Poll Shows Favorite Beauty Trends of Millennials

The beauty world is obsessed with millennials.

A new survey shows some shocking and some not-so-surprising trends popping up within the millennial generation. Millennial behavior is completely different from the baby boomer generation when it comes to beauty trends, which tends to bewilder the older generations.

Crazy Color Palettes

With the numerous different colors used in every aspect of makeup, it was found that about 27% of millennials “all-time favorite shade” of nail polish is pink, with nude shades coming close behind with 20%. Red, black and blue follow with 15%, 9%, and 7%, respectively. Eye shadow colors ranged from brown (32%) to violet (3%). Other popular choices were nude (29%), gray (22%) and pink (3%).

Battle of the Brands

The survey also focused on specific brands that millennial women “cannot live without” for both lipstick and mascara. Inevitably, MAC ranked number one in the lipstick category, with 19%, followed by NYX (7%), Kat Von D (7%), Covergirl (6%) and Urban Decay (4%). In the mascara category, Covergirl pulled to the top, with 14%, followed by Maybelline (13%), Too Faced (8%), Benefit (8%) and MAC (7%).

Favored Trends

The biggest trends that millennials had tried and liked:

• Face contouring and highlighting
• Gel/shellac manicures
• Bold brows/brow filling/brow tinting
• Beach waves
• Ombré hair/pastel hair
• Statement lips
• No-makeup makeup
• Half-up bun
• Baking
• Lip plumping

Wishy-Washy Hair Care

The survey reported that over 1/3 of millennial women go three or more days without washing their hair, leading to huge boosts in sales of dry shampoos. The majority of women go one to two days without washing their hair.

Loving Those Lipsticks

Thirty six percent of women own more than 10 or more lipsticks. One to three lipsticks is the second most amount of ownership with 24%. Four to six has 22%, while seven to nine has 14%. Only 4% of women own no lipstick, showing that lipsticks won’t be going away any time soon.

It’s an Everyday Thing

Almost half—48%—of millennial women wear makeup every day.  Coming in a close second is “several times a week,” at 37%, and “several times a month,” at 9%. “Several times a year” and “never” were both relatively low, at 4% and 2%, respectively.

Cannot Live Without

When asked if they could only use one makeup product, millennials responded with mascara being their number one choice, at 35%. Foundation and eyeliner took the second and third place spot.

 

Go to Popsugar to see the full infographic.

 

Insight: As the millennial generation gets older, they make up more of the consumer base than previous generations. The sheer size of this generation has impact on trends throughout the beauty industry and it’s important to market and aim for what this generation tends to enjoy.