Skincare trends 2025: Here’s what clicked with the skin this year

Red light therapy

Bollywood girlies had a new skincare crush — red light therapy. Actors Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Kriti Sanon were some of the first ones take a bite of it. Red light therapy, despite its high-tech name, is quite simple: it uses low-level wavelengths of red or near-infrared light to stimulate skin cells, boost collagen production, calm inflammation, and improve tone and texture, in the form of a hard mask. The light penetrates deep into the skin, energising mitochondria to support repair, regeneration, and circulation. Sessions typically last 10-20 minutes. This trend exploded on social media platforms in the first half of the year, where users were posting videos and photos trying the red-light-enabled masks.

In-flight skincare

The year started with individuals trying skincare routines 30,000 feet in the air as airport looks became a major trend. Content creators jumped on the bandwagon with in-flight skincare routines during travel time. The trend focused on combating dry aeroplane air with intense hydration using multi-step routines featuring face mists, sheet masks, and rich moisturisers, plus essentials like SPF and lip balm, all while avoiding heavy makeup and harsh exfoliants for glowy, refreshed skin upon arrival. Some even went a step ahead to heatlessly curl their hair using soft curlers, and as soon as you step out of the plane, your hair’s looking perfectly styled.

Skin zoning

A buzzword in the industry was skinzoning, which was all about tailoring your skincare to the specific needs of different areas of your face. It is a targeted skincare strategy where you apply different products to specific areas of your face (or body) based on their unique needs, treating your skin as multiple zones rather than one uniform canvas, like using salicylic acid on an oily T-zone but hyaluronic acid on drier cheeks. This approach addresses varied concerns like oiliness, dryness, or blemishes by customising products for each section, rather than using the same cream everywhere. The trend’s popularity exploded because influencers showed personalised results, making it seem like a simple, effective way to tackle combination skin, a common issue, using catchy terms.

Wearable skincare

A Gen Z trend that went viral, thanks to celebrities like model-businesswoman Hailey Rhode Bieber, whose Rhode lip balm phone case changed the game. Then came Victoria Beckham Beauty’s scent necklace, all clean lines and quiet luxury. Singer Rihanna’s Fenty soon followed with a capsule version of its gloss oil, designed to clip onto bags.

This trend involved carrying your essential skincare products like a purse or phone charm. These products hung from your tote, peeked out from your collar, or snapped onto your wrist, far from makeup pouches and vanity drawers. Hyper-customisation was one of the biggest driving factors behind this trend, where makeup and skincare are designed for functionality as they travel with you and blend seamlessly with your look to make a visual statement.

Matcha for your skin

Matcha was everywhere this year, from your coffee cups, ice creams, rasmalai, to even skincare. Beauty shelves turned into mini matcha cafes. Skincare brand Laneige served a Matcha Latte lip mask, while Huda Beauty dipped into the trend with its matcha lip tint. Even Indian brands such as ClayCo have a Matcha Enzyme Scrub, and Renee offers toner, mask, and lip balm. Matcha was rebranded as one of beauty’s hottest ingredients right now, which is antioxidant-rich, skin-calming, and deeply detoxifying.

Peptides

The beauty world had a must-have ingredient this year: peptides, but not the simple ones used in old anti-ageing creams. A new, advanced generation of these ingredients, boosted by celebrity endorsements (like singer Dua Lipa’s DUA brand and model Hailey Bieber’s Rhode lip treatment), promises to dramatically lift, tighten, and repair the skin. Peptides are essentially short chains of amino acids, tiny messengers that tell your skin or body what to do. They can signal collagen to rebuild, inflammation to ease, muscle recovery to accelerate or hormones to regulate. Peptides had already been popular, but stacking pushed them into a new kind of virality. Wellness creators like Yuri Lee, who has over 1.5 million followers, began filming their morning routines featuring rows of droppers, pastel serums and light blue peptide vials. Others showcased glowing skin after combining copper peptides with Matrixyl.

Exosome skin treatments

Another buzzword that made waves in skincare clinics and on social media was the exosome treatment. Exosomes are tiny, cell-derived messengers (mainly from stem cells) that carry growth factors and proteins to help cells communicate and regenerate. This year saw the hashtag #exosome racking up over two million views on social media, thanks to its buzzworthy promise: improved skin texture, a youthful glow, and overall rejuvenation. These treatments use exosomes to activate skin cells through both invasive and non-invasive methods. Exosome treatments had already earned the stamp of approval from celebrities. Reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian had used this treatment post-laser for accelerated healing and enhanced glow. Her sister Kendall Jenner, actor Sandra Bullock and singer Ariana Grande are also said to be proponents of exosome treatments. In South Korea, the hub of K-beauty, many K-pop idols reportedly swear by this therapy.

Skin minimalism

This trend focused on less being more, stripping back complex routines for fewer, high-quality, multi-tasking products to support skin health, reduce irritation from product overload, save money, and minimise waste. It emphasised essentials like cleanser, moisturiser, and SPF, plus targeted treatments if needed, for a sustainable, simpler, yet effective skincare regimen. It’s a shift from excessive layering to prioritising skin barrier health and long-term resilience. It went viral on social media due to a combination of social media influence, a consumer reaction against “skin maximalism,” a growing awareness of skin health and sustainability, and lifestyle shifts brought on by the pandemic.