The Most-searched Beauty Trends of 2020

By MiNDFOOD

Close up studio shot of a beautiful woman with perfect skin, she touching her face
Close up studio shot of a beautiful woman with perfect skin, she touching her face

Like everything else, we couldn’t have predicted the beauty trends that would influence our lives in 2020.

Or should that be, our lives in 2020 that would influence our beauty trends.

In a year dominated by a global pandemic, the way we looked, cared for our hair, treated our breakouts and applied our makeup were all heavily influenced by spending significant chunks of time at home. 

When they close the hairdressers… 

During the first months of the lockdown Google revealed ‘How to cut men’s hair’, ‘how to cut your own hair’ and ‘how to cut bangs’ (a fringe) hit a peak, leaving hairstylists to shudder and then tidy up the aftermath a month or two later. 

But in terms of the entire 12 months, some of the biggest beauty trends we searched up included dealing to those roots with DIY hair colour and toners, according to Vogue. 

 

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“Even though trends such as purple shampoo were growing before lockdown, time at home accelerated interest for toning-related products as consumers became more educated on how to DIY color hair, ” Yarden Horwitz, co-founder of trend forecasting platform Spate told the title. 

Also key for up top? Home care products like hair masks and serums and easy-to-maintain hairstyles such as the bob, general short haircuts and braids.

We had more time on our hands

Potentially to make ourselves feel better about ditching makeup altogether for some of 2020, related queries feature ‘Kylie Jenner no makeup’ and ‘Cardi B no makeup’ in top NZ makeup searches. 

 

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On both ends of the effort spectrum, ‘eye makeup looks’, and ‘natural makeup looks’ both top NZ searches reflecting the overall move to emphasize the eyes in the era of mask-wearing, as well as working from home meaning a ‘less is more’ aesthetic became the go-to approach for many.

But when we were ready to experiment? We went with the experimental more-is-more approach given searches for ‘Euphoria makeup’ are up 300%.

“Social media and time at home is exposing consumers to more influencer content, creating stronger demand for looks such as the e-girl and Euphoria aesthetics,” says Horwitz. 

Sparking Joy

The time on our hands seems also to have prompted the Marie Kondo effect to extend to our beauty routines as ‘makeup organiser’ searches are up 300% in NZ. 

Beauty retailer Cult Beauty also revealed we’re definitely more interested in the key ingredients of our skincare and experimenting with new products. Matching the tidal wave of new products that hero one or two key ingredients we know to be beneficial for our skin, the beauty specialist revealed the top skincare searches included the following: Vitamin C, Retinol, Castor Oil, Hyaluronic Acid and squalane.

A skincare related hero of the year showing up in NZ-based google searches? TikTok breakout star Skincare by Hyram, aka Hyram Yarbro, the Hawaiian-based influencer with a love of SPF and affordable brands like The Ordinary, who picked up 6.7million followers and counting on the platform this year and has also expanded his following in a massive way on YouTube and Instagram.

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