In recent years, the world of cosmetics has increasingly synchronised with fashion when it comes to seasonal trends with new product launches being more frequent now than they ever have been. Consequently, the beauty industry is today more diverse than ever before, with online retailers making virtually any brand readily available and accessible all-year round to customers the world over.
For Autumn/Winter 2017, we’ve analysed the key looks from the catwalks, sought advice from the industry’s biggest brands, caught up with beauty bloggers and sifted through the latest additions to our own beauty collection to compile the beauty, hair and make-up trends to know for Autumn/Winter 2017 and heading into 2018. From the irrepressible rise of Korean beauty and the spotlight on new super-ingredients including honey and gold to the resurgence of ‘80s Glam, allow us to introduce the biggest wellness, skincare and makeup trends for this season.
Hydrogen Beauty
It may be the smallest molecule on the planet, but hydrogen is making a big impression on the beauty industry for AW17. In fact, it’s hydrogen’s chemical makeup that makes it the unique and potent beautyagent we’re finally beginning to understand in the West; because of its size, hydrogen holds the ability to penetrate deep into skin cells and offer a plethora of wellness and skincare benefits that we are becoming savvy to. Small enough to penetrate directly to the nucleus of a cell, we’re looking to hydrogen to help counteract ailments and illnesses ranging from skin damage and hangovers to obesity and cancer.
Touted for its anti-ageing and wellnessbenefits, hydrogen is also a potent anti-inflammatory that attacks free radicals in the body and helps prevent the onset of several diseases. Hydrogen also boasts powerful antioxidant properties that kickstart the body into creating its own antioxidants—in turn slowing the signs of ageing. As hydrogen water treatments are ever more popular the world over, we’re also noticing a rise in ingestible hydrogen, with hydrogen water set to trump coconut water as this season’s health beverage of choice.
While it is relatively fresh to Western audiences, hydrogen beauty is something the Japanese have been aware of for decades—if not centuries! The Japanese have been drinking and bathing in hydrogen water, known in Japan as shin’nooru, since at least the 1960s and it remains a key beauty practice in the country today. In the West, famed dermatologist Dr. Perricone is widely considered one of the pioneers in the area and was one of the first to develop a range of skincare products with hydrogen at its heart. The Perricone MD Elemental range harnesses the power of hydrogen to wage war on wrinkles and offer more energy, drive and focus without a need for sugar, caffeine or calories.
Colour Innovation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=QJC0QQ5VlUM
The beauty industry is taking inspiration from world politics as much as anywhere else this season, embracing strength, unashamed feminism and empowerment to promote being bold, diversity, and breaking the rules. Makeup and beauty are no longer playing by the rules, and women will not be told what to do.
Haircare follows suit, taken up a notch with new products that promote natural styles and textures in a celebration of individuality. For AW17, your hair is a platform for self-expression through innovations in colour, with a focus on tints and touch-ups. Among the most exciting launches in this category, Kérastase’s Reflection collection helps maximise colour in treated hair and promotes reflection for an intense, radiant, mirror-like shine for longer. The collection includes the Touche Chromatique formula that helps enhance and correct colour between salon visits. Completely personalised by colour category, the formula combines a shot of enlivening colour with protective conditioning, promoting colour evenness and preventing fading for longer-lasting, vivid colour.
Clean Sleeping
The unforgiving pace of modern life and our undeniable addiction to smart devices are combining to drain hours from our daily lives, and it is often our down-time and sleep that suffer the consequences. What’s more, recent studies claim that the blue and white light emitted by digital screens prevent your body from releasing melatonin at night, the crucial hormone which controls your body’s sleep and wake cycles. The result? Disturbed, unnatural sleeping patterns that lead to tiredness and sub-optimal levels of concentration throughout the day.
The importance of sleep in skincare has been well documented for decades, but the demands of modern life are seeing sleep return to the fore this season. Leading beauty brands including Elemis, this works & Sarah Chapman have introduced new products to help us achieve a deep, natural and restful sleep as well as to repair the skin when our eyes are closed. Elemis’ new Peptide 4 Night Recovery Cream-Oilsupports the skin’s natural circadian rhythm to boost skin repair as you sleep, using an innovative formula combining the hydration of a cream with the protective benefits of an oil.
