This year skin care trends that are growing include K-beauty spicules, beta-glucan as a barrier hero ingredient, and support for cosmetic treatments.
In 2026 the glass skin trend may still be going strong, but there is a lot more going on in skin care than just the obsession with shine.
People are more and more skipping over short-lived trends and seeing their routines as a skinvestment focusing on outcomes and long-term results, and using gentle but effective products.
If You Can Master These 4 Bed Exercises at 60, Your Core Is Stronger Than Most 50-Year-Olds
A strong skin barrier is important as skin health below the surface becomes more important.
This change is being called post-glass skin or glass skin 2.0 in 2026. It shows a bigger shift in what people want from skin care and where the industry is going: toward repair, resilience, longevity, and regeneration.
According to Boots 2026 Beauty & Wellness Trends Report 80% of adults are taking a preventative approach to their beauty routines, focusing on consistent, long-term care and maintenance instead of reactive solutions.
In the context of wider beauty and wellness routines that are changing to help people build mental, physical, and skin resilience, it also says that skin stability is front of mind. 47% of consumers have changed their routine because of environmental factors and flare-ups.
According to Euromonitor International the skin care market grew by 4.5% to US$169.9 billion in 2025. This was not a big deal for the overall category.
According to Circana skin care sales in Europe as a whole showed a similar trend, with a 4.6% increase however there were some big differences between regions: France’s sales fell by 4% and the UK’s sales rose by 11%.
A lot of mass
But if you look more closely at what is causing growth, you will see that mass market skin care is growing much faster than prestige skin care.
According to Kantar mass skin care sales in the UK went up by 21% and premium skin care sales went up by 7%.
Matt Maxwell Health and Beauty Business Unit Director at Kantar says It is a flip in performance because last year, premium skin care did really well and mass was behind the market.
It is a trend we are seeing in the beauty industry as a whole, with 1.2 million more UK shoppers buying skin care than last year.
Nick Vaus co-founder and Managing Partner of Free The Birds says One of the most important things that has happened in the last year is that prestige beauty has leveled off. This is very much a reflection of the larger economic and cultural climate.
The difference between luxury and value skin care has grown, and accessible luxury is no longer relevant.
Consumers are switching to value-driven brands that work well at lower prices, or spending more on luxury brands, but only when brands can clearly explain why the premium.
Maxwell says that mass brands like Nivea, Garnier, and Simple have been doing very well in the UK over the past year. This is because their science-backed formulas make hero ingredients like peptides, ceramides, and vitamin C much easier for customers to find.
Derma and K-beauty brands are also still growing quickly, with growth rates in the double digits, which is much higher than the average for the category.
With so many brands in the mid- and mass-price range using high-performance ingredients and cutting-edge technologies, prestige brands have to do more to stand out.
Vaus says To stand out high-end brands need to go beyond having the same ingredients and focus on depth instead of sameness.
It becomes very important to tell stories about craft, innovation, and formulation expertise. Prestige brands need to make a moment in the lives of their customers.
Trend 1: Spicules
Exosomes and PDRN have become popular ingredients in beauty products over the past year. But in 2026 there will be a new thing on the market that looks like it will take beauty by storm spicules.
As always Korea is at the forefront with a wave of beauty products coming out of the country that contain this ingredient which comes from marine sponges.
People are talking about them on social media because they have effects similar to microneedling. They are often called microneedling in a bottle or liquid microneedling.
Trend 2: Skin care that follows a set of rules
The demand for cosmetic surgery and treatments is through the roof, which means that new skin care products and services are becoming available before and after the procedure.
In 2026 aesthetic medicine is focusing on treatments that work with the body’s own repair systems to make the skin healthier and better at doing its job.
There are now a lot of new products on the market that are meant to go along with either aesthetic plastic surgery or tweakments.
Trend 3: Beta-glucan
Along with the general trend toward skin care that focuses on long-lasting effects, people are also putting barrier-supporting and moisturizing formulas at the top of their lists.
Beta-glucan is a natural polysaccharide that is found in many fungi, bacteria, and algae. In the medical world it is known for helping the heart and boosting the immune system.
Research shows that this new ingredient could be very useful in skin care for things like reducing inflammation, repairing the skin barrier, moisturizing, and protecting against UV damage.
Beta-glucan is becoming more popular as the barrier repair hero of 2026, with searches for it up 51% in the past year.
Trend 4: Heroes of optimized ingredients
Beauty lovers love new ingredients especially for skin care.
There are a lot of exciting new ingredients for people to try from ectoin to exosomes.
But in the world of skin care science the trends that shape development are not always based on what is new.
This article talks about how and why the big five hero ingredients retinol peptides vitamin C ceramides and niacinamide are being improved for the newest products.
Trend 5: Skin care based on medicine
Medical science has been a source of new ideas for skin care brands for a long time.
Augustinus Bader which started out as a way to heal wounds and 111 Skin which started out as a way to heal after surgery are two examples of a medical to skin translation.
But this is going to the next level in 2026. Medical and surgical technology is inspiring brands like Mantle and Kyomi Skin to make skin care that is better than ever.
