Let’s travel back in time to the beginning of March 2020. The alarm goes off at 6:30 am. You wake up, get in the shower, blow-dry and comb your hair, pick out an outfit, stand in front of the mirror and put on your makeup, grab your lunch and gym bag, and run out the door to do your workout. 8:10 bus. You do the same thing the next morning. And the next one. And the one after that.
If just reading that sentence is enough to save a LinkedIn search for “remote jobs,” you’re not alone. In the last two and a half years, there are many things that we have realized that we are okay to do without. It’s a general theme of “less”: less commuting, less crowded training studios, less silly talk about social commitments. Add to that: less makeup.
Even though people are venturing out, many don’t plan on going back to the days of contouring and false lashes. There’s another reason for that besides new habits: More people have paid attention to skin care during the pandemic, dermatologists say, and better-looking skin negates the need to reach for foundation.
Some call this trend “skinimalism,” aka an emphasis on a natural, easy, streamlined look that’s all about showing off glowing skin.
“People really like their skin: healthy skin, not too much makeup,” says Carl Ray, a DC makeup artist who has seen long-standing clients’ skin improvements. “Now it’s like less is more. Quality over quantity.”
The statistics confirm it. The global cosmetics industry initially tanked when Covid hit but rebounded to pre-pandemic levels last year, according to L’Oréal’s 2021 annual report. Dermocosmetics, products that support both skin health and appearance, fueled much of that. While skin cosmetics sales have slightly outpaced the global beauty market for several years, they grew significantly more than the overall beauty market during Covid – the only cosmetics sector to see growth in 2020, according to the report L’Oréal of that year.
Meanwhile, weekly cosmetic use dropped, on average, by 28 percent compared to pre-Covid days, according to a Kantar study, which found people opted for fewer, higher-quality products when using them and they placed a greater premium on simplifying their routines.
As part of her new streamlined approach, Ray says, many of her clients are looking for streamlined products with multiple uses: a tinted moisturizer with SPF, for example, or a lip stain that can also be applied to the eyes and cheeks. Whereas previously customers might have used at least ten products at a time, he notes, “they’ve been reduced to five or eight that fit in a sachet. People have really simplified their lives. The pandemic has done that for people.”
Before the lockdown, Mary Turner Troutman, a 30-year-old Dupont Circle resident who works in marketing, almost always left the house wearing makeup. When she went to work or met friends, she put on concealer, foundation, bronzer, blush, eyeliner, mascara, shadow, and brow pencil. In the early days of Zoom from home, she kept her routine, then she realized there was no point in wasting time getting ready when she wasn’t going anywhere. “You re-prioritized your time,” she says. “Sitting at home with the family in quarantine together just made you take a look at yourself and how you approached your day.”
Troutman got used to seeing himself without cosmetics, even when he left the house. These days, he occasionally does full makeup for a special event, but usually he just slathers on a few skincare products, sunscreen, dry shampoo, and heads out the door. She has also seen an improvement in her skin since she stopped using so many cosmetics, which makes her even less inclined to go back to her old routine.
Melanie Corcoran has a similar story. Before Covid, the 29-year-old Loudoun County resident, who is a clinical technician and nursing student, used an abundance of cosmetics whenever she went out: foundation, concealer, eyeliner, mascara. She had battled acne for years and was self-conscious about her skin. Also, she had been wearing makeup for so long that she thought she looked weird without it.
But when her foundation began to wear off under her mascara, she ditched most cosmetics. More time at home meant time to research and test new products. (An unexpected benefit of face masks: if your skin is freaked out by a new product, no one can know!) This combination (less makeup, time to find the products that work best for it) means Corcoran’s skin looks better own. “She’s shining now,” she says. “I never thought that she would really shine.”
These days, most of the makeup you wear is a tinted moisturizer or SPF and an eyebrow pencil. “People are becoming more confident in their natural beauty,” Corcoran says of the past two years. “People appreciate who they are without makeup so much more. It’s becoming more of an enhancement, rather than a way to hide.”
basic skin care
An important part of the “skiminalism” equation is taking care of your skin; after all, it’s harder to adopt an effortless, natural aesthetic if you’re self-conscious about acne or hyperpigmentation.
At the start of Covid, some went too hard on skin care, says McLean dermatologist Lorena Dollani. More time at home meant more people scrolled through TikTok and Instagram, and started experimenting with products or techniques their favorite influencers were using.
“It’s easy to cross the line,” Dollani says. “The skin care community exploded.” She reports that patients come in with irritated, itchy, red skin after using and mixing too many products.
It doesn’t take much to have healthy skin, says Arleen Lamba, medical director and founder of DC’s Glo30 facial membership group: “There are three components to skin care: the goal is hydration, pH balance, and anti-inflammation”. She recommends using a mild cleanser to balance the pH; an SPF and a serum like Vitamin C to combat inflammation; and a moisturizer. Retinoids could also be helpful, Lamba says, but he suggests people consult with a dermatologist before using them.
The biggest key is consistency, he explains. “I compare it to your wardrobe,” Lamba says: Just as you would a streamlined capsule wardrobe, invest in feel-good staples that you’ll want to reach for. “You need to have your basic skincare items. That’s skin minimalism.”
This article appears in the September 2022 issue of the Washingtonian.
Features and home editor
Mimi Montgomery joined the Washingtonian in 2018. She has written for Mademoiselleosaki, Garden & Gun, Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
Source: news.google.com