Winning over young consumers topped the business agenda for cosmetics companies in 2017, as marketing to millennials became a priority in many industries.
The Instagram-obsessed generation tends to be make-up junkies, whose purchasing decisions are influenced by YouTubers' product reviews. The legion of beauty vloggers also show them how to enhance hooded eyes and execute 3D contouring, among other make-up techniques.
Millennials, however, may not yet worry about wrinkles but are concerned about the environment's immediate effect on their skin, leading to this year's biggest beauty trend: anti-pollution skincare.
The polluted environment has long been an issue for French company Clarins, whose first anti-atmospheric-pollution complex was introduced in 1991, and incorporated into its daytime skincare products and foundations.
Skin presumably is suffocated by pollutants from exhaust fumes, industrial smoke, tobacco and even air conditioning, resulting in dehydration, loss of radiance and premature skin ageing.
Recent studies also found a strong correlation between the concentration of gas in the atmosphere and pigmentation, and the effect of fine particles in increasing dark spots.
Hence, breathing algae, dust-blocking and clean-air technologies, as well as green and black tea, are among the cosmetic solutions featured in oxygenating and detoxifying formulas that are all the rage for counteracting pollution's effect on the skin.
