Beauty’s Storytelling Problem

There have never been more good beauty products.

Beautiful formulas. Sophisticated packaging. Peptides, ceramides, PDRN, barrier repair, longevity. The industry has become remarkably good at creating products.

The harder question is: why should anyone care about this one?

The algorithm changed the shelf

Beauty used to compete primarily on a physical shelf. Today, a product might first appear in a TikTok video, a creator's bathroom, a Reddit thread or an AI recommendation.

Discovery and commerce are collapsing into the same moment. TikTok beauty sales have grown dramatically, while creator-led storytelling and visually compelling products increasingly determine what gets discovered.

That changes the brief. A product doesn't just need to perform. Its idea needs to travel.

Ingredients aren't an identity

For years, ingredients became the story. Niacinamide. Retinol. Peptides. Ceramides.

But when hundreds of brands can tell the same ingredient story, the ingredient stops being the differentiator.

Consumers are also becoming more informed and more skeptical. Product quality matters, but so does emotional attachment: a philosophy, cultural perspective or distinctive point of view that gives people a reason to choose one brand over another.

A formula can be copied. A worldview is harder to replicate.

From audience to belonging

One of the more interesting shifts in consumer culture is away from simply accumulating followers toward creating a sense of identity around a brand.

Across the wider fashion and beauty landscape, consumers increasingly want brands that reflect something about who they are, rather than brands that simply appear repeatedly in their feeds. Community, memorable creative and original content are becoming more meaningful tools for building connection.

The strongest brands don't just find a target audience. They create a world people recognise themselves in.

The product still has to be good

Storytelling cannot rescue an average product. But an excellent product without a distinctive story risks becoming invisible in a market where consumers can find another serum, cream or scalp treatment within seconds.

The opportunity is to develop both together: the formula, format, packaging, language and cultural point of view all expressing the same idea.

Because beauty's next challenge isn't simply making more products.

It's making products that mean something.