Beauty Independent: 24 Bold Indie Beauty Predictions For 2024

Full article: https://www.beautyindependent.com/bold-indie-beauty-predictions-2024/

There was no recession in 2023, but there was a clean beauty reckoning.
Brands at the heart of the segment like Athr Beauty, Aisling Organics, Luxe Botanics and MUN announced closures as the allure of clean beauty dulled amidst its mainstreaming. It wasn’t the omnipresence of the segment alone that battered them, however, but a compendium of difficulties that bedeviled smaller brands this year, including a lack of funding, lofty interest rates, market crowding, consumer caution, and heightened advertising and material expenses.
Despite the beauty industry’s remarkable resilience, there doesn’t appear to be much hope that the conditions that laid waste to several indie beauty and wellness brands this year will vanish next year, at least at the start of the year. Instead, it’s anticipated they could take down larger brands. A number of beauty companies previously acquired by conglomerates have been offloaded recently (think Dollar Shave Club, Caress, Tigi, VO5, The Body Shop and Wella), and underperformers that don’t find a new home or are simply too feeble to salvage could be laid to rest.
“I believe that going into 2024 we will see more of a reset in beauty,” says Sonia Summers, founder and CEO of in-store support provider Beauty Barrage. “The last few years we have seen a bombardment of brands enter the market. I think more brands will shutter as a result of not being able to sustain the business. We know DTC has become even more challenging with the cost or acquisition at an all-time high. Retailers have more choices than ever to launch a brand, and they want to ensure the ones they chose are ready and that they understand what they will need to invest in as they grow the brands at brick-and-mortar.”
Leilah Mundt, founder and CEO of beauty brand agency Crème Collective, argues that beauty has hit “peak saturation.” In the saturated environment, she counsels brands to be laser-focused on products that are absolute must-haves for retailers and shoppers. “If you launch a product, make sure it checks all the boxes and spend a lot of money on it,” says Mundt. “When you look at brands and the marketplace overall, there’s been a lot of new launches and people trying to chase buzzy trends. I believe that the pendulum is swinging in that the consumer used to be interested in discovery, but is now so overwhelmed that they want a product they know works, that they know they can afford, and that they know they will continue to use.”
The market saturation and clean beauty crunch illustrate that indie beauty and wellness brands must be defter than ever to win over the wallets of contemporary shoppers. Below, we explore strategies they’re employing for 2024 to dexterously maneuver their businesses in the face of obstacles and areas of opportunity they’ll be diving into to be top of mind with consumers today.

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13. Med-spas and facial bars will sharpen their propositions.

It was a huge year for med-spas and facial bar concepts. Independent operators broke into the market while private equity investment and buyouts ramped up. To stand out in an increasingly congested landscape, med-spas and facial bars will drill down on their value propositions next year. 

Proof Aesthetics is amplifying its holistic and multifunctional approach to aesthetics. The med-spa has experienced robust demand for functional treatments that aren’t primarily aesthetic such as Botox injections in the trapezuis muscle that relieve tension in the back and shoulders. The express facial bar company Clean Your Dirty Face revamped its menu this year to include advanced services like a nano-needling and gua-sha sculpting fusion facial as well as a professional peel. The refocused menu increased the company’s prices. Previously priced at $50 for 30-minute facials with add-on treatments ranging between $10 and $20, facials at Clean Your Dirty Face now clock in at $60, with enhancements priced from $30 to $70. 

Shama Patel, founder and CEO of Clean Your Dirty Face, says the franchised chain has seen “tremendous success since focusing on bridging that gap between facial bar and med-spa this past year. The percent of clients coming in with, ‘I’ve had Botox or filler in the last week,’ checked on their form went from 3% in 2017 to now 74% in 2023. In our stores, our existing client base is eight years older now, and the initial client age experiencing a facial for the first time is also significantly younger now, in the teens. It’s wild.”