How the Pandemic Came for Your Skin

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How the Pandemic Came for Your SkinKhadija Horton/Getty Images


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A lot has changed since 2020—and I’m not just talking about the global pandemic, the rocky economy, how we interact with one another, or the zillion other ways COVID-19 has permanently impacted our daily lives. I’m talking about the changes within the beauty industry—specifically to the way we approach our skin.

In 2023, self-care is no longer just an occasional feel-good hobby—it’s the entire foundation of our skincare routines. In the past few years, brands have shifted away from their cold, minimalist packaging and embraced bright, joyous, serotonin-inducing designs. Traditional “tough love” marketing lingo (the kind that endorsed a scorched-earth approach to your face) is being replaced with softer, more nurturing messaging—a reflection of today’s gentler formulas. Even the way we view professional skincare treatments and plastic surgery is through a kinder lens: Life is hard, so do whatever makes you feel happier, even if it involves needles.

While we were all busy just trying to survive, our beauty routines went through a self-care transition. And although COVID is not over yet, we have gotten space from the hellscape of 2020 to reflect on the day-to-day changes you likely didn’t even realize had happened, let alone know you were following. So where does that land us, and our beauty regimens, today in 2023—and how did we even get here? Let’s get into it.

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Cast your mind back to April 2020. It was only month two of the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders, and yet we were already witnessing a change in beauty habits. For once, we weren’t seeing each other in person—or venturing out of our homes—and our focus quickly shifted from creating the perfect cat eye to curating the most effective and restorative skincare routine.

Throughout lockdown, we watched the boom of TikTok and indulged in its “skinfluencers,” absorbing their content like at-home cosmetic chemists. We learned the value of hyaluronic acid, peptides, and antioxidants, and we began carefully deciding which formulas were allowed to touch our skin. In the midst of worldwide chaos, control felt good, and the idea of ingredient-driven well-being quickly seeped into how we viewed our hair.

It wasn’t enough to use gentle shampoos and conditioners anymore—we wanted to do more for our scalps, strands, and overall hair health. We wanted to fix and protect. Similar to morning-and-night skincare routines, having a hair routine became en vogue, and people began looking for ingredients they had already learned to trust for their skin. Seemingly overnight, the “skinification” of hair was born.

Since 2020, new innovations have emerged in the hair product category, borrowing ingredients historically reserved only for your face. Amika created a hair oil infused with hyaluronic acid, Inkey List launched a hair volumizer full of peptides, and Seen came out with a serum dedicated to preserving your scalp’s ecosystem. Even skincare tools made their hair debut, with Act + Acre releasing a dermaroller treatment specifically targeting the scalp.

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It’s easy to understand why so many people are still searching for ingredient-backed hair solutions in 2023—especially those who have continued to social distance or work from home. “Throughout the pandemic, many people were under-caring for themselves because they weren’t getting up, getting dressed, or being front-facing,” says certified trichologist Bridgette Hill (think rough-drying your hair without heat protectant, skipping your usual six-step curl-moisturizing routine, leaving your hair in a greasy bun for a week, etc.).

On top of that, “there was a huge uptick in telogen effluvium—hair loss as a result of extreme stress—from people who had COVID,” says dermatologist Nancy Samolitis, MD. Basically, people were (and still are) having more hair issues than ever—and also looking for anything to help fix the damage. Enter: haircare brands that, just like their skincare cousins, took the idea of “repair” to a new level, resulting in a flood of bond-building (read: damage-repairing) hair products in the market over the past six months.

“Olaplex created the knowledge and awareness around hair-bonding, and that was a big part of the move from interest in skincare to haircare,” says Yarden Horwitz, cofounder of Spate, an AI platform that tracks changes in consumer behavior. This shift paved the way for new bond-building brands to enter the space, like K18, Epres, and even affordable options like Climaplex. And in true skinification fashion, each uses a mix of science-based and skincare-derived ingredients to help “undo” damage, mistreatment, and neglect—so, you know, everything our hair and skin dealt with during and after lockdown.

All of these factors—from stress-related hair loss to an increased knowledge of ingredients—were the catalyst for people to seek self-care through haircare and became a key stepping stone to our current world of hair skinification. “These products were born from seeing how consumers are equating their hair to their skin and seeing the link between those two areas of the body,” says AJ Addae, founder and formulator at Sula Labs, an R&D skincare lab. And no, these products won’t be disappearing anytime soon (Spate predicts scalp serums alone will grow by 24 percent this year), especially because they brought with them another post-pandemic skincare trend: soothing formulations.

