How Lockdown Has Taught Us How To Accept The Way We Look

Lockdown has been a strange time unlike any other, and the effects have spilt over into a lot of different areas of our life. Ranging from socialising and work to how we spend our money and time, many of us have turned to our own personal #glowup to remedy the effects of putting our lives on hold.

After a long period of time slumped around the house with not much to do and even fewer reasons to leave the house, many of us have felt demotivated and not our best selves. We’re breaking out—dubbed lockdown skin—we’ve got fewer reasons to groom our appearances, and lockdown loungewear is becoming tedious.

Lockdown has mixed up how we consume beauty. According to data reported in Vogue, there have been four beauty trends that have gained momentum during the pandemic. These are:

• Innovative beauty hacks
• Purple haircare products that preserve hair colour
• Skin serums
• Blue-light-blocking skincare

It seems that we’re becoming more knowledgeable about what we need to look good naturally. After all, there is less need for make-up with our plans dwindling in uncertainty due to ever-changing lockdown restrictions.

Here are some of the most popular beauty trends that have emerged during lockdown.

At home beauty hacks

TikTok has not only provided us with hours of entertainment when we’re climbing the walls with boredom. It has also offered a wealth of knowledge, ranging from cooking and cleaning to interior decoration and beauty hacks. TikTok has given the creative people of the world a platform to innovate simple tasks to keep us feeling good and in high spirits, like the perfect instant tan routine. For example, Isle of Paradise’s self-tan drops broke the internet during lockdown, with users discovering a low-maintenance, effortless, and easy way to achieve a natural glowing tan with the ability to customise the intensity of the colour.

After all, when we look good, we often feel good too! So much so that even those of us with poor make-up and hairstyling skills have been getting involved. Now’s the time, if any, to try some new beauty hacks to make our lives easier when things eventually return to normal.

Dressing gown robe curls for bouncy hair

This is a hack that works especially well for the men and women with long and thick hair who are looking for heat-free ways to curl their locks. It keeps hair in healthy condition while simultaneously being able to style it flawlessly.

Simply take your robe belt and split your hair in half. Split the two halves into another two sections, so you have four in total. Then, wrap your hair around the belt in criss-crosses. Secure it at both ends and sleep in it overnight. Check out the video below for a full demonstration

You can ditch that heat protectant spray now!

Feathery eyebrows

Beauty trends certainly change dramatically — remember pencil thin eyebrows? For those of us—and there are a lot—who overplucked our brows, we’re constantly looking for ways to give the illusion of full-bodied and natural brows.

A great top tip for fuller brows when you’re not quite willing to splash out a couple of hundred pounds on microblading is soaping your brows. All you need is a bar of soap and a spoolie brush. We highly recommend using a soap for sensitive skin when giving it a go—this is perfect for protecting the sensitive skin on your face and around your eyes.

To achieve the soap brow look: dampen the soap with setting spray and rub the spoolie on the bar to coat all sides of the brush. Then, run it through your eyebrows to get the desired shape and style you want. Once you have applied this, press down with your finger to hold the shape, and when dried, if you want to, fill in any gaps in upward feathery strokes.

Purple shampoo proves an old faithful

Securing appointments at hair salons is still proving difficult, with lower capacity limiting how many people can be in at once, as well as everyone trying to freshen up their colour after five months of roots and dead ends. We’ve been looking for the perfect solution to get salon results from the comfort of your home…

As well as finding a way to effortlessly curl our hair, we’ve found the perfect way to escape those brassy blonde tones without the need for bleach or toner. Blonde-enhancing purple hair products have soared in popularity—if they weren’t popular enough already! According to Google Trend data, searches peaked for ‘purple shampoo’ in April and then again in July, showing a growth of 173% from April 2019 to April 2020.

These products are giving the luscious locks we’ve been dreaming of in between our salon appointments as well as saving a bit of money too.

Skincare over makeup

Probably one of the most interesting shifts in beauty trends is from makeup to skincare. People are staying at home more, wearing less makeup, and paying more attention to the health of their skin. This has caused avid make-up lovers to ditch foundation for skincare, embracing a much more low-maintenance and natural look.

Last year, Britons spent around £27.2 billion on beauty products and services. However, 2020 is expected to look very different in comparison—dependent on our ‘new normal’. ‘Maskne’, acne caused by wearing face masks, is also causing us to assess the needs of our skin and how we can minimise unpleasant breakouts from warm and humid masks.

Facial serums are skyrocketing in popularity, particularly those containing active ingredients. With brands such as The Ordinary and Revolution gaining momentum and often being sold out, more and more brands are branching out into skincare designed by chemists with simple packaging, ingredients, and outcomes. The global personal care active ingredients market is expected to reach $4.85bn by 2025, with male customers driving the demand for this growth as skincare is marketed more gender-neutral than ever before.

Vitamin C, retinol, hyaluronic acid, squalene, salicylic acid, niacinamide, and ceramides are among some of the most searched active ingredients according to Harper’s Bazaar.

Screen time

While we scroll for hours on Facebook or sit in front of a desktop screen all day for work, screen time has increased significantly over lockdown. This is raising concerns of the effect of blue light on our skin, issues beyond disrupting our sleeping pattern and eyesight. Protecting our skin against UVA and UVB rays is the key to preventing premature ageing, as evolving research finds that the blue light emitted from the sun, as well as our devices, is bad for our skin. That’s bad news for millennials who are checking their phones an average of 150 times a day, as well as those of us spending around three hours in front of our phones.

We’re getting much more blue light than we usually would from sun alone due to exposure to our digital screens, so products containing blue light protection—topical antioxidants—are rising in popularity. Ingredients such as vitamin C and vitamin E are great for preventing this long-term and irreversible damage.

The future of beauty and wellness post-COVID is sure to rock up the beauty industry. We’re no less interested in makeup and beauty than we were before, we’re just indulging in it differently, with our changing needs forcing global brands and formulators to innovate their products and do better to serve our ‘new normal’.