A short opinion episode (EP172) from the Green Beauty Conversations podcast in which Lorraine Darmaneyr defines the emergence of “skintellectuals” — mainly Gen Z consumers who understand skincare ingredients and formulation — and links this trend to wider availability of information, social media, and major industry growth. She cites specific data (global beauty market growth from about US$15B to US$500B over ~40 years and a survey reporting 60% of Gen Z bought beauty products before age 14 vs 39% of millennials), urges skintellectuals to challenge science-washing and greenwashing, and issues a listener challenge to hold influencers and brands accountable. The episode ends with CTAs to Formula Botanica.
Questions this video answers
August 3, 2023.
About US$15 billion (around the host's birth) and about US$500 billion now — described as a ~3,000% increase over just over 40 years.
60% of Gen Z shoppers purchased a beauty product before the age of 14, compared to 39% for millennials.
Cosmetic science student Riley Cohen.
Chapters
Ever heard the term skintellectual? Well, it's used to describe a group of people who pride themselves on understanding their skincare at a level not previously seen among shoppers. This means that they understand what the ingredients do, they understand the terminology used by the beauty industry, and they understand even a bit about what the formulation does and how it's created. This is a whole new world for the beauty industry, but it's not entirely surprising. And as you can probably imagine, the group of people who've really embraced skintellectualism are the younger generation who've grown up surrounded by social media. They've always had information at their fingertips, whereas in my stone age pre Internet days I used to have to go to the library to physically take out or order books if I wanted to find out more about something. Even saying these words sounds utterly ridiculous now, because things have changed so much so quickly. So last week here on the podcast, I interviewed cosmetic science student Riley Cohen, who came to talk to me about the way that Gen Z views sustainable beauty. It's fascinating to think how much has changed in such a short time and how exciting it is that shoppers can now gain access to more information than ever before. And I think it might just be the skin intellectual who helps us clean up the beauty industry. So I want to explore this topic in a bit more detail in today's podcast opinion. So let's get started. Hi, it's Lorraine Darmeyer, chartered environmentalist, biologist and CEO of award winning online organic cosmetic formulation school Formula Botanica. I host the Green Beauty Conversations podcast and these are my green beauty opinions in which I share my takeaways from the podcast interview we released last week and set you a challenge to make the green beauty sector a better place. If you want to be the first to hear all of my latest episodes, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. So where did skintellectuals actually come from? Why has this group of shoppers arisen in the first place? Well, when you keep throwing scientific terminology at your customers, eventually someone's going to want to understand what all these terms mean. After all, there are only so many adverts you can watch before you think to yourself, well, what exactly is collagen? What is retinol? What is niacinamide? And where do they come from and what do they do on my skin? These are very logical questions to want answers to, and the information is now at our fingertips. And secondly, the beauty industry has grown phenomenally in the last decades. So when I was born, the global beauty industry was worth about US$15 billion, which is a lot of money in itself. Now it's worth about US$500 billion, half a trillion dollars. That's a 3,000% increase in just over 40 years. And with that growth, we've seen far more brands increased communication, adverts, product placements, endorsements, billboards, you name it. Beauty is big business, which means that it would be almost impossible nowadays to grow up without being bombarded by it at every corner. And most importantly, the rise of the Internet and social media has allowed us to share information faster than ever before. It's forced brands to be more transparent. It's opened up a whole conversation about what's really in our beauty products. However, it's also allowed misinformation to travel at breakneck speed. So I mentioned in my interview with Riley last week that there's been a big increase in cosmetic chemistry influences online because you can't really escape The TikTokers or YouTubers who explain the science behind cosmetic ingredients or walk you through an entire product line by line to help you understand what it might or might not do on the skin. It's also part of the reason that Formula Botanica is so popular online. People follow us because they want to learn to formulate for themselves rather than try to second guess what's in the formulations they can buy. So it's not really surprising that the younger generations are growing up expecting to learn more about their skincare. In fact, according to one survey run by the pull agency, 60%. That's 6 out of 10 of Gen Z shoppers purchased a beauty product before the age of 14, compared to 39% for millennials. That's huge. 60% before they're 14 years old. Skincare and makeup are now a fundamental part of our social fabric from a very young age. Which is why I think it should also be the skintellectuals who start to challenge the beauty brands more on their science washing. You know, the way they blind us with scientific terminology that really doesn't mean all that much, but sounds super impressive. The skintellectual community should also start to challenge brands on their sustainability credentials. As Riley said in her interview last week, the younger generations are going to have to somehow clean up the enormous environmental mess that we've left for them. And a big part of cleaning up the beauty industry will undoubtedly come from its customers pushing them hard to stop greenwashing. So my challenge to you for this week is, if you consider yourself to be a skintellectual, start to seek out influencers who talk about sustainability in beauty products as well as the science of those formulations start to challenge the cosmetic chemistry influencers out there to find out what is and isn't sustainable start to ask more questions. If we're gaining our knowledge through influencers then I think we need to hold them accountable too, which is of course also a topic we covered here on the podcast back in episode 141. As a result, it just might be that the Gen Z skintellectual community is going to help clean up the entire beauty industry and make this this sector more transparent. Which would be amazing. Thank you for listening to my green beauty opinions. Remember to visit the Formula botanica website@formulabotanica.com to try our free online formulation course and if you haven't subscribed yet to the Green Beauty Conversations podcast, please make sure you do so now in your favorite podcast app. Leave me a five star review if you enjoy the conversations I host and I'll be back soon with my next episode. Sam.
