BS Detector Estee Laundry Prognosticates About The State Of The Beauty Industry In 2019
In 2018, it wasn’t just scandalous political news that spread like head lice in a kindergarten classroom. In the beauty world, we watched the tone-deaf, thoughtless, underhanded and cantankerous moves of brands, influencers and industry luminaries go on global blast in a matter of minutes. Has the amount of shameful activity increased in the beauty and wellness world or are we more acutely aware of all the BS?
Either way, the mysterious and prolific Estēe Laundry arose as a beacon in the beauty storm to shine a light on the industry’s most egregious missteps. The self-proclaimed anonymous beauty collective arrived on Instagram at the end of April and quickly amassed 36,000-plus so-called Laundrites by posting articles, product ads, and images—often screen grabs, often follower-submitted—to expose shameless instances of product copying, laud on-point inclusivity initiatives and painstakingly document the hamartia of Deciem’s Brandon Truaxe. Beauty Independent corresponded with the Estēe Laundry team to get its read on what’s to come in the beauty industry next year.
Glossier had quite a year: raising another $52 million, hitting $100 million in sales, the sudden departure of CFO Henry Davis. Are you bullish or bearish on the future of brand?
We see it continuing to be a trendsetter in 2019 before being acquired by one of the bigger conglomerates. They’ll possibly have stores at airports and shopping malls once that happens. This, conversely, will mean that they’ll stop being a cool brand.
What do you see as the roles of beauty and wellness influencers in 2019 and beyond?
We think influencers will continue to exist at least for the next few years, but we predict a change in the way brands deal with influencers. We are already seeing a number of brands align with micro-influencers that share similar values with them (instead of going for the big names). Such partnerships are helping to create the right social media vibe for these brands. We think this trend will continue to grow.
We are already seeing a lot of brands getting fed up of dealing with external PR agencies because they don’t have the same level of care as in-house teams. We think more and more brands will have their own social media/influencer management teams.
This year, we’ve seen a rise in consumer demands around transparency. Will that persist?
The popularity of our account is a good indication of the consumer demands for transparency. Based on the DMs we get from our Laundrites, people want balanced, honest and accurate information from brands and customers. Fear mongering (be it about chemicals or essential oils) is not what consumers want to see.
Some brands have made great strides in inclusivity; some have missed the mark completely. Will the industry’s inclusivity efforts improve in 2019?
In 2018, emerging brands like Glossier (despite claims from their models that they are not paid adequately) have been major drivers of diversity. In the future, we want to see more “real” people and not just a diversity from the lens of western beauty ideals. Most current depictions of diversity include racially-ambiguous people who conform to western beauty standards, and we want to see it go beyond that to include people with “ethnic” features that don’t necessarily have the cool-person vibe. We want to see a variety of minorities featured in beauty campaigns. We have got lots of DMs from South Asian people, for instance, stating that they are underrepresented. Also, we want to see more LGBTIQ representation.
Will skincare be as hot next year as it has been this year?
Yes, people just can’t get enough skincare, and it will continue to grow.
What do you envision as the future of clean beauty?
Fear-mongering needs to stop, and “clean” brands that continue to talk about cancer and toxins to promote their products will not survive on social media. On the other hand, most emerging brands are clean by default (they rarely contain ingredients like parabens and sulfates), and this trend will only continue to grow in 2019.
The Sunday Riley review scandal was huge industry news this year. How might beauty reviews change in 2019?
After the backlash Sunday Riley suffered from writing fake reviews, we suspect that brands and influencers will be more careful about submitting blatantly dishonest reviews. There will still be a number of fake reviews, but we, via Estēe Laundry, will always be watching!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.