This year – 2025 – was a “year of empowerment” in beauty, according to Andrew McDougall, director of beauty and personal care research at Mintel, who said beauty consumers today wanted to “build their own knowledge” in this fast-moving and innovative category.
Addressing attendees at last month’s in-cosmetics 2025 tradeshow in Amsterdam, McDougall said the ’my knowledge is power’ Mintel trend was set to significantly shape the beauty market this year, and it was all about how consumers saw, created and attained value.
Knowledge, a ’necessity’
“Beauty is no longer just about the products you put on your skin, hair or body, it’s now about consumer power,” he said. “Knowledge, for consumers, is no longer an accessory, it is now a necessity; it’s the foundation for choice, the decisions they make, and the confidence they have in products and brands.”
So, what exactly did this mean for beauty brands? And what about retailers?
“Today, it’s about how we get messaging across to the consumer,” he explained. “As much as I say consumers want control, brands and manufacturers still do have a role to play, it’s just changed ever so slightly.”
Speaking to Premium Beauty News, McDougall said the rise in consumer knowledge represented both an opportunity and a challenge for brands and retailers.
“Brands need an active approach to empowering consumers, but it should feel supportive rather than prescriptive,” he said. “This involves providing accessible, fact-based education about their products and how to use them effectively without overwhelming consumers. Leveraging clear communication, detailed packaging, and digital platforms to educate consumers on safe practices and product efficacy is critical.”
For retailers, he said it was about “creating environments” that prioritised education, convenience and transparency. This included training staff to be product experts able to offer “meaningful, informed advice to shoppers”, he said, as well as investing in in-store experiences, such as personalised consultations or product demonstrations to “bridge the gap between information and action”.
Digital innovation was equally important for retailers, he said, such as offering virtual advisors, clear ingredient breakdowns, and AI-powered product search functions. “Ultimately, a retailer’s role must extend beyond transaction facilitation to becoming a hub for discovery and informed decision-making.”
The rise of realtime data
During his presentation, McDougall said as consumers worldwide continued to track various aspects of their lives via smartphones and wearables, including daily steps, sleep, heart rate and even oxygen levels, brands and retailers had to start thinking about how they could play into this tracking trend in beauty.
Things like Artificial Intelligence (AI) skincare diagnostic apps and AI mirrors already existed, he said, and could “empower consumers with knowledge to make decisions” thanks to the “realtime data and recommendations” they provided, for example. Access to these insights, he said, enabled consumers to choose products, ingredients and routines more specifically adapted to their needs.
And whilst this was already happening across beauty to a degree, the research director said it remained niche. In the future, though, it wasn’t unimaginable to think a mass market beauty consumer might wake up in the morning, put on a pair of Augmented Reality (AR) glasses, interact with a virtual influencer or assistant, conduct a real-time scan of their skin, receive a daily weather update based on a live location, and receive skincare suggestions suited to these specific and detailed conditions, he said. “We’re going to see advanced technologies like AI and AR revolutionise everything we see in beauty.”
A collaborative future for beauty
And these advances, McDougall said, aligned well with the rising consumer desire to get more involved in the beauty category – particularly across skincare, anti-ageing and high-tech tools where the “necessity for knowledge” was particularly pronounced.
“Today’s consumer is much more than just a buyer,” he said. “…They are involved, they are co-creators, advocates, and decision-makers that are going to be shaping industry moving forward.”
Consumers today wanted to feel listened to, spoken to and catered to, he explained, and to an extremely detailed level. The future of beauty had to be imagined as “not something passive, but something highly collaborative”, he said, where consumers designed their own lipsticks, had serums made based on DNA, formulations blended according to hormones, and routines built on individual and realtime fatigue or stress levels. “This is not just personalisation, it’s hyper-personalisation we’re seeing in progress now. And it’s not just a trend, it’s going to be the future of industry now, particularly as technology scales.”
A recent Mintel study suggested 62% of US consumers, for example, were interested in hyper-personalised beauty and personalised care products and 28% would be willing to pay more for these offerings.
Hyper-personalisation was, today, about “putting consumers in the driving seat”, McDougall explained. Listening to what beauty consumers wanted, offering highly personalised products and providing “unwavering transparency”, he said, was the future, and it would “redefine beauty”. “…When we empower people, we redefine beauty.”
Safeguarding the future
But as consumers carved out their place at the beauty table, how could brands avoid consumer misuse and misunderstandings around products, tools and routines? “Brands must take a proactive stance in educating consumers and promoting safe beauty practices,” he said. “Clear communication is essential. This includes prominent, easy-to-understand instructions on product usage, scientifically-validated claims, and transparent ingredient lists. Where relevant, brands should also communicate potential risks of misuse.”
Collaboration with dermatologists, medical experts or trusted influencers could also “further bolster credibility” and safeguard against misinformation, he said. “By prioritising education, clarity, and proactive engagement, brands can minimise risks and position themselves as trusted stewards in a more knowledge-driven beauty landscape,” concluded the trends expert.