With a new year, comes a skincare glow-up. So, how does one achieve this? Well, according to our friends at SKIN functional, achieving this lies in effective skin ingredients and reproducible results®.
In forecasting for 2024, we can expect a different kind of beauty refresh. Staying true to its ethos of honourable skintelligence® this leading skincare company predicts active ingredients impacting the market, brands, and consumers in a big way.
2024 Skincare Forecast
Kevin Khosa, Skin Expert at SKIN functional explained that stressed-out skincare consumers are prioritising joy and pleasure in their wellness routines. They are also pushing back against strict regimes that don’t factor in fun or take into account that real life sometimes gets messy,
“Fuelled by Gen Z’s growing anti-wellness attitude, a new wave of skincare is emerging that promotes indulgence and rejects the notion of sacrifice. Think low-maintenance, easy and simple skincare routines with multi-functional products, offering consumers more than one skincare benefit.”
In 2023, we saw active ingredients taking precedence in skincare, with searches for serums in specific almost doubling worldwide.
“Brands are continually striving to come up with the ingredient formulations skin care consumers want. Wrinkle reduction and anti-ageing effects have always been a must-have, but other characteristics like natural and clean ingredients are now more in demand than in previous years,” added Khosa.
So, what does this mean for skincare in the new year? Well, the following ingredients are sure to be at the forefront of all things beauty and skincare in the new year.
2024 ‘It’ Skincare Ingredients
Active Ingredient #1 : Niacinamide
Niacinamide is an obvious fan favourite, with VOGUE even dubbing it as the ‘it’ ingredient of 2023 because it’s suitable for all ages and skin types.
It’s simply a form of vitamin B3 that’s known to be healing and soothing. We can thank Instagram and TikTok for the popularity of this ingredient in recent months, even though it has been an integral part of skincare for decades. In the last two years, the use of niacinamide in the beauty industry has jumped more than 220%, which is only set to grow in 2024.
Active Ingredient #2: Alternative retinoids
With more than 7.2 billion views on TikTok, retinol is having a resurgence as a must-have skincare ingredient. Retinol is a powerful form of vitamin A that has anti-ageing properties. But the recent popularity of retinol comes with a twist, as it’s alt-retinols (also called bio-retinols) that are trending.
These are more gentle formulas that are plant-based instead of being derived from vitamin A. Some traditional retinol formulations can be too harsh for sensitive skin types, but alt-retinol is perfect for people with normal to sensitive skin. Alt-retinols provide similar results as retinol but without the irritation, redness, and dryness. Common forms are bakuchiol and azelaic acid.
Active ingredient #3: Copper peptides
Search volume for “copper peptides” is up more than 600% since 2019.
Due to these ingredients, the effective ability to tell the skin to produce more collagen and molecules that will help support the structure of the skin resulting in plumper, bouncier skin is the main reason why it’s a buzzword for 2024. Think ‘Botox in a bottle.’
Active ingredient #4: Alpha hydroxy acids
(AHAs) are a group of plant and animal-derived acids used in a variety of skincare products. These include daily anti-ageing products, such as serums, toners, and creams, as well as occasional concentrated treatments via chemical peels. Glycolic and lactic acids are the most promising and well-researched.
These two AHAs are also less likely to irritate. AHAs exfoliate, brighten, promote collagen production, reduce surface lines and wrinkles, promote blood flow, decrease discolouration and increase absorption. No wonder this is a trending ingredient for 2024!
Active ingredient #5: Snail Mucin
Mostly used in Korean skincare, this ingredient is often referred to as “snail slime”. It is the substance a snail leaves behind as it moves, and its technical name is “snail secretion filtrate”.
It naturally contains skin-benefiting ingredients like glycoproteins, hyaluronic acid, and glycolic acid. Furthermore, it’s packed with nutrients, consists of between 91 per cent and 98 per cent water, has anti-ageing properties and can soothe irritated skin as well as treat many skin issues. Look out for this in your skincare!
Bottom line
“As a consistently revolutionising brand that is leading in the market, we expect to see skincare in 2024 continue to change and improve with new ingredient innovations in the coming months. Many of these formulas are likely to be targeted at improving the performance of an ingredient to make it work for a broader range of beauty customers,” concludes Khosa.
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