John Lewis beauty trends forecast takes in mushrooms, skin HIIT

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 26, 2023

John Lewis has launched a new Beauty & Wellness Moments report and has focused on a number of key beauty trends it sees as big for 2023. They include mushroom ingredients, a bigger skin health focus, fast-but-transformative beauty routines, and make-up that enhances rather than covers.

Mushrooms are something of a hot topic at the moment, from those that appear as a print story on the latest Alexander McQueen collection, to mushroom-based plant leather.

As far as mushrooms are concerned for beauty, the retailer said that the Origins Mega Mushroom range has been leading the way with a 36% sales increase for the Mega Mushroom Mist and a 32% rise for its Eye Cream. The retailer thinks that “fungi are about to take over the world of beauty”.

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“Fungi are predicted to take centre stage for ingredients, with benefits including reducing inflammation, treating pigmentation and soothing skin,” said Tomas Warwick, John Lewis Lead for Skincare and Wellness. “Brands including Origins, Shiseido, and Dermalogica have created face mists, eye creams and serums to cater to demand and John Lewis is looking to expand this into supplements later this year. This is even proving popular within the world of nutrition with searches on waitrose.com for Waitrose Porcini Mushroom Powder increasing +200% versus last month”.

Also key is what John Lewis calls “skin HIIT”. Resilience and strength training for skin will be “high on the agenda for consumers, with morning multi-step skincare regimes being replaced by hero products that protect and build our skin barrier”. Linked to this, hot and cold weather in 2022 meant customers were “demanding more from their products to see them through these changing weather extremes”. And Google Analytics search data also shows ‘Skin Barrier’ as a search term has almost doubled in popularity year on year. 

But “quick fixes are out, considered routines that build long-lasting protection are in”. That means peptides and ceramides will be “crucial ingredients, in demand to lock in moisture”. Customers are searching for this with brands including The Ordinary, Dermalogica and Dr Jart+ leading the way, sales of the latter’s Ceramidin range sales increasing 76% versus last year.  

Another key trend is the ‘lipstick economy 2.0’ that “sees us move on from ‘luxury pick-ups’ to ‘daily me-time’ and continual rewards to celebrate the small wins in life as much as the big ones,” said Heena Mohammed, John Lewis Lead for Makeup and Fragrance. 

Despite the company saying people don’t want quick fixes, this trend is being driven by TikTok Beauty ideas that are all about quick boosters.

“That’s consumers treating themselves to an entry level product from a premium brand to everyday pick-me-ups such as a 10-minute hair or face mask, a new colour nail polish or treatment (+14%),” she said. 

Clearly, the trend is about quick treats and this has helped John Lewis’s sales of nail brand OPI rise by 20%, sales of lip oils from Dior, Clarins or Charlotte Tilbury to rise 222%, and a 400% uplift in sales of Dr Jart+ face masks priced at £6.

Glowing skin is also key and the retailer has seen a big rise in hybrid skincare and make-up products to help consumers achieve this with a 22% increase in tinted moisturisers, 150% rise in tinted lip oils and a 92% rise in moisturising blushes.

This also feeds into another make-up trend that's all about products that don’t swamp the skin but work with it. “More and more we are seeing natural skin texture celebrated, which is coming through in the biggest product launches this year,” John Lewis said, adding that tinted foundation sales overall are up 20%.

And the final beauty trend is all about hair. Consumers have always cared about hair health but are taking it further now and “from scalp scrubs to bond strengtheners, our haircare regime has become just as important as our skincare regime”.

The company said that this is helping to boost several brands that are closely identified with hair health with Living Proof up 35%, Ouai up 112% and Olaplex up 63%.