05.16.22
With summer just one month away, consumers are readying their faces and beach bags to look and feel their best. According to Spate, lip moisturizers in the form of lip gloss as shimmery as the ocean are driving the latest beauty searches. Retinol is also at the top to improve skin texture and redness. To preserve their fun in the sun without its harmful rays, consumers are seeking to powder their bodies up this year with SPF over lathering on messy, and at times, greasy sunscreen.
Lip Shimmer
Searches alongside lip shimmer indicate that consumers are looking for a product that imparts pigment while also offering hydrating benefits. According to Spate, on average, there are 3,600 monthly searches in the US for lip shimmer, which has grown +805.2% since last year. Burt’s Bees, Eos and Nivea and the three market leaders.
Lip shimmers moisturize and hydrate lips while imparting a hint of color and luminescent shine. Related search terms include: lip gloss, lip balm, rose gold, champagne, peony, cherry, grapefruit, nude, sheer, SPF, plumper, swatch, natural, and pink. Searches for rose gold and champagne reveal that consumers are looking for colors with gold undertones, while searches for cherry, grapefruit, and peony reveal the desire for fruit and flower-inspired colors.
Similar to other products in the makeup category (i.e., SPF setting spray, up +32.8% YoY), lip products are experiencing skinification as consumers search for SPF to protect lips against sun damage; lip sunscreen in particular is up +30.2% YoY. Meanwhile, searches for skincare ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, shea butter, and hydropeptides alongside lip makeup further illustrate the ensuing skinification of lips.
As consumers search for lip shimmer across multiple product categories such as lip gloss, lip balm, and lip plumper, this can present an opportunity for brands to incorporate the shimmery finish across all lip products while also providing SPF protection. There is also an opportunity for clean beauty brands to offer consumers vegan lip shimmers since many of the market leaders incorporate beeswax into their formulas.
Powder Sunscreen
Instead of lathering on, consumers are seeking to powder on. Powder sunscreen is a sun care product format driving interest amongst consumers for its convenience.
There are 22,800 average monthly searches in the US for powder sunscreen, which has experienced a +29.5% growth year-over-year (YoY). There is high competition with 10 market
leaders: Tarte, Supergoop!, Colorescience, Bareminerals, Peter Thomas Roth, Derma E, Physician’s Formula, Clinique, Jane Iredale, and Isdin.
With hot summer days ahead, consumers are searching for powder sunscreen to protect their skin from the sun’s damaging rays. Powder sunscreens are especially convenient as they often have a texture similar to setting powders and come with built-in brushes that can be easily swept on over makeup. This is especially useful for reapplying sunscreen throughout the day. Related searches include terms such as: mineral, foundation, compact, translucent, pressed, brush, protection, sheer, zinc oxide, scalp, glowing, radiant, and talc free.
Powder sunscreen searches play into the clean beauty movement as consumers search for natural ingredients such as mineral sun filters, especially zinc oxide, and talc-free options. Brands should take note and continue to develop clean sunscreen options that are formulated with the physical sunscreen actives consumers are seeking.
The search for various product formats indicates that consumers are looking especially for compact or pressed powders. Perhaps even more interesting is the search for scalp, which demonstrates that consumers are also looking to protect their hair and scalp from sun damage. This presents an opportunity for brands to create multifunctional sun protection products that work for both skin and hair, as SPF for hair receives 4,500 average monthly searches (+181K increase in searches).
Alternative Retinol
Consumers are searching for a retinol alternative that can help support acne and aging without the vexation of redness or irritation. Bakuchiol serum is gaining the attention of consumers for this purpose.
On average, there are roughly 4,000 monthly searches in the US for bakuchiol serum. It’s grown +24.5% since last year and there are two market leaders: Bybi Beauty and Herbivore Botanicals.
Bakuchiol has become popular as a natural, less-irritating alternative to retinol, which has been a skincare staple for decades but can cause redness, irritation, and peeling. Related searches alongside bakuchiol serum include: retinol, alternative [to retinol], smoothing, pads, review, Sephora, and Ulta. Although top search queries for bakuchiol serum are driven by Herbivore, Bybi, and Indeed Labs, there are consumer driven searches for the “best bakuchiol serum,” “bakuchiol serum Sephora,” and “bakuchiol serum Ulta,” revealing that consumers are interested specifically in the ingredient outside of the top brands and opportunity remains for brands to step in with new product innovations.
The top concerns searched alongside retinol are acne (34,300), wrinkles (20,100), aging (7,200), and scarring (6,600). Brands should show how their bakuchiol-centric products can tackle similar concerns efficiently. Spate suggests brands consider incorporating this ingredient through innovation, for example, by incorporating searched formats like pads.
