Here are the 2026 beauty trends set to define the industry and what people are purchasing
Trends change as quickly as you can say ‘beauty’ these days, with brands having to be increasingly reactive to viral TikToks and equally as conscious of the slow cultural shifts.
To (hopefully) make life a little easier, we have trawled the reports, write ups, and feeds defining trends in 2026 and compiled them here. Read on to ready yourself:
Enter: Turquoise
Entering 2026, beauty lovers will be dusting off their classic palettes and switching neutral ’90s tones for strikingly garish washes of bright blue and turquoise. Seemingly, everyone’s saying goodbye to the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic to embrace a more individual, colourful and visually sumptuous visage. Brands should take colour cues from Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra but application inspiration from Zomer SS26, which many are pinning as the source of the trend for next year.
Waxing on the trend, Dazed Beauty journalist Isabelle Truman writes: ‘(In film) The girls (and boys) who wear blue eyeshadow are bad, wild and free. Alternately gun-toting, ass-kicking, mysterious, seductive, naive, corrupting and dreamy, these characters symbolise freedom, rebellion and an alternative lifestyle.’
It’s time for the makeup rebellion to begin IRL.
Ramping up red light therapies
What’s a beauty routine without a red light mask? With beauty tech increasingly accessible (with masks hitting the market at around £200) and innovative (hair, scars, face – there’s a red light for almost anywhere now), it’s expected to level up in 2026.
Over the past couple of years, red light masks have offered a salon-like result from home however, the tech is set to be showing up in salons, spas and gyms in brand-new ways.
The most novel is infrared pilates, levelling up hot yoga to deliver even stronger benefits at doubly higher heats. The classes are currently being booked up by the capital’s wellness fanatics, but we expect everyone to be stretching in the red light before the end of the year.
Plumping products will define skincare sales
We’re predicting, along with beauty experts at The Future Laboratory, that peptides, hyaluronic acids and retinol sales are set to skyrocket over the next 12 months.
Yes, glass skin – the epitome of plumpness – has been coveted by skincare fanatics for a while now but the plump-fever is setting in even more. In a new report, it says: ‘As individuals seek to mitigate what has been dubbed Ozempic face, plastic surgeons report a surge in demand for procedures like facial fat grafting and buccal fat removal.’
This was expertly backed up by data and insights company Circana. In a recent webinar, supported by the British Beauty Council, they uncovered that U.S. prestige facial serums with lifting benefits grew +5% in units, while face products with wrinkle benefits grew +6%.
Tapping into the (not so) football mad
2026 brings with it the World Cup and all of the merch, ad spend and marketing allocation that comes with it. Spotlighted as a key driver for the future of the beauty industry this British Beauty Week, football – and any other sports – are proving increasingly lucrative for beauty.
Whether it’s launching pitch-side ready nail colours or simply reaching more shoppers as they log on ahead of the whistle, this sporting season will offer up unique opportunities for brands.
If you haven’t already, it’s time to consider how to tap into the community, empowerment and culture that naturally comes with the World Cup. Get brainstorming, you have until Summer.
