Despite spending decades in the beauty industry helping launch beauty brands like Victoria Beckham and Prada, Sarah Krell missed opportunities to meet obvious consumer needs. She noticed that women in their 50s are giving up on mascara. “They were using the same mascara that they were into 15 to 20 years ago,” Ms. Clair said. And as routines and needs change, those products no longer work.
Krial launched her eponymous beauty brand this summer in an attempt to address these concerns. Her colorful line includes products like a tube mascara that won’t degrade under moisturizing eye cream or concealer, and a lip primer meant to prevent lipstick from smearing. Different versions of these products already exist on the market, but are not explicitly marketed to target mature consumers.
“(Beauty) is an industry run by men,” she said. “It’s men who don’t want to see older women. And maybe it’s men who don’t want older women on their arms at their launch parties or advertising campaigns.”
While much of the beauty industry has been chasing Gen Z, and increasingly Alpha in recent years, Gen X shoppers have real disposable income to spend on beauty. Creal’s product line is at the forefront of brands waking up to this opportunity and clearly marketing and formulating their products to a mature audience. But keeping these consumers’ wallets free also means striking a careful balance between addressing practical concerns and creating aspirational beauty destinations.
“America’s Gen ,” says Lisa Payne, head of beauty at trend forecasting firm Stylus. “Brands are starting to realize that the money is there and they have to chase the money from there.”
Sarah Kugelman, founder of skincare line Skyn Iceland, on Tuesday launched All Golden, a beauty brand aimed at people 45 and older. The launch includes a combination of hair and face products, including a peptide-infused serum and a root touch-up wand for gray hair, with prices ranging from $35 to $95. Celebrity beauty brands are also attracting attention from people over 40. Naomi Watts expanded her menopausal beauty brand Stripes to Canada this year after being acquired by investment firm L. Catterton, and Brooke Shields launched her mature hair care brand Commens this summer. .
“When it came to beauty, I didn’t feel like brands were approaching me in a positive way. Everything was very negative and telling me, ‘You’re old, you’re wrinkled, you’re not attractive anymore. We’re not going to show your photo because you’re not,”’ Kugelman said. “You have to portray the right tone and the right visuals. Don’t go overboard because[women over 40]don’t want to be labeled as this group of older women.”
Kugelman expects All Golden, which is currently sold directly to consumers through the brand’s website, to reach $1 million in sales in its first year of release, with plans to expand into additional products in the future. There is. And such a goal is not unrealistic. According to beauty consumer analytics firm Spurt, the search term “adult skin makeup” has seen 72.9% year-over-year growth on TikTok, with an average of 7.2 million views per week, while on Google It has an average of 7.2 million views. For the year, it grew 20.1%, with an average of 7,100 searches per month. Meanwhile, “Mature Skincare” saw 10.5% year-over-year growth on TikTok, with an average weekly view of 181,000.
Addison Cain, head of marketing and insights at Spurt, believes that with steady growth and low competition, it’s time for beauty companies to break into the mature beauty industry.
“Social media in general makes aging more visible and creates new conversations around it,” Cain says. “There are many people who want to change their wrinkles, but there are also many people who just want to take advantage of makeup and skin care options to feel their best self.”
When TikTok first launched, many saw it as purely for teens and 20-somethings, but more beauty creators over 40 are finding an audience on the platform. Makeup artist Katie Jane Hughes has amassed nearly 350,000 followers on the app for her on-trend, gentle makeup techniques for mature skin. Nicole Johnson Sanchez, a creator with more than 2 million followers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, has a media impact value of $4.9 million for posts related to mature beauty, according to data analyst Launchmetrics. It is said that he brought it.
And Sephora, the retail giant that made headlines this year for becoming a destination for pre-teen shoppers, is also seizing on the opportunity at the other end of the age spectrum. In September, the company will welcome its 22nd Sala Creal line, and there are plans to increase store space further in the future.
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Targeting mature audiences has proven successful for established brands as well. According to Launchmetrics, makeup brand Laura Geller generated $14.5 million in MIV in 2024, marking 105% year-over-year growth. In April, the makeup brand, founded in 1997, launched its “Own Your Age” campaign targeting women over 50. And as part of the ’90s and 2000s nostalgia, “older” faces are also proving appealing to Gen Z viewers. On Tuesday, ’90s supermodel Claudia Schiffer was announced as the face of Lorde’s next barrier cream.
But large, traditional brands like Estée Lauder and Lancôme may find it difficult to pivot to new strategies that explicitly target that demographic.
“The problem with these big heritage brands is that there is too much red tape. They also cannot be as nimble as younger brands in terms of using age-appropriate models to advertise their Advanced Night Repair Treatments. model is still young,” Payne said.
And the shift in thinking about aging isn’t just happening in the niche beauty community. The portrayal of women in their 50s in mainstream culture has also become more glamorous. The 50-something characters in “And Just Like That…,” a reboot of “Sex and the City,” are similar to the grizzled, vulgar cast of the 1980s sitcom “The Golden Girls.” They’re almost the same age. The Golden Bachelor and Golden Bachelorette series, released in 2023 and 2024 respectively, depict women of retirement age seeking love in body-conscious gowns and flowing hair extensions. are.
“The population is aging,” Kugelman said. “Over the past 20 years, our demographics have changed dramatically so that we live much longer and have a much better quality of life. It’s not just about reaching a ripe old age; I want to be healthy and active, travel, and enjoy the rest of my life.”
But seeing a few wrinkles in beauty ads doesn’t mean the stern look on a woman’s face disappears as she ages. Even “pro-aging” products promise to smooth out fine lines. Some critics say the abundance of anti-aging tools and products puts pressure on women to look smooth and radiant into middle age, while others, like TikTok’s “Aging” filter, This trend highlights Gen Z’s fear of getting older. The normalization of cosmetic procedures for consumers of a younger age group may also change the market for “anti-aging” products in the future.
“Right now, young people are getting a lot of fillers and procedures, so I think the future of anti-aging and mature skin care is going to be more about how they’re taking care of their procedures and products. “For example, I’ve had injections and it’s kind of scary,” Kane said.
And 50-year-old women portrayed on screen aren’t limited to the glamorous silver-haired Carrie Bradshaw. The 2024 Demi Moore film “Substance,” which won the Best Original Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival in May, is a self-destructive physical horror story about a 50-year-old woman’s quest for youthful beauty.
“Aging is like a failure for women,” says Clairard. “Beauty is fleeting. What you really need is to cultivate a fulfilling life for yourself.”