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Our skin has been through a lot in the past three years: Wearing masks introduced the (un)wonderful world of maskne; DIY concoctions led to rashes and irritation; and overzealous, high-intensity skincare routines left our faces burning, stinging, and begging for mercy. Eventually, we had to learn the hard way that like a broken heart, our skin barrier is neither invincible nor irreparable—but it does require some TLC to heal it.

“People were stuck inside and experimenting,” says Esther Olu, cosmetic chemist and licensed esthetician, and—in the inflammatory aftermath—“consumers became more educated about their skin barrier.” Just like we realized the importance of taking care of our mental health (from meditation to oversize sweatsuits and ASMR videos), we discovered the importance of nurturing our faces too. Derived from skincare overload, a more loving, pared-back, nurturing mindset was born, with a rise in ingredients that promised to soothe, restore, and calm irritated skin.

“During the pandemic, we started to see a huge surge in searches around sensitive skin,” says Horwitz, “with consumers becoming more aware and more conscious of what they were putting on their faces.” And unsurprisingly, one of the biggest trends to come out of this time was skin-barrier repair—i.e., the goal of healing and strengthening your face’s protective “shield.” For many people, it was the first time they had ever treated their face with conscious kindness, opting for coddling products over harsh peels, acids, and shrapnel-level scrubs.

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All of a sudden, you couldn’t visit Ulta or walk into Target without seeing some version of “be kind to your skin” messaging. Right now, for example, Sephora has nearly 100 serums, cleansers, creams, sprays, and masks dedicated to repairing your skin—a shocking contrast to the limited selection a few years ago—with 34 of them also containing “barrier” in their name (e.g., Glow’s Recipe Moisture Barrier Cleanser and Kiehl’s Repair Barrier Cream; both launched in the past six months). Some brands were even in on the trend from the start, like Skin Fix’s Barrier+ line of 16 calming options and Dr. Jart’s Ceramidin Skin Barrier line with a mix of soothing body lotions, eye creams, and sheet masks.

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Ceramides, hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and niacinamide—if a skincare product launched in the past two years, you can almost guarantee it was formulated with a mix of these barrier-restoring MVPs. And it makes sense: The pivot was not only a legitimate skincare solution but also a smart business approach. “Not everyone has acne or redness or hyperpigmentation, but everyone has a skin barrier,” says Addae. “So it’s also easy for us on the product development side because we know we’ll get great results.”

I, personally, have a skin barrier stronger than Simone Biles, but even my vanity reads as though being emo was not a phase. Right now, my barrier-healing lineup includes Fresh’s Resilience Serum (with ceramides), Dieux’s Skin-Restoring Moisturizer (with glycerin), Facile’s Destress Serum (with niacinamide), and Tower 28’s Rescue Spray (with anti-inflammatories). Pre-pandemic, I had never considered that my skin barrier could be aggravated, let alone disrupted (and yes, I’ve been in beauty for more than a decade). Now, my product lineup is essentially a comforting hug—and my skin is happier for it.

Spate posits that people’s interest in their skin barrier is only expected to grow in 2023, which means we’re seeing just the beginning of the soothing and healing product launches. And honestly, I’m not mad about it. “The great part of barrier-focused skincare is that it brings everybody back from this chaotic state and down to this calm state,” says Addae. And who doesn’t want that after the past three years?

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2020 was the year the world was devastated by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, in addition to the broader issue of rampant police brutality against the Black community. The resulting outcry for justice was swift and powerful—as was the seemingly performative “support” from many consumer brands on their social media accounts. These public displays are what led Sharon Chuter, founder of Uoma Beauty, to create Pull Up for Change, a nonprofit organization that called on brands to share the exact number of Black people they employed, especially in leadership positions. The results? Embarrassing to appalling.

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“Many brands don’t want to disclose their diversity numbers, but the first step to recovering is admitting you have a problem,” Chuter told Cosmo at the time. “That accountability and humility is a start.” The beauty world was long overdue for a radical change, and both consumers and employees within these companies pushed for inclusivity to become a real priority, not a marketing trend. But with abysmal levels of Black leadership at the majority of the industry’s top beauty brands, many in the Black community decided to take control of the change by carving out their own space in the market.

Historically, breaking into the beauty market as a Black entrepreneur has been fraught with systemic barriers, making it incredibly difficult for Black-owned businesses to get off the ground, let alone successfully operate. And although the same challenges—and need for support—continue to exist, the industry has made significant strides in recent years (in no small part thanks to Black women like Chuter and organizations like Pull Up for Change’s small business fund).

