The Future Laboratory has released its latest Beauty, Health, and Wellness Futures report, spearheaded by the Longevity Lifestyles macrotrend.
Following last year’s macrotrend of Accredited Beauty, quality, expertise, exploration, and evidence take precedence over aesthetics and approachability for 2023 and beyond. Post-pandemic, an emphasis on science and data-backed solutions will continue to thrive. The Future Laboratory identified the following microtrends and case studies:
Chameleon Cosmetics
Amid the increasing convergence of digital and physical life, brands are creating products that react in real time to different temperature and light circumstances. Color palettes reflect the demand for eye-catching looks that trend on social media.
Key brands: Glisten Cosmetics, The Unseen, Mood Ring
Tech-Powered Perimenopause
The femtech industry is still booming and projected to reach a $3.8 billion value by 2031 according to Future Market Insights. The approach has now progressed from curative to preventative care, boosted by at-home devices, AI-enabled sensors, and apps that offer physical and mental support throughout the hormonal journey.
Key brands: Midday, Eli Health, IdentifyHer
Multidomesticity
The home office hybrid space is being upgraded thanks to wellness complexes and workplaces that merge elements such as living room furniture and concierge services with fitness suites and workplaces.
Key brands: Life Time Living Green Valley, Inspired Capital
Purified Beauty
Clean beauty is extending to clean water, with a range of H20-purifying showerheads launching to remove unwanted chemicals, boost microbiome health, and help improve epidermis moisture levels.
Key brands: Jolie, Hello Klean, Filterbaby
Synaesthesia Scents
Fragrance is going multidimensional thanks to experiential brands that fuse sonic frequencies, incense listening ceremonies, and prism light-reflecting bottle designs with perfumery.
Key brands: Arpa Studios, Folie à Plusieurs, Lalique
Next-Gen R&D Labs
A new crop of labs with an entrepreneurial focus are removing the barriers to entry for beauty start-ups by allowing smaller unit production runs, flexible payment plans, easy-to-attain clean beauty standard formulations, and Black-owned, focused R&D innovation.
Key brands: Indie Cosmetics Lab (ICLab), CG-Labs, Sula Labs
Key stats:
All these separate puzzle pieces joined to form the strategic foresight agency’s proposed macrotrend of 2023: Longevity Lifestyles. Driven by Silicon Valley-based death-disrupting technologies—courtesy of Google’s biotech lab Calico, the Methuselah Foundation, and Retro Biosciences, to name a few that are aiming to let individuals live longer and healthier lives, as well as post-pandemic surges in health consciousness—innovation in the beauty, health, and wellness sectors is looking beyond the surface.
The top 50 longevity-focused companies have raised over $1 billion in funding according to a 2020 Deloitte statistic, and this number is likely to continue growing in tandem with the growing aging population. By 2050, 22% of the global population will be over 60 years old. Even digital spaces such as the metaverse (nicknamed the betterverse) will be reshaped as potential wellness-improving sources. A restructuring of healthcare and employment systems and a move towards more preventative models will be a key factor in accommodating well-living for all.
Anna Bjurstam, wellness leader at Six Senses—a future-facing hospitality brand—proposes platelet-rich plasma treatments as an alternative to invasive surgery, while futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts nanobots could be the future of clinical medicine and helping humans reach full immortality. AI-driven bionic wearables by California start-up Cionic will help to correct muscle movements in those with limited mobility, while BioAge Labs is harnessing the medium’s potential to target molecular causes of aging. Project Blueprint—which claims to measure and reverse aging through organ tracking, as well as Tally Health, which tracks biological age through cheek swabs to best determine optimal nutrition, fitness, and mental health routines—are also helping to lead the way to a healthier future.
It’s not just how but in what context aging is being addressed. The Future Laboratory prophesizes that we are moving towards flat age living, whereby generational demographics will be replaced with more value-driven, as opposed to age-focused, points of connection.
Psychedelics are leading a new mental health revolution, while the medicinal potential of food (especially amid the ongoing obesity crisis) is coming to the forefront, and alongwith this potential, a need to make healthy eating more accessible to all economic levels. For those on the more luxurious end of the spectrum, longevity clinics such as LIV Lounge in Zurich and the soon-to-be-opened Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv are other options for optimizing physical health.
Anti-aging innovations by hair brand Vegamour, Shiseido, and biotech firm LipoTrue are helping address follicular, dermatological, and even body odor-based signs of physical maturing. Commercial solutions offering cutting-edge technology are also on the rise—from Illumina’s genome sequencing-driven health offerings to 111Skin’s N-acetylcysteine-based serum formula that claims to stop the aging process at a cellular level. Cell technology is also building the basis for skincare brands such as Naderma, Element Eight, and OneSkin.
How can brands best apply these insights? Olivia Houghton, Lead Beauty Analyst, offered the following pointers for BeautyMatter’s readership.
Mindset Shift
“There is a shift from positioning youth as a driving aspiration to a focus on longevity. Consumers will look to trusted brands to help them feel at ease with the idea of living longer and having more control over the length of their lives. Lead them through this paradigm shift by being comfortable with, and demonstrating confidence in, the new science, language, and philosophy of longevity.”
Mainstreaming Longevity Beyond Sci-Fi
“Longevity can feel esoteric to many consumers. Support and inform life-long health and fitness habits by being the go-to expert and partner for life-long nutritional support, promoting the benefits of long-term over quick-fix approaches. Look to data and smart innovations to identify shortfalls between chronological and biological ages and provide the required solutions to reverse, reduce, and mitigate.”
Flat Age Products
“Encourage consumers to embrace a neutral perspective on aging. Develop beauty, health, and wellness products that address the body’s unique stages and experiences, rather than relying on age categories. Tailor products to identities, lifestyles, and moods—giving different consumer demographics the opportunity to connect through shared beauty, health, and wellness products.”
Dig into Prevention Mindsets
“Longevity demands that we shift from curative beauty, health, and wellness mindsets. Beauty brands with an eye on long-termism can create messaging that makes prevention compelling to consumers.”
Reframe Aging Talk
“Longevity allows us to discuss the process of growing older more openly. Can it also help us to develop a language around aging that is more inclusive and celebratory? Introduce the concept of living a longevity lifestyle gradually, subtly, and optimistically and with products that focus on healthcare benefits.”
Focus on Future Fulfillment
“Consumers may eventually look for more fulfilling ways to spend any additional time that longevity offers. Can your brand create tools that help them to optimize it?”
Educate via Accredited Research
“Beauty brands can highlight how the research processes that make longevity tools and products possible are accredited. Consumers need to be reassured that science is the driving force behind brand offerings.”