Elsewhere, this works has long been tackling disjointed sleeping experiences with its best-selling Sleep Plus Pillow Spray. A simple spritz targets restless sleepers with a natural, award-winning fragrance released slowly throughout the night and helps to relax the body and mind to provide an effective, refreshing sleep.
Natural Glow
Something of a timeless trend, minimal, natural beauty is once more a key look this autumn/winter but this season with a focus on achieving a natural healthy glow. Alongside optimising your sleeping routine and discovering the raw potency of natural ingredients, beauty enthusiasts are being greeted with a panoply of new products that enliven the skin through hydration, vitamins and minerals.
Mama Mio’s Way to Glow Uplifting Facial Mist has been created for expectant mothers with a formula containing aloe barbadensis leaf juice designed to soothe, revive and brighten the skin especially for hot, fatigued and hormonal skin. Elsewhere, Hungarian skincare brand Omorovicza has returned to its roots to create its new Queen of Hungary Facial Mist which was inspired by the famous Queen of Hungary Water, the world’s first recorded perfume formulated for Queen Elisabeth in the 14th century. The neroli and rose-scented face mist refreshes the skin with a quick spritz to leave you looking and feeling revitalised.
With orange blossom, rose and sage waters to purify and tone, Omorovicza's Queen of Hungary Mist makes a great post-cleanse spritz. Hungary’s mineral-rich healing waters also make it excellent for reducing redness, so pack it in your holiday luggage.
- Vogue
Honey, Honey
As our interest in natural formulations continues its upward surge, honey has once again returned under the spotlight and is being lauded once more for its well-documented health and wellness qualities. An ancient remedy purportedly used with milk for bathing by Cleopatra, honey boasts powerful hydrating and antibacterialproperties that helps fight against acne and is also said to enhance the hair’s natural shine.
This season’s product launches are a testament to our rekindled interest in honey, with several leading brands including NUXE, Elizabeth Arden and Burt’s Bees tapping into the age-old benefits of honey in new formulations. As a starting point, try Nuxe’s Rêve de Miel body scrub which combines honey with sugar crystals, sunflower, argan and borage oils to offer a two-in-one exfoliating and nourishing formula. Combine this with the brand’s nourishing and fragrant-free Rêve de Miel honey lip balm which includes acacia honey and shea butter to repair and nourish damaged lips.
24K Gold Masks
Talk about an enriching pampering; the use of gold in skincare has become the hot ticket in 2017. While it may be news to some of us, the use of gold in cosmetics has been popular in India, China and the Far East since ancient times. Now readily available at most reputed spas and beauty salons, a 24K face mask involves applying a 24-carat gold foil mask that promises a whole host of beauty benefits including cell renewal, reduced visibility of wrinkles and fine lines, the elimination of toxins and oxygenationin the skin that combats the effects of fatigue.
Peter Thomas Roth is a global leader in the use of gold in skincare, now offering an extensive range of face and hair masks, creams, and cleansing butters all exploiting the potent beauty benefits of gold. We swear by the 24k gold face mask which uses 24k gold, colloidal gold, caffeine and peridot to reduce the appearance of fine lines, lift and firm theskin, and help to restore collagen.
The Biggest Beauty Trends of 2017 (According to Google)
With over 3.5 billion searches typed into its search engine every day, Google's search data provides a fascinating insight into what's hot. The Hut takes a look at this year's biggest beauty trends according to the search engine giant.
Korean Beauty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wTmFH0agD0
By now, it seems fair to say that K-Beauty is far from a passing trend. What started as an intrigued interest in some of its more brow-curling creations—snail sheet masks, we’re looking at you—has swiftly developed into a full-blown obsession with Korean beauty, only confirmed by Unilever’s recent £2.3billion investment in Carver Korea—one of South Korea’s fastest growing skincare brands.