Eadem—a skincare brand that advertises itself as “smart melanin beauty”—launched in 2021 and was created by women of color, for people of color, with products vetted by dermatologists of color. 4.5.6 Skin (named for the Fitzpatrick skin-tone scale, where 4, 5, and 6 refer to olive to black skin tones) rebranded in 2022; it now offers customized skincare formulated by a lab that’s dedicated to studying melanin-rich skin. We’re only a few months into 2023, and already we have Loved01, John Legend’s affordable skincare line that, as he told Cosmo, was created with the wealth gap of Black and brown communities in mind.

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In the past few years, beauty retailers have also stepped up and expanded their inventories to finally begin to resemble their diverse customer bases. Ulta.com, for example, currently stocks more than 40 Black-owned and Black-founded brands, while Sephora.com offers 24 brands. Prior to 2020, customers had trouble finding a handful of melanin-focused brands across both meccas, let alone a mix of options and shade ranges.

“The beauty industry started to take more note of what Black consumers were experiencing on a product side and also on a marketing side,” says Addae. For the first time, many mainstream brands that had predominantly catered to light skin tones were forced to think through an inclusive lens: What would happen if we innovated and marketed with people of color in mind? The result: slow but steady progress.

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Addae’s company, Sula Labs, works on this progress from a research and development perspective. Her team is involved with not only formulating the best products for melanin-rich skin but also ensuring that the Black consumer trusts the brands they work with. “The industry is taking note of the Black demographic and how to better cater to us,” she says, “especially as we’ve seen the success of a lot of Black-owned brands, like Topicals and Hyper Skin.”

Of course, the biggest transformation needs to come from within the industry. It’s not enough to make space for new Black- and BIPOC-owned brands within the market—it’s also the responsibility of all beauty brands to continue (or, for many, to start) to do the work to create a more inclusive team, customer base, and product lineup. “We’re going to be seeing so much of that over the next few years,” says Addae. “It’s this entire cycle of how do we really accommodate the Black consumer in the way we have traditionally accommodated all consumers?”

Thankfully, change is happening: “The beauty industry started to take the success of Black-owned brands a lot more seriously,” says Addae. And even though this industry shift is long overdue, Addae notes that we’re on the right track. “Because when there’s success with these brands, there’s a cultural success as well, right?”

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Throughout much of 2020, Zoom filters took the place of perfectly applied foundation and concealer. Mascara was abandoned (too much effort), and lipstick was left to perish with daily mask use. Suddenly, our faces became the subject of intense scrutiny, and we started to home in on—and anxiously obsess over—parts of ourselves that previously, we may have noted only in passing.

For the first time, work meetings now came with a mirror held to our faces. Rather than zoning out or staring at a work bestie, many of us instead fixated on ourselves, overanalyzing every crease, shadow, and perceived “imperfection” on the screen. Even Zoom’s “pretty” filter wasn’t enough to save some of us from ourselves, and by mid-2020, both invasive plastic surgery and noninvasive “tweakments” (e.g., neurotoxins, filler, peels, and radiofrequency) were sharply on the rise.

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“Probably the most injections I’ve ever done was in mid-2020,” says Dr. Samolitis, referring to neurotoxins (like Xeomin, Botox, etc.). “After people had been at home for a while, I think there was an element of anxiety, like, I haven’t had my treatments, I haven’t had my hair done, I’m stressed,” she says. So once restrictions were lifted and dermatologists were once again seeing patients in person, tons of people lined up not only to get injectables but also to try out new treatments—a trend that has only continued (and grown) today.

In fact, in its 2022 member survey, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) reported that 82 percent of treatments performed throughout 2022 were minimally invasive. And unsurprisingly, 79 percent of respondents also stated that Zoom was a contributing factor in their patients’ desire to seek treatment—a phenomenon now deemed the Zoom Boom.

And sure, injectables and surgical treatments have been widely sought for decades, but they’re significantly less taboo to talk about now in 2023 than they were in 2019. One key reason? The power of TikTok, which had its rise to fame during the height of the pandemic. The content engine gave people—often for the first time—access to personal testimonials and real-time recoveries, helping to demystify the seemingly scary world of cosmetic treatments and plastic surgery.

Facial plastic surgeon Amir Karam, MD, says that during lockdown—when he wasn’t able to perform surgery—he began creating educational content that quickly took off (his Youtube currently has 365,000 subscribers). Dr. Karam found an unexpected audience in people who had historically opted for only nonsurgical treatments, and surprisingly, “our demand for surgery skyrocketed,” he says. Yes, exposure and education played a massive role in the shift, but “the other component was that people finally had downtime,” he explains.

