6 worthwhile skincare trends to shop for in 2021

Despite the fact that we’ve all spent a record amount of time at home this past year, the beauty industry is still very much alive and well. Masks or not, skincare remains a top-priority beauty category. On Stylight, clicks on facial skincare rose by 214% last year. Bearing in mind the skincare trends of the last 12 months, we looked into the shopping behaviour of our 120 million annual users to determine what the skincare trends will look like in 2021. According to our shoppers, these are the year’s most important beauty buys.

Perhaps the French had it right all along. Pharmacies have long been considered a skincare destination in France and it looks like that philosophy is moving state-side with an influx of pharmacy-found products. Thanks to a new generation of skincare fanatics on TikTok and their affordable price tags, drugstore skincare brands like CeraVe, Cetaphil, and La Roche Posay have found huge success on the online marketplace. At the end of 2020, clicks on Stylight for CeraVe products rose by over 1,000% as did comparable drugstore brands.

The benefit of vitamin C-enhanced skincare has been well-documented for the past few years. The ingredient has been touted as a saviour for blemish-prone and lacklustre skin and thanks to its mounting popularity, is available at almost every price point. On Stylight alone, clicks for the top vitamin C serums increased by more than 1,000% at the end of 2020 compared to the previous period.

If you’ve yet to embrace AHA’s and BHA’s as part of your skincare routine, you’re missing out. Although the term ‘chemical exfoliator’ may sound daunting, in reality, they’re anything but. Not only are AHA/BHA-based peels a gentle alternative to traditional physical exfoliators but the ingredient powerhouses are shown to improve skin tone and texture, smooth fine lines, and help fade acne scars and hyperpigmentation. At the end of 2020, Stylight registered an increase of more than 1,000% on its top AHA/BHA peels compared to the previous year.

While a celebrity beauty line is far from revolutionary, (think back to your teenage perfume collection as proof), there are a handful of A-lister skincare collections that actually live up to their hype. Miranda Kerr’s skincare label KORA Organics, for example, has been lauded for its use of high-quality organic ingredients. At the end of 2020, Stylight registered 485% more clicks for the model’s line compared to the previous year.

By the same token, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty saw a click increase of 300% on Stylight compared to the previous year and Jessica Alba’s Honest Beauty, 181%.

Following a meteoric rise in screentime, many skincare experts are now raising concerns about the effects of blue light on our skin. Research shows that in addition to damaging our eyes, “blue light from electronic devices can lead to changes in your skin cells, including cell shrinkage and death.” As a result, several skincare brands are developing products to combat the effects of blue light.

Chantecaille’s Blue Light Protection Hyaluronic serum, for example, is formulated to protect the skin against the visible effects of blue light pollution and AHAVA’s Dead Sea Osmoter Concentrate Supreme Moisturising Cream is designed to enhance the skin’s natural shield against harmful blue rays.

Barred from our usual eyelash and brow bars, at-home beauty treatments have surged. At the end of 2020, Stylight reported a click increase of more than 1,000% for eyelash growth serums compared to the previous period. Following suit, eyebrow dyes experienced a near-identical growth with clicks surging more than 1,000%.