A new year. New resolutions. New you. New skincare routine - well, at least, an enhanced one. Even if the beauty industry is adopting technology at an ever faster pace, in 2017, it is to also develop in a more conventional manner – by bringing in products, ingredients and supplements that consumers cannot help but revere. Having picked up speed last year, 2017’s skincare trends focus on easy, effortless treatments that bring on imperfection-free results. Here are four of them.
Masks
A long-time staple in the skincare industry, facial masks are undergoing a modern overhaul – with new ingredients and types arriving on the shelves. Sheet masks, Korean beauty mainstays that swept the rest of the world last year, stand to gain even more revelers this year. Unlike regular masks, these Korean products can be used several times a week – they do not tend to dry out the skin. Moreover, their active ingredients penetrate deeper into the skin than ordinary ointments. Aside from the all-the-craze sheet masks, their charcoal and oxygen counterparts also emerge as trendy potions for 2017. The latter bubbles up on the skin in order to push its active components into the pores, while the former sucks out oil, impurities and dirt.
Products to look for: Guerlain Super Aqua Mask, $132 Clinique Pore Refining Solutions Charcoal Mask, $25.5
K-beauty
Having already commanded quite some attention, Korean skincare products, which define the so called K-beauty trend, are to keep mesmerizing the West in the year ahead. In fact, sheet masks are a Korean contraption. Yet, the country has much more beauty secrets to offer, including a ball-like serum with micro-droplets of water that taws into a cleansing and purifying liquid when rubbed onto the skin. Upending – and enhancing – Western beauty rituals, Korean products carry a concoction of “exotic” ingredients like bamboo, royal honey and birch that are packed with skin-refining antioxidants and vitamins.
Products to look for: Erborian Bamboo Waterlock mask, $43 Erborian Yuza Double Lotion, $36
Retinoids and Retinols
Retinoids and retinols are almost all-purpose ingredients, which tackle acne and skin pigmentation and wrinkles and, studies purport, skin cancer. A derivative of vitamin A, retinoids possess a micro-exfoliating effect that unclogs pores, reduces fine lines and even out the facial complexion. A prescription treatment, retinoids – the umbrella name for tretinoin, tazarotene and adapalene – have long been shrouded in misconceptions: from their irritating faculties to sun-sensitivity. Yet if applied right (mainly before going to bed), retinoids can work wonders for the skin in 2017. Less potent than retinoids, retinol is an over-the-counter potion that is gentler to skin prone to dryness and flakiness.
Products to look for: SkinMedica Retinol Complex – range from 0.25 to 1.0 in strength
Inside Beauty
Beauty experts dub it ingestible beauty – and the link between diet and skincare is to only sturdy up in 2017. The notion that our food impacts our skin is, by no means, novel. Yet, only recently have we begun to swear by it – and enhance it. Gone are the days when aestheticians would recommend their clients to gobble fresh, vitamins-packed fruits, meats and vegetables. This trend comprises food – erh, beauty – supplements that might as well be squeezed straight from a facial cream. Think about collagen, hyaluronic acid and antioxidant drinks and snacks.
Products to look for: Glow Inner Beauty Powder, $70 Beauty Dust Moon Juice, $30 The Super Elixir, $135
