Nostalgia: Beauty’s Winning Strategy

Published 27 July 2026

Author

Elizabeth Bennett

8 min read

Nostalgic aesthetics and sentimental longing for joyful past experiences are hugely influencing youth culture, with playful 1990s and Y2K beauty products and designs from the pre-social media era resonating with consumers. We explore the uptick in nostalgic childhood collaborations, retro packaging and rereleased products, propelled by unstable times, digital overwhelm and the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI).

A Nostalgic Mindset

Beauty/Culture Collaborations

The Rerelease Era

The Rise in Retro Marketing

Amidst unstable times and the ongoing polycrisis, consumers are craving comfort and romanticising the pre-internet age. The entertainment, technology and aesthetic trends of the past are trumping our present ones, and this is rippling out across new beauty consumer cohorts: see the Vintage Visionaries and Cyber Nostalgics.

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With the ongoing appetite for nostalgia, beauty brands are forging licensing deals with entertainment brands to create themed collections, while food brands are moving into the beauty market via playful collaborations.

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The revival of 1990s and 2000s beauty looks and the wider yearning for nostalgia is driving brands to bring back discontinued make-up products. Similarly, scents from this period are appealing to both millennials, who experienced them the first time around, and Gen Zers romanticising this era.

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Coinciding with a global second-hand and retro gaming boom, retro thinking is shaping new product development, with brands mining the archives and borrowing packaging ideas and formats from past decades. Moreover, the booming fragrance category is tapping into the nostalgic mood with scents reminiscent of bygone times.

Nostalgia: Beauty’s Winning Strategy

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Topics

Children & Youth

Craft

Fragrance

Packaging & Graphics

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