Tinted, blurring sunscreens. Pink, pigmented serums. Thick and glossy lip balm. These all sound like your everyday, run-of-the-mill makeup products — except they’re marketed and used as skincare products. Why is there a sudden insurgence of cosmetic-acting skincare “hybrid” products? And what does it show us about beauty standards?
Skincare Is on the Rise
Skincare makes up the largest portion of the beauty industry’s market share, accounting for 42% of sales . Shockingly, makeup only accounts for 17% of the beauty industry market share (Statista). Skincare is a strong industry, and the leading fields prioritize clean beauty, ingredients-forward brands, and inclusivity.
Brands like Glow Recipe and Drunk Elephant have been going viral for their “base products,” or the products used before makeup to give to face a smooth and glowy look. Products like Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm and other tinted lip balms replaced lip glosses, selling out instantly.
The rise of these products coincides with the trendy “clean beauty” and “clean girl” makeup looks. People want their products to seem natural and healthy, instead of fake and chemical-y. These brands lean into “naturalness”, marketing themselves as beneficial inside and out. Summer Fridays even describes themselves as “Hybrid Makeup + Skincare”, spelling out the internet’s newest obsession: not makeup, not skincare, but lightweight, “good-for-you” cosmetic skincare.
“Skincare Benefits, Makeup Energy” Is Everywhere
On the Sephora website, there’s a section under skincare called “Skincare Benefits, Makeup Energy,” touting the “double-duty” benefits of a variety of sunscreens, lip balms, and glowy serums. Product prices range from $16 to over $100 but mainly stay between $30-$40.
There aren’t just foundation replacements and lip tint wannabes — there are also expensive body butters and body oils to hydrate the skin and deposit a bronzy glow, demonstrating how skincare has expanded beyond just the face.
These skincare-makeup hybrids have been heavily promoted by beauty and lifestyle influencers. There are even creators dedicated to finding the best-looking and longest-lasting lip balms, one of the most popular hybridized products.
Many influencer videos feature beauty routines or makeup looks that use skincare products for cosmetic purposes. The result is a glowy, dewy, and natural look, contrasting the heavier look of glam makeup. Notably, a lot of these influencers already have smooth, clear skin.
These videos are especially popular during summer when people want their skin to breathe and can rely on tinted sunscreen to get that “double-duty” benefit. These hybrid products seem like the perfect addition to the market — effective, comfortable, and pretty. But what does this emerging market show us about the current state of beauty?
The Pros: Inclusivity and Innovation
Skincare makeup hybrids were developed to fill a gap in the market: helping your skin and providing cosmetic purposes. Some of the most trendy products online, like Summer Fridays’ Butter Balm or Drunk Elephant’s Bronzing Drops, are innovative and deserve praise for aiding function and features.
This is especially helpful for older customers who are more interested in adding hydration or glow to their skin, as foundation can look cakey on more mature skin.
This also speaks to consumers’ increasing interest in inclusivity in the beauty market. Brands like Saie, a clean beauty brand designed as “makeup for all,” features advertisements and products created specifically for mature skin. Hybrid products aim to celebrate all skin and can be a great way for a range of individuals to find what makes them feel beautiful.
The Cons: Impossible “Effortless” Beauty
However, there are some negatives associated with skincare-makeup hybrids. While this trend purports natural beauty and accepts everyone’s features instead of covering them up, it is simply repackaging the pre-existing beauty standards into a new look: smooth skin, perfect features, and an effortless beauty that seems to be natural.
This easy-going, natural standard also reflects a new form of exclusivity: “biological advantage rather than skill“. Advertisements and influencers are constantly promoting a clean, makeup-free look, almost denying the cosmetic purposes of the products. Instead, they are silently flaunting their looks, showing off to the world that they don’t need makeup to be beautiful; they just are.
False Idols: Influencing the Next Generation’s Beauty Standards
We saw with the “Sephora Kids” in 2024 how popularized it is for children to be buying and using skincare products. Kids are recommended to have simpler skincare routines, and daily use of skincare and makeup can be permanently damaging to their skin.
Unfortunately, these impossible beauty standards affect kids and teens, who comprise the largest percentage of active users, at 25%. Furthermore, 60% of active TikTok users identify as women.
They are constantly shown people who are “naturally” beautiful, who then credit it all to the newest skin tint or body oil. Kids, susceptible to the pressures and standards presented to them by TikTok, think that if they buy whatever product they are told about, they too will look the same. The beautiful and perfect people that they look up to often don’t share the plastic surgery, filters, and lucky genetics that affect how people look without makeup.
It’s important to recognize now how beauty trends spread on TikTok, especially with the number of younger users. It may seem exceedingly cautious to alert people of the limits of a product and how marketing affects them. Yet, I think this reality is especially hidden with hybrid products, which present perfection as something achievable. We are not more natural, more clean, or more accepting of all faces. We have just transformed our biases into a new area of consumerism: skincare-makeup.
There are undoubtedly benefits to these hybrids, and some of the best products have earned their flowers because of the dual benefits. However, we must maintain a cautious eye on what beauty trends on TikTok promote and who they affect. If you have any thoughts on skincare-makeup — good, bad, or in between — feel free to leave a comment below!
