This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
For this week’s special episode, Glossy Beauty Podcast co-hosts Sara Spruch-Feiner and Lexy Lebsack brought on colleague Emily Jensen to discuss six topics — all 2024 trends they expect will continue to dominate in the year to come or emerging trends they believe will be big topics of conversation. These included the pending TikTok ban and how it will affect beauty brands, the shifts in influencer marketing including the question of “authenticity,” the rise-and-rise of the fragrance category, the boom in sports and beauty partnerships, the impact of GLP-1 drugs on skin care, and the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and the potential impacts on the wellness industry.
Listen in for a taste of what’s to come in Glossy’s beauty coverage this year, and keep reading for snippets from the conversation, below.
What’s next for beauty brands, as a result of the potential TikTok ban
Lebsack: “I talked to a lot of analysts and a lot of brands [about what might happen if there’s a TikTok ban], and everyone [essentially said], ‘We’re just gonna milk it for as much as we can [right now]. And then whatever happens will happen.’ [At the same time, some will be] leaning deeper into other platforms that have similar styles of content. Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat Spotlight are the big ones. But it’s definitely going to be a big change if it happens. Everything is so unpredictable right now. … Also, TikTok is not going to just disappear off of phones. Brands and marketers [will] have to deal with a time period where it may be “banned,” and it won’t be available in the App Store for new users, but existing users who already have it on their phones can just keep using it. The government can’t delete it from your phone. And so there will be several months, potentially, of this strange time where the app isn’t getting updated, and it will eventually become inoperable because of [a lack of] updates. [During this time] brands [will] have to just do the best they can with that audience, while also trying to [direct] those people, as much as they can, onto these other similar platforms. Of course, there’s also a really big, exciting opportunity for these new social media platforms to come out of nowhere.”
Can the fragrance boom last?
Jensen: “Fragrance has really been booming in the past couple of years, post-COVID especially, and in 2024 that only continued. There was a lot of data supporting this — Circana found that fragrance was the fastest-growing prestige beauty category in the first half of 2024, growing 12% compared to the previous year. And Sephora told us at our summit recently that it’s their fastest-growing category. The teen demographic is really exploding. Piper Sandler, in their Taking Stock With Teens Survey, found that fragrance spending among teen girls was up 25%, and teen boys actually were spending more than teen girls for the first time in fall 2024. So, people are buying fragrances at all price points, from the mass market all the way to the high, high, high end. We’ve also seen a lot more designer brands like Bottega Veneta lean into this [world of] ultra-luxe fragrance, in the $300, $400, $500 and up range. It’s firing on all cylinders. In 2025, [based on conversations I’ve had], fragrance will continue to grow. There are going to be more launches and there will be more people buying fragrance, but it might begin to grow at a slower rate than what we’ve seen in 2023 and 2024.”
Raw milk and beef tallow — and how they’re related to RFK Jr.
Spruch-Feiner: “What really strikes me is that, years ago [when I first came across beef tallow as a skin care ingredient], I thought, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ Or, ‘Oh, I don’t know if that’s something I want to put on my face.’ But there was absolutely nothing political about it, right? I can think of very few, if any, examples of a beauty ingredient that was tied to a political figure that you supported. … And [I can’t think of an example] of where whether or not you would use a product or drink a form of milk or anything else on social media was a signifier of who you voted for and what your values are. … Maybe you know that a certain brand supports causes that you do or don’t identify with or you know that a brand gives money to an organization that you do or don’t support, but this feels different.”