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Before the pandemic, needing two weeks to recover from a nose job or a brow lift wasn’t doable without taking time off work, but for those who were able to work from home during the pandemic, “they were like, ‘No big deal—I’ll turn my camera off and heal while working,’” Dr. Karam says. Even now, years later, we’re seeing the trend continue, with more of the under-35 crowd experimenting with new treatments. Proof: The AAFPRS survey reports that the top surgical procedure of 2022 was the face-lift, and for people 34 years and younger, it was rhinoplasty. The second most requested surgery was blepharoplasty (upper and/or lower eyelid surgery—basically, an eyelid lift).

Of course, not everyone made the leap from Zoom to face-lift. Many people are still scared of more permanent or surgical interventions, which may explain the recent rise in demand for nonsurgical treatments like Emface and Morpheus8—treatments designed to tighten, brighten, and firm (without going under the knife). Sure, they’re still noninvasive with very little recovery time, but their popularity signifies a mental shift in the average 20something patient who just a few years ago wouldn’t even see a dermatologist—forget dropping money on a seemingly lavish treatment.

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As with all of these post-pandemic beauty trends, we’re only seeing the beginning of the movement, not the end. Noninvasive treatments are predicted to grow by 47 percent this year, according to Spate, and will continue to be popular as long as “people feel like there’s this gap between the way they look and the way they feel,” says Dr. Karam. At the end of the day, making the decision to try professional treatments—rather than relying solely on skincare—is a powerful way for people to take control of how they look and feel outside of the computer screen. And at this rate, who knows where our faces will be by 2024.

serotonin skincare
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As the iconic Kim Cattrall once said, “I don’t want to be in a situation for even an hour where I’m not enjoying myself” (which, same). But for most of us, that wasn’t possible throughout much of the pandemic. By the end of 2020, COVID had us keenly aware of the gift of health—both physical and mental—and most of us were desperate for a bit of joy and fun to offset our constant doomsday scrolling.

After years of minimalism being the dominant trend in skincare, our bathroom shelves were covered with various shades of beige, white, and black—coincidentally, pretty self-reflective of our current emotional states. So, naturally, a lot of us gravitated to the beauty products that gave off good vibes only—especially if our skincare routine was one of the few moments of self-care we got for ourselves each day.

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Throughout lockdown, products that were previously deemed too “cutesy” or childlike started to have a resurgence on social media. Kitschy was in, and curated was, well, boring. Doing your skincare routine with a white cotton headband and some clinical-looking eye patches? Snooze. On TikTok, influencers donned knockoffs of Versed’s bubble headband, slapped on glittery-gold eye patches, and massaged on bubblegum-pink body butter. The beauty aisle—which could often feel clinical and sterile—started to feel like an actual sensory experience, from Futurewise’s bright and trippy skincare line (dedicated to healing your skin barrier) to Vacation’s cans of whipped sunscreen straight out of 1980s Miami.

Even as I type this, my face is dotted with yellow star stickers—pimple patches from Starface that came housed in a matching smiley-face case. They’re concealing my zits while also drawing attention to the fact that, yup, I do have zits. After three years of watching each other share unfiltered GRWM videos, in-your-face beauty is officially cool again, and this screw-it mentality is actually helping people take back control over how their skin makes them feel.

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Topicals, a skincare brand that launched in 2020, has a similar brand message to “taking the power back”—while also giving consumers a serotonin hit. It pairs its science-backed (and ’60s-era pastel) products with unfiltered models who have actual ingrown hairs on their thighs or zits on their butt. “Always effective, always fun,” reads the brand’s website. Tell me how many times you heard that in 2019?

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We’re at a point where many of us expect more from our skincare routines than just research-backed efficacy. If we’re going to devote time to ourselves twice a day, we want to have some fun throughout the process, whether it be from the product’s formulation (see: jellies, foamy bubbles, mists) or how that product makes us feel (see: bold, cool, or youthful).

One of my favorite products at the moment is the Lawless Lip Plumping Gloss that smells exactly like the cherry Jolly Ranchers I would eat as a kid. The high-shine finish, the skincare-like ingredients, and the retro scent all work together to make me feel like I’m a carefree teen discovering the magic of beauty for the first time. To put it simply, it just makes me feel good, and—I think Kim Cattrall would agree—that’s the least we deserve right now.

Just the Beginning

Regardless of what has happened—or is still happening—in the world, our self-care routine is the one part of the day we have total control over. We can choose how products and ingredients will make us feel, whether that’s embracing a scalp serum to help cope with hair loss or reaching for a Black-owned spot treatment designed with you in mind or covering your skin with sparkles and stickers and flinging yourself back into childhood for a few minutes each day. At this point, my routine is doing more for me than just maintaining my skin and hair health—it’s helping my mental health too. And isn’t that what we’re all hoping to gain in this post-pandemic world?

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