The new year is here, and with it, a new year of trends to try and beauty aspirations to achieve. As we head out of the holidays and step into 2026, a year that can be defined by all of us, the time has come to make our New Year's beauty resolutions, big and small.
With the end of 2025 as my guide, here are my resolutions for beauty in 2026, a year that will be equally defined by enduring movements as much as it will be by momentary trends.
More hybrid-everything: While the K-beauty-inspired 10-12 step skin care regimen has taken the world by storm, its unsustainability has also inspired an opposing movement of skin care maintenance—a pared-down, minimalistic routine that does more with less.
Meet hybrid-everythings: a new era of cross-category makeup, skin care and sun care that helps consumers invest in products that perform multiple tasks while saving money, time and shelf space. More sustainable from a price and usage perspective, hybrid products that blend all spheres of the beauty world are quickly becoming a priority for consumers looking to minimize their routines and maximize efficacy.
- My resolution: Find a flawless, minimal makeup routine that hydrates and protects my skin from the sun without breaking the bank or causing breakouts.
- Hyper-personalized, please: The era of hyper-personalization is on the horizon, and it's moving beyond personalized shades. With makeup, skin care and sun care products that are deeply personalized for different people and lifestyles, beauty is going deeper by making products that solve specific issues and concerns for a variety of groups. To cut through the market noise, consumers are looking for brands that resonate with their lives, driven by stories and proven by science. From formulations to packaging to branding, product differentiation is less about standing out and more about finding the perfect fit.
- My resolution: To find brands that resonate with me, ones that I didn't even know I needed.
- Keep expanding, well-beauty: Beauty is getting a wellness upgrade. From ingestibles to supplements to personal care products, some of the biggest beauty sellers like Sephora, Ulta and Target are making space for wellness as the two categories begin to merge. The results: better beauty that's better for you.
- My resolution: Invest in ingestible beauty. As someone who has always leaned more towards topicals, 2026 is the year I commit to an ingestible beauty routine.
- Better beauty for all women: Women deserve beauty that is made for them and changes with them as they encounter different life stages and skin and hair concerns. This is beauty's opportunity to make beauty better for all women, at all ages, with products that can support teen skin all the way up to mid-life skin and beyond.
- My resolution: Support more women-owned beauty brands.
- A good, well-aging regimen: Longevity and slow-aging are key topics in skin care right now, offering sustainable long-term solutions to anti-aging that focus on prevention rather than repair. As more anti-aging ingredients make headlines and consumers become more educated on ways to keep skin looking young, the future of anti-aging is going to see rapid advancement in ingredients and clear, science-backed results.
- My resolution: Start adding anti-aging products to my skin care routine.
Beauty in 2026 is just beginning, and there's no better time than now to try something new. For all of our readers, I hope the new year presents you with new opportunities to flourish and challenges to grow from. We can't wait to see how you evolve. As always, the very best of luck to all of you.
We'll see you then.