The sometimes weird but always wonderful world of K-Beauty has us gripped, with an increasing number of the industry’s trends vacillating over to the UK and US markets. A renewed interest in the power of natural ingredients such as ginseng, bamboo, gold or birch juice finds its roots in K-Beauty, while new trends such as sheet masks, the no-makeup makeup look, and glass skin are finding a burgeoning international audience. Korean brand Skin79 has become our-go to for trying out authentic Korean trends, offering a comprehensive range of genuine sheet masks, cleansers, makeup and much more. Established in Korea, the brand combines advanced technologies with the natural goodness of pure vegetable active ingredients to provide award-winning solutions to everyday beauty hurdles.
On-the-Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0o1tOLTJEc
The electric pace of 21st century life combined with a more wellbeing- and health-minded consumer has carved open a new market for pocket-friendly, convenient and powerful products for use on the go. The rise of the commuter lifestyle and regular leisurely travelling has created a demand for products designed to give a rejuvenating and fragrant energy boost, with brands including Elemis, Neom and Sarah Chapman introducing new ranges to cater to this new customer.
The seventeen scents in Neom’s Essential Energy Boost kit are carefully chosen across three mini-sized energising products including a facial spray, pulse point therapy cream and a nourishing hand balm. Meanwhile, Elemis’s Life Elixirs range is made up of five different perfume oils (Calm, Clarity, Fortitude, Embrace and Sleep) created to help settle the mind and boost your mood at any point during your day.
‘80s Glam
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZHoqzclhr1/?tagged=tomfordss18
Fashion’s longstanding love affair with the 1970s and more recently the ‘90s seemingly went on hiatus this year. In its place, last year’s SS17 and AW17 shows demonstrated that the 1980s has once again risen to the fore—and this time in a bigger way than ever before. Big power shoulders were loudly ushered down the runway at Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and the clothing was complemented by the return of that era’s signature beauty looks. Whether it was eyes rimmed with shades of purple, blue and green, full-throttle eyeshadow, neon-esque nail colours or the (welcome) return of the sleek pony tail, most if not all of your favourite ‘80s looks were re-introduced on last year’s catwalks and return as one of the key trends for Autumn/Winter 2017. What’s more, the recent NYFW SS18 shows suggested that this trend looks set to remain well into next year with some of the event’s biggest catwalk shows displaying makeup trends harking back to the ‘80s (see Pat McGrath’s winged eyeliner at Tom Ford for a glimpse).
This season’s take on the 1980s is one of loud extremes, whether that be in colour, size or shape. Eye makeup is colourful and pulled out towards the temples in shades of purple, blue and green and nail colours are matching with disco-ready shades bordering on the neon and often ready to sparkle with lots of glitter. Shiseido’s Inkstroke Eyeliner combines an ‘80s palette with the precision and functionality of the 21st century, offering a precision brush for curl and volume that facilitates the precise placement of the liner and helping to angle hands away from the face for zero chance of smudging. Similarly, Shiseido has also created a Full Lash Multi-Dimensional Mascara again with a bending design that rotates 360 degrees and works with the natural curl of the eye to fan your eyelashes from the root. The result? Dramatically lifted lashes offering all the volume of the 1980s but without the weight.
Farm to Face / Botanicals
As the beauty industry expands to include an ever-growing number of brands, there is a growing concern and focus among consumers regarding the provenance, quality and sustainability of their cosmetics. In fact, this isn’t a trend solely restricted to the beauty industry, but one that is also affecting the fashion and food industries among many others. Consumers are demanding greater transparency and understanding of their beauty products, leading to a focus on natural ingredientsthat have been painstakingly nurtured to deliver potent skincare results.
What has been dubbed the “farm-to-face” trend is in part a riposte to the lightning pace of modern life, and beauty brands are responding with new products that are simultaneously made using natural, organic ingredients but also encourage moments of relaxation throughout the day. Jurlique’s new limited edition Sweet Violet & Grapefruit Mist helps to hydrate the skin and add an uplifting, refreshing scent to leave you feeling hydrated, soothed and balanced. Elsewhere, products such as Pureology’s Hydrate Superfood Mask and Strength Cure Superfood Mask tap into the natural power of ingredients such as avocado oil and coconut to unleash powerful formulations that help moisture, soften and repairhair.
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