What happens to the beauty landscape when there’s a raging pandemic that requires everyone to stay at home? And when they do leave, they’re required to wear a face covering? As we’ve seen, it gets turned completely upside down. Everyone’s beauty needs have changed drastically. From the amount of makeup worn, to the emphasis on doing everything yourself, and let’s not forget an economic crisis that leaves you asking yourself, “do I really need this and does this really work?,” women are looking at beauty from an entirely new lens.

Here’s what I’m excited about as a result:

1. Less is more
Most women realized that they don’t need as much makeup nor do they need to spend as much time getting ready. It seems like just about everyone has simplified their routines to be easier, more natural and the move to clean everything has exploded.

2. Embracing natural hair
I think women who traditionally blew out, straightened and/or added waves to their hair regularly, got to see how beautiful and cool their hair looks when air dried. Yes, that may still require a little bit of tooling, but the move away from done-done hair and into a more natural look is here and I am here for it! Some products to help embrace your natural mane: The Crown Affair set which includes a classic boar-bristle brush, a detangling wide tooth comb, a silkifying hair serum, and a generous, quick-drying microfiber hair towel.

3. At-home everything
By now we’ve all mastered giving ourselves a manicure, pedicure, facial, bang trims, etc. which means we all have new found confidence. And as the stay-at-home orders continue, our needs for more and better beauty at-home is growing. Olive and June launched a full blown pedicure kit, brow tinting kits are now available (it was pretty DIY from a hair color kit prior) and taking it one step further, people are investing in saunas, ice-baths, infrared mat’s and other more expensive wellness treatments.

4. Devices, devices and more devices
Continuing on with that at-home theme, the beauty device category is expanding exponentially. At-home facial steamers and LED masks have been around for years but with an increasing demand for at-home treatments in lieu of the derm and/or facials, more are popping up. NuFace not only has the Trinity but now they offer the ‘Fix,’ the Ziip known for its nanocurrent is regularly sold out and the new device everyone is talking about, Opte, tackles hyperpigmentation. Can’t wait to see what else comes to the market this year!

5. Clean retinol
Mara was really the first that I knew of to launch a clean retinol and now they are popping up left, right and center. Some to note: GOOPGENES All-in-One Super Nutrient Face Oil, Biossance Squalane +Phyto-Retinol Serum and Tata Harper Retinoic Face Oil. How are they clean you may be wondering? They’re formulated with plant-based retinol alternatives like bakuchiol, rosehip and Alpine Flower. The reason I’m excited by this is because if you can see the accelerated aging in your face from 2020 (hiii, me!) but exclusively use clean skincare and haven’t done any injections, this is something to get behind. That and some really good devices to lift, tighten and plump.

What in beauty are you excited about right now?