Good Gut Bacteria Capsules and Symprove Gut Solution in flavors mango and passionfruit.
Adventuring to Adaptogens
Adaptogens continued to smash the wellness category in 2025. Online searches for ashwagandha increased by 722% YoY as the retailer's own brands, Habi and Modern Chemistry, launched products including Habi Ashwagandha, Habi Lion’s Mane Gummies, and Modern Chemistry Lion’s Mane Capsules. Such ingredients were also incorporated into skincare products, as evidenced by Modern Chemistry’s Hydrating Serum, which contains niacinamide and ashwagandha.
Need for Nostalgia
Mood-boosting fragrances kept their cool in 2025 as Boots reported fragrance as a “powerful tool for mood enactment and expression of identity.” This year also saw a boom in Noughties fragrances, driven by the growing Y2K trend on social media. Responding to the hype, Boots opened its fragrance-only store in Battersea Power Station.
Looking Forward
Taken together, Boots’ latest insights signal a beauty shopper who is moving beyond surface-level trends towards rituals that blend efficacy, global inspiration, and everyday emotional support. The momentum behind science-backed actives, Korean innovations, wellness supplements, and sensorial fragrance illustrates a continued blurring of beauty and well-being. These patterns aren’t just ending the year strong; they’re setting the tone for what’s poised to shape 2026 and beyond.
