As beauty growth normalised in 2025 from post-pandemic, virality-driven surges in categories such as fragrance and skincare, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of balance and evolution rather than pure acceleration.
According to Circana’s year-to-date November data on prestige beauty, major categories are now growing at comparable rates, signaling a more evenly matched market: fragrance is up 5 percent, which is roughly in line with makeup at 4 percent, while skincare trails at 2 percent and hair now takes the lead at 8 percent.
Against this backdrop, winners can still see resounding success even in a more challenging market, especially when they lean into credibility and cultural relevance. TikTok is, of course, still a driver of sales spikes for emerging brands, but long-term resilience will require brands to sustain customer loyalty after generating the initial buzz.
“Social media remains critical for discovery, but sustained growth is no longer driven by influencer virality alone,” said Jeff Lindquist, a managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, who noted that word of mouth is becoming a growing source of trust in brands. “The strongest brands are using social platforms to educate and validate, not simply to chase trends.”
K-Beauty Everything Goes Global
After years of skyrocketing skincare growth, Korean beauty is scaling makeup and hair, with nails and fragrance also starting to make their mark internationally.
The proven US success of K-makeup brands like Tirtir has triggered a surge of launches at Ulta Beauty. According to Lauren Kang, the general manager of skincare and K-beauty for TikTok Shop, cushion compacts and skincare-makeup hybrids are gaining sales momentum, powering the growth of brands like Missha.
While K-makeup is already in major US beauty retailers, distributors say Korean hair care is close behind. Korean scalp-care brand Dr. Groot is already a top seller on TikTok Shop, according to Kang, and a representative for the brand said its digital net sales are up 1,148 percent year over year thanks mainly to US adoption. Snail mucin success story Cosrx launched hair products this year with a focus on the US market, enlisting Sydney Sweeney’s hairstylist Glen Coco as a spokesperson for the brand. Mathilde Riba, a beauty analyst at market trends research firm Spate, said that the K-beauty trend “glass hair,” an offshoot of “glass skin,” is a fast-growing trend on search and social going into 2026.
While makeup and hair have the biggest head start, nails and fragrance are also seeing international traction. “We’re seeing consumers embrace playful, experimental designs and innovative textures coming out of Korea, like soft-gradient ombrés and glossy jelly finishes,” said Tony Tjan, CEO and co-founder of nail brand MiniLuxe. L’Oréal, meanwhile, has bet on K-fragrance with its investment in Borntostandout, which could portend the brand’s global expansion as other Korean perfume labels like Gentle Monster’s Tamburins gain international buzz.
Medspa Treatments Come Home
In 2026, medspa culture will continue to move decisively into the bathroom cabinet, according to experts. What began with viral devices from brands like Medicube or Lyma is evolving into a full category of at-home alternatives designed to mimic in-office results.
“This is a top interest not just for brands in terms of product development, but also what our customer is searching for — either replicating in-office or products that help create stronger results from in-office treatments,” said Chelsea Strauser, the vice president of buying at Dermstore, citing products like MZ Skin’s Microtox Eye Serum, meant to emulate neuromodulators like Botox, or the Liquid Peptides Advanced MP Face Serum by Medik8, a brand acquired by L’Oréal this year.
Products are appearing at all price points. At luxury retailers like Violet Grey, consumers can spend $200 on the Instafacial Plasma Bioactive Growth Factor Serum by Dr. Diamond’s Metacine, a 30 mL bottle marketed to give the effect of the famous “vampire facial.” Or on Amazon, they can opt for a $21 15 mL “filler in a bottle” volufiline plumping serum from The Ordinary.
Social media has gone all-in on medspa alternatives. “There’s a lot of movement of taking things that are popularised in clinics and bringing the clinical home,” said Kang, noting that K-beauty skincare brands Medicube and Dr. Melaxin were among the top 10 beauty sellers on TikTok Shop in 2025, while VT Cosmetics saw a sales surge on TikTok and helped drive growth in searches for microneedling alternative serums with its viral Reedle Shot serum. Dr. Melaxin saw 1,000 percent growth in search over the past year, said Riba, as influencers continue to promote its multi balm as a form of “Botox in a stick.”
Makeup Artists Refresh the Category
Celebrity beauty brands continue to be influential, but more of their makeup artists than ever have been moved to start their own.
The launch of makeup lines by Hung Vanngo and Mary Phillips, which were both immediately scooped up by Sephora, joined established names like Makeup by Mario, Danessa Myricks Beauty and Patrick Ta Beauty, while makeup artists like Fara Homidi and Katie Jane Hughes continued to gain traction with their young lines.
These MUA brands are bringing back full-glam products such as eyeshadow palettes and lip kits as the data finally appears to be showing “clean-girl” beauty is losing steam: Spate finds that the trend is finally on the decline this year in terms of search volume.
According to Olivia Houghton, the insights and engagement director at trends forecasting firm The Future Laboratory, “a cultural countercurrent” to clean girl is on the way up. “It began with the ‘hot mess’ renaissance, which was considered a revolt against the polished ‘clean girl’ aesthetic, and is now evolving into a spectacle that celebrates provocation and strangeness,” she said.
Influencers who self-identify as MUAs are also helping to accelerate this trend, recognising consumer trust in artist-led brands — like Mikayla Nogueira, who launched lip kits with her new brand POV Beauty. Across the board, artists are at the ready with products and tutorials to share their expertise on looks more complicated than blush and mascara alone.
“Maybe I’m biased because it’s something I love doing, but eyes are going to have a big moment in 2026,” said celebrity makeup artist Ash K. Holm, adding that people are “hungry for more glam in their lives.”
The Middle Eastern Scent Drift
It’s not just Kayali cashing in on a Middle East fragrance boom. A growing number of brands are bringing perfumes from the UAE and beyond front and center globally across price points. While ultra-luxury brands like Amouage saw rapid growth in 2025, accessible labels like Lattafa have been surging on “Perfumetok.”
Lattafa has become a TikTok Shop top seller, promoting affordable scents in fancy packaging, as well as youth-oriented gourmand fragrances in viral cupcake-shaped bottles. After AI-generated deepfake accounts were called out promoting the brand, its virality only seemed to only heighten as intrigued real-life fragrance influencers rushed to offer their reviews.
Kayali, a longtime driver of the Middle East-inspired layering trend, remains a global fragrance leader as a top perfume brand at Sephora. Searches for “Arabian perfume” and “oud perfume” on Google and TikTok are up sharply, according to Spate.
“Online communities, from TikTok’s ‘smellmaxxing’ to indie fragrance forums, alongside challenger brands such as Kayali, are driving experimentation and participation,” said Houghton.
Hyper-Targeted Anti-Aging Skincare
Rather than treating the face as one uniform canvas, beauty shoppers are zeroing in on specific zones most associated with visible aging and concern. Eye cream may have paved the way, but undereye treatments are expanding into a vast array of options with masks, patches and serums for increasingly concentrated results. Neck creams and targeted neck treatments are also rising in search and launch activity, signalling a broader shift toward preventative, area-specific care.
“Consumers are trying to use targeted treatments for areas that will maybe show aging signs,” said Riba.
Lips are also emerging as a breakout category: Lip serum is currently Spate’s top skincare trend with 79.6 percent year-over-year growth in searches, becoming the next big lip category craze after the more makeup-oriented lip oil boom, with a focus on plumping and smoothing. A top seller in the category is Laneige with its Glaze Craze Tinted Lip Serum, another hit skincare for lips product after the massive success of the brand’s lip masks.
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