Hello, and welcome to The Deep Dive—a weekly close-up look at an idea, issue or trend that's shaping Asia's future. We’re happy to have you with us. Please send your comments, questions and favourite toners to editor@generationt.asia.
Anyone with an Instagram account, a magazine subscription, a mobile phone or even just a Sunday brunch date with their friends will know one thing—skincare is, like, so hot right now.
Instead of discussing bad dates and good shoes (hello SATC), Millennials are obsessed with the latest sheet masks to hit the market, that CBD-infused moisturiser that makes you look 10 years younger, and whether that small bottle of botanical serum is worth spending all those zeros on.
And unlike their parents, this new generation won’t take one good review as gospel. Instead, powerful 'skinfluencers' are gaining hundreds of thousands of followers online—and they know what they want and need from their skincare rituals. In the past, that was your classic cleanse, tone, moisturise; today that could mean following a Korean routine of up to 10 steps.
The skincare boom fits in with modern mores and is the perfect extension of the wellness, clean eating, clean sleeping and exercise trends we have already seen.
Looking after your skin and making it the best it can be is a vital component of self-care. But is perfect skin just another unobtainable nirvana? And is our obsession with it one more way for brands to make us feel bad? We take a deep dive.
QUOTABLE
“Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.”
— Mark Twain, American writer
BY THE NUMBERS
90%
A 2018 survey found that in a year, 90 percent of respondents in China increased their spending on skincare. A massive 58 percent switched to more expensive product lines within the brands they were already using, and 36 percent changed to more premium brands.
977,000
There are 977,000 members of Reddit’s SkincareAddiction online forum—known as a 'subreddit'—making it one of the most popular groups on a site with a whopping 1.2 billion subreddits.
511 million
Korean skincare brands made US$511 million in the United States last year, a figure that is set to increase again in 2019.
13,213
The world’s most expensive face cream, known breathlessly in the industry as “La Crème" by Cle de Peau Beaute, costs US$13,213.
26.8%
In 2017, the skincare market grew 9 percent, eclipsing the 6 percent growth of make-up, according to a survey. By 2020, skincare is expected to account for 26.8 percent of the beauty and personal care market.
The Millennial Magnet Emily Weiss
In 2012 she was a Vogue assistant with a blog, ‘Into the Gloss’, on the side. In 2014, Emily Weiss launched the Glossier website with the tagline ‘Skincare first, make-up second’—and rapidly became one of the most powerful women in the multi-billion-dollar beauty industry. It was aimed squarely at Millennials—everything was available only via Glossier’s millennial-pink-accented website and products were shipped in resealable pink bubble-wrap pouches with a strip of stickers inside. Today, it is a US$1 billion brand and has become one of the industry’s most respected sites.
The Purifier Brenda Lee
Sheet masks, snail slime, blotting papers: Asia has no shortage of beauty trends, but one area where it has been lagging behind is in the development of sustainable, chemical-free free skincare brands. That’s where Brenda Lee comes in. The founder of Beyorg, a Hong Kong-based retailer and website that specialises in natural skincare, Lee is hoping to expand across Asia to help women who eat organic ensure their skincare is as green as their early morning smoothie.
The 'Skintellectual' Alexia Inge
After a car crash in her native UK, the one-time model Alexia Inge looked anew at her cluttered beauty cabinet, which she realised was packed with unused products. Along with a former colleague, Jessica Deluca, she set up Cult Beauty, the website that cuts through the underwhelming offerings of the beauty industry to find the products that really work. With thousands of products available from over a hundred countries, Cult Beauty has captured the hearts of ‘skintellectuals’ everywhere—and is making over US$90 million a year in the process.
Gen.T Spotlight
Honourees To Follow
Christine Yang Yang is the founder and general manager of online natural plant brand IL, which develops its own natural skincare products and serves as an agent for niche brands whose products do not contain preservatives. READ MORE
Nicolas Travis Travis is the founder of skincare line Allies of Skin, which is sold by major sites like Net-A-Porter and Barneys. READ MORE
Charlotte Chen Chen is the founder of cruelty-free sunscreen and body care brand Everyday For Every Body, which just completed US retailer Target’s highly competitive beauty accelerator programme. READ MORE
DID YOU KNOW?
AI is transforming everything—even skincare. Japanese beauty brand Shiseido recently launched Optune, a smart appliance system that uses AI to analyse your data and photos to create personalised serums and moisturisers depending on your skin type and environment.
The theme of the Gen.T Asia Summit is Breaking Barriers. The mission of the event, which takes place this November 20-21 in Hong Kong, is to help people break down the barriers that usually divide them—of generation, gender, culture and geography.
In the run-up to the summit, we're exploring these barriers through our content. Under the lens first: gender.
