© Suresh Natarajan
Beauty
All the beauty lessons we’re taking into 2021, from conscious consumption to relying on DIY remedies
It’s been a year unlike any other—slow yet fast, uncertain, difficult and most definitely life altering. Along with life as we knew it, the smallest of details of our days were impacted, including our beauty routines. Makeup took a backseat, skincare gained momentum and hand sanitisers and masks became essential in every sense of the term. As we inch closer to the end of 2020, we’re also taking an evolved approach to beauty along with us through to 2021. These are the six prominent ways our relationship with beauty has changed over the year that shall not be named.
Ask anyone and the first thing they’ll tell you is how their beauty routine has come down to the bare basics. Lengthy skincare routines have been reduced to three-four simple yet effective steps, less-is-more makeup has moved from a trend to the norm and mindfulness is of utmost priority across our lives. While the initial stage of the pandemic had most of us fall into a lazy slump, the longer it lasted, the more we found ourselves holding on to our favourite cleaners, reaching out for our face masks and using the overnight treatments in the hopes for the sort of comfort and normalcy that a routine brings.
Skincare has undoubtedly emerged to be the winner amongst every beauty category thanks to the self-care aspect of it. We’ve learned to be kinder to our skin—lesser reason to pick on acne when you don’t have to step out with it on your face—and treat it with the care it deserves. Lipsticks and foundations remained untouched for the most part of the year while moisturisers and lip balms and tints took centre stage. In fact, we even learned more about our own skin, how it behaves, and were open to trying at-home treatments to nurse any longstanding concerns back to health. The uncertainity eventually had everyone from dermatologists to ‘skinfluencers’ and even brands host multiple masterclasses and Instagram live sessions online to teach consumers more about what they’re using on their skin. It’s safe to say we emerged out of the lockdown understanding the science of it all more than we ever did before.
Online shopping may have been the therapy of choice for a lot of us, but when it comes to beauty, nothing compares to the in-store experience that involves swatching and slathering multiple formulas to find the one. Being home encouraged us to look at what we had, try the tubs and tubes that we’d forgotten and actually use up our existing beauty loot before going ahead and getting ourselves some more. E-commerce may have picked up soon enough, but by the time it did, we were already on our way to making knowledge-driven purchase decisions, as opposed to those at whim. You may have rediscovered a face wash you used to love, or gone back to stocking up on the moisturiser you were using sparingly till you could shop again—either way, conscious purchasing defined 2020.
You may have ditched your family’s at-home skin and haircare concoctions, but what do you do when you can’t shop for your AHA-rich face mask anymore? DIY beauty is undoubtedly one of the most prominent skincare trends to have found an almost permanent place in everyone’s homes. With no access to skin and hair clinics along with local spas and salons, 2020 forced us to take intensive beauty into our own hands. Home remedies and Ayurvedic concoctions that promise glowing skin and even a better immunity were frontrunners in the beauty and wellness categories. Suddenly, the homemade face mask your mum’s been using for years didn’t sound like such a bad idea. DIY went mainstream and nobody complained—they were all busy mixing and masking.
While we may not all be celebrities who usually find ourselves facing the camera as part of our everyday lives, the pandemic changed that. Everything from meetings to classes moved online which came with its own challenges. You needed to find a background that wasn’t too disturbing, wear clothes (at least waist) which didn’t look like you just rolled out of bed and mask the dark circles that came with a messed up (read: non-existent) sleep schedule. We learned how the camera can make dull skin look even duller and under-eye bags even more prominent, which meant we also learned makeup that worked in favour of it. Concealer became our best friend, blush made a comeback as an instant way to perk up your skin and that dot of highlighter in the inner corners of our eyes to open them up made all the difference at the 10am team meeting. For when we stepped outside, eye makeup took precedence over every other category since the other half of our face was covered with a mask. Did you manage to perfect your winged eye while you stayed home too?
This year encouraged all of us to introspect and evaluate in our lives across every aspect that influences it. Whether you let go of old habits that don’t enrich your life anymore or cultivated new ones that fit into your new self, you’ve changed and you’ve grown to be an informed, conscious consumer—you’re thinking about where your money goes, and most importantly, you need it to go where it enriches you. Whether it’s how much you use or what you use, all decisions are now centred around you and that’s all that really matters.
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This 38 minute-long skincare routine is just what you need to take your mind off the news