Function over form
The new design challenge: functional ecosystems, not product pyramids
For years, beauty brands followed a vertical playbook. The model was clear: dominate a category, build product ladders from basic to premium, and drive growth through regimen complexity. That model no longer reflects how people use beauty products.
Today’s consumer behaviour is not linear. People don’t build routines around morning and night alone. They reach for products in the middle of the day, after a workout, before a video call, while getting ready for a social event, or after returning from a commute. These fragmented, functional usage moments are where future growth will happen.
Brands must shift from designing for step-by-step routines to designing for ecosystems — flexible product collections that match real moments in people’s lives. These ecosystems are built around when and why a product is used, not around technical complexity or category structure.
Consider what this could look like:
Desk-to-dinner ecosystems: Lightweight makeup refreshers, blotting products, and fragrances that reset presentation before a meeting or a social event.
Late commute recovery: Cleansing wipes, balancing sprays, and barrier creams applied at the end of the day, before re-entering home life.
Weekend reset: Scalp scrubs, bath soaks, and nail treatments that support longer self-care rituals not tied to traditional AM/PM cues.
Pre-social prep: High-performance primers, long-wear colour cosmetics, and multi-benefit hair products that function across settings, not only time slots.
Some are already responding. In Asia, brands like Innisfree and Laneige are bundling products for midday refreshment rather than morning prep. In Europe, Typology is structuring recommendations around lifestyle patterns, not skin types.
To keep pace, the industry must rethink more than marketing:
Product development must anchor around usage context. A serum should do more than promise hydration; it should be formulated and positioned for where and when it fits in the day.
Packaging must prioritise flexibility. Sticks, mists, and travel-ready formats are gaining traction, particularly in markets like Brazil and the Philippines, where portability and ease of use are essential.
Retail environments must make discovery easier. Shelves and ecommerce platforms still group by product type or claim, when what matters most is how and when the product is used.
The barrier is inertia. Brands worry about confusing shoppers. Retailers worry about store flow. Marketers worry about fragmenting messaging. But the bigger risk is irrelevance — building strategies around routines that no longer exist.
Ecosystem thinking offers a way forward. Not by chasing loyalty within a single category, but by increasing penetration across usage moments. Not by building deeper pyramids, but by solidifying touchpoints throughout the day.
The brands that succeed will be those that meet consumers where usage actually happens — and design for that. Not the routine. The reality.
Owning Work Mode
Too many brands still treat workday grooming as secondary. Work Mode is one of the most stable, scalable Beauty Spaces — spanning SPF, haircare, skincare and fragrance. Yet few brands build full propositions around it. The opportunity is daily relevance, not occasional glam.
Designing for Refresh Reset
The midday reset is rising fast, particularly in Britain and parts of Europe. Brands keep selling heavy skincare regimes when consumers crave simple, feel-good refreshers that fit a coffee break, not a whole ritual.
Shrinking the product stack
Consumers are voting for simpler routines. Mini sizes, multifunctional hybrids and lighter product stacks are in demand. Yet many launches are still built for complexity. Winning brands will streamline.
Building prestige moments
Prestige brands are fighting to defend price points when they should be fighting to own moments in the day. Consumers still pay for excellence, but only when it fits a real set of circumstances.
Specialising by moment, not demographic
Most brand and retail strategies still target “young women” or “older men.” But consumers are behaving by moment, not by age. The brands that reframe around demand, not demographics, will win faster.
Rethinking retail
Tagging situations, in addition to function, drives discovery and deeper baskets. Digital and physical shelves that speak to physical and emotional needs, not categories, increase relevance, basket size, and loyalty.
Our panels capture millions of beauty, personal care and grooming events every single week. With a gold standard diary collection method, we unlock insights based on true behaviours rather than recall and filtered reality seen on social media.
This report is built on a 360-degree view of beauty, connecting how people shop with how they actually use the products they buy. By combining purchase data with usage data, we capture the full consumer journey — from the shelf to real moments of application. This integrated perspective helps brands understand what’s selling, but also when, where, and why it matters in people’s daily lives.
Purchase data and analysis cover:
Europe: Great Britain (GB), France (FR), Spain (ES), Portugal (PG)
Asia: China (CN), South Korea (KR), Taiwan (TW), Thailand (TH), Malaysia (MY), Indonesia (IDN), India (IN), Philippines (PH), Vietnam (VN)Latam: Brazil (BR), Mexico (MX), Colombia (COL), Argentina (AG), Peru (PE), Central America (CAM), Chile (CHI), Ecuador (EC)
Usage data and analysis cover:
Great Britain (GB), France (FR), Spain (ES), Germany (DE), the United States (US), and Brazil (BR).
Each Beauty Space need state is the roadmap to a key growth opportunity
