Key takeaways on 5 beauty trends that can shape 2026
- Emotional wellness and immersive experiences will redefine beauty.
- AI and health tracking will power hyper-personalised routines.
- Expect bold textures, cultural storytelling and layered aesthetics.
- Tactile beauty and fragrance layering will dominate Gen Z trends.
Beauty and personal care in 2026 won’t be playing it safe. The era of predictable trends is over, as consumers demand multisensory experiences, tech-powered precision and bold aesthetics in rebellion. From AI-driven routines to gummy-inspired textures and bespoke scents, the industry faces a wake-up call: innovate or become irrelevant.
Emotional wellness & sensorial factors driving purchase
Market intelligence firm Mintel has forecast three trends for next year. One of these is Sensorial Synergy, which centres on consumers’ increasing need for emotional wellness. The firm predicts this will drive a sensory revolution in beauty.
Mintel’s Director of Beauty & Personal Care Insights, Andrew McDougall, explained that although beauty products have always had multisensory elements, these have traditionally been secondary to efficacy. Now, the experience will take precedence, with sensory stimulation becoming the primary driver of purchase.
“The heightened need for emotional wellness makes 2026 the perfect moment for beauty’s sensory evolution,” McDougall said. “Breakthroughs in functional fragrances, neuroscience, and immersive technologies like VR are ready to transform daily routines into rich, multi-sensory experiences. Increasing consumer focus on self-care rituals ensures these innovations resonate deeply now.”
Mintel forecasts that by 2030, beauty will be judged not only on results but also on its ability to regulate emotions and create memorable experiences.
“Sensory-first design will extend into travel, hospitality, and interiors, with products positioned as daily mood tools,” McDougall added. “Brands that thrive will shift from clinical efficacy to experiential storytelling.”
Hyper-personalised, tech-driven routines
According to Euromonitor International, shoppers are increasingly moving away from traditional routines and embracing clinical-level, high-tech solutions as everyday wellness tools.
The firm’s consumer data shows that three in four consumers now track their health using an app or device – with 35% actively seeking new prevention or treatment methods due to dissatisfaction with current approaches. There is also growing demand for precision, efficacy and speed. Nearly half of those surveyed (49%) said they were willing to pay a premium for scientifically formulated beauty products.
Euromonitor also highlighted that global consumer expenditure on health goods and medical services is projected to reach $6.9 trillion in 2026. Therefore, it urges beauty and personal care brands to innovate with hyper-personalised, tech-driven solutions that integrate seamlessly into daily life, offering both immediate and long-term benefits.
Nick Stene, Senior Global Insight Manager for Consumer Health, noted that 54% of global consumers aged 30–39 see Generative AI as at least moderately trustworthy for health advice.
“This is not just limited to younger audiences,” said Stene. “Health services worldwide face the scale pressure of an ageing population, and AI specialises in spotting patterns humans would miss. This is a logical step change where AI has an increasing role to play and some victories ahead.”
“There is a critical role for humans ongoing in consumer health, but when we see home kits for blood and other fluid testing, apps, devices and trackers penetrating more homes, we glimpse the scale and ‘always-on’ health monitoring that becomes possible when AI enters the equation,” he said.
New approaches to colour and healing
According to WGSN trend forecaster and beauty strategist Megan Bang, SS26 beauty consumers are set to “seek new approaches to colour and healing through unexpected colour combinations and glimmer-inducing finishes.”
“Tactile jelly brights and healing pastels will bring levity, while rich darks offer sensual mystery,” she said. “Update last season’s candy-coated mystical brights with experimental textures and playful applications.”
Bang highlighted keywords such as unusual, youthful, bouncy, directional and Gen Z; while product applications could include semi-permanent hair colour, eyeshadow, lipstick, nails, packaging and makeup tools. Suggested key finishes included soft-matte gloss, translucent and shimmer.
Backlash to ‘ongoing sameness’
Trend forecasting agency The Future Laboratory has highlighted how a new wave of beauty ideals is emerging.
In its annual beauty, health and wellness future report, The Great Beauty Blur, The Future Laboratory explores how years of monotony and a lack of innovation are resulting in a movement of new beauty ideals.
The report states how mass trends, the rise of social media and the use of digital tools, such as artificial intelligence, have led to a homogenised beauty standard and a lack of innovation in the category. As certain brands and products win the market, others are trying to follow in their footsteps rather than create something new.
Olivia Houghton, insights and engagement director and beauty lead at The Future Laboratory, said that innovations are crucial market drivers.
“Beauty styles now signal ideology, entrench hierarchies and narrow diversity,” she said.
“Around 10% of annual sales in the beauty industry come from genuinely new innovations, but then innovation is challenging because only around 10% of new beauty brands manage to survive long term.”
The London-based trends firm identifies this ongoing sameness as one of the biggest threats to the industry, which is leading to a rise in trends that are pushing for the opposite.
“Beauty has become predictable – and predictable is powerless,” stated the report. “Brands that embrace layered experiences, cultural storytelling and interpretive aesthetics will reclaim depth, provoke thought and reshape how we see ourselves.”
The Future Laboratory also forecasts a revival of local rituals, cultural heritage and traditional aesthetics.
Fun-filled innovation
As shoppers purposely seek out more fun and sensorial innovation, two areas that social media platform Pinterest predicts to gain momentum in 2026 are gummy-inspired beauty products and increasingly bespoke scents.
“In 2026, we’re going full-on gummy,” declared Pinterest in its beauty trends report. “Gen Z and Millennials are behind this ASMR overload – picture bendy phone cases, elastic cheek tints and probiotic treats that have that spring-back bite. Expect rubberised nail art and 3D jewellery to become your new tactile obsession.”
Pinterest shared statistics on what people have been searching for on the social media platform. These included:
• gummy bears aesthetic +50%
• yokan +60%
• agar agar +35%
• jelly blush +130%
The trend report also forecast that signature scents are changing. “Gen Z and Millennials are ditching one-and-done scents for bespoke notes, blending oils and perfumes to craft their very own fragrance formulas,” it said. “Expect luxury to linger in layers next year.”
On this note, it highlighted the perfume-related keywords that people have been searching for on the platform:
• Niche perfume collection +500%
• Perfume layering combinations +125%
• Signature scent +45%
• Scent layering +75%
• Perfume notes +80%
