While beauty has been dominated by sweet patisserie aesthetics and scents, brands are exploring more challenging, sophisticated gourmand flavour and colour profiles. Nascent trends include root vegetables, tart fruits and fermented pickle, while tropical yellow banana, purple ube and green matcha offer dopamine-boosting pops of saturated colour, mouthwatering fragrance and sensory storytelling.

Consumers are finding relief in everyday beauty rituals with hyper-tactile, transitional textures, see our S/S 28 Beauty Direction Elevate. Globally, 55% of people prioritise comfort as a daily need (Pinterest 2025). Delicious, food-inspired formulas offer social media-friendly autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) – think squishy jelly, gelatinous pudding and whipped marshmallow – while milky emulsions and oozing oils tap into ancient beauty rituals.

Fusing futuristic digital aesthetics with 90s and Y2K nostalgia, a new wave of otherworldly creative hair and make-up styling is captivating Gen Zalpha – as evidenced by our Future Beauty Cohort, the Cyber Nostalgics. With references running from aliens to mermaids, it’s all about twinkling glitter, lustrous iridescence and kaleidoscopic colour – refined maximalism with a bioluminescent glow.

Growing appreciation of the natural world places greater focus on interconnectedness, with sensory engagement via mindful beauty rituals fostering deeper emotional connection between consumer and product – see our A/W 27/28 Direction Elemental. Sensorial formats include botanical oils, gritty salts, smooth crystal tools, aromatic floral infusions and soft feathered embellishment, while cooling, protective formulas are becoming essential to combat the rising temperatures of global climate change.