Key Takeaways:
Digitally exhausted, Gen Z and Gen Alpha crave slower, analog expressions of beauty that offer intentional pause over instant transformation. Anti-algorithm beauty rejects viral velocity in favor of friction-filled experiences such as phone-free events, seasonal drops, and narrative launches. Rituals and routines become habitual anchors that encourage customer retention among younger generations.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha are exhausted. Not by beauty, but by the frictionless feeds that push it. Despite spending 95 minutes daily on TikTok and driving record teen beauty purchases, they’re craving something algorithmic optimization can’t deliver: slowness, ritual, and intentional pause.
Mintel’s 2026 Global Beauty & Personal Care Predictions identifies slow beauty as a defining macro trend, with consumers craving “mindful, unhurried rituals” over trend chasing.
According to the Global Wellness Summit (GWS), self-care and emotional well-being are increasingly being integrated into daily routines to promote deeper inner peace and contentment, especially by younger consumers. So much so that nervous system regulation is trending on TikTok, with over 260,000 posts tagged #nervoussystemregulation.
American Gen Z teens spend $374 per year on beauty (with fragrance surging at 22%) and account for 35% of total beauty website traffic, while Gen Alpha drives nearly half of household spending and over $100 billion in direct annual purchases.
But with Gen Alpha spending power projected to reach $5.5 trillion by 2029, and Gen Z spending forecast to reach $12 trillion by 2030, brands that design toward deeper, slower, more mindful experiences stand to capture a generation that’s digitally native, but digitally exhausted.
Enter: slow beauty.
Slow Beauty as the Antidote
Instead of fast-paced viral moments to be capitalized on, the slow beauty movement is subtle and soft. It prioritizes friction-filled rituals over instant transformation. Think minimalist, recovery-focused routines across skin, body, and hair; mood-modulating, nervous‑system‑supportive products; and seasonal, narrative‑led launches instead of constant micro trends.
Founded in 2014 by Alice Kindred Wells and Jennifer Black Francis, Kindred Black has built its identity around the principles of slow beauty—limited batches and seasonal scarcity. Working directly with farm partners, the luxury online retailer and small-batch skincare, cosmetics, and fragrance house utilizes hand-extracted lilac enfleurage oil sourced from seasonal blossoms; when the season ends, the product is over and unavailable for another year.
“A VC would call this a major shortcoming; we call it our business model,” Francis said.
To the founders, scent is a talisman—plants and flowers can be good for the skin and body, but they also affect us spiritually: “Neroli is good for hyperpigmentation but has been used to calm the nerves for thousands of years,” Francis explained. “Rose has many incredible benefits for the skin and can aid cellular turnover, but it also has natural phenylethylamine, the same chemical produced by the brain when you’re falling in love.”
The New York–based brand has a very loyal customer base. “People are shopping with us today who joined our mailing list when we launched 10 years ago. We see the same names over and over; these are people who love storytelling and who are hungry for the narrative and connection,” Francis added.
Burnt out by the waste they saw within the fashion and beauty industries, Kindred Black’s use of vintage glass vessels and recyclable, refill bottles offers a different way of looking at consumption and beauty. “It’s the antithesis of beauty ‘hauls’ and a medicine cabinet packed full of half-used bottles,” Francis told BeautyMatter. For the two founders, slow beauty focuses on the ritual of the beauty regimen, as well as the intention behind it.
Oak Essentials: How Slowness Scales
For Lauren Harris, CEO of Oak Essentials, beauty and self-care shouldn’t be an additional stressor: “Because the world is overwhelming right now, our philosophy of ‘only the essentials’ matters more than ever,” she told BeautyMatter.
Oak Essentials launched back in 2021 with a thesis that would make most VCs nervous: fewer products, slower rituals, premium pricing. Five years later, it’s a case study in how slow beauty scales.
The Los Angeles–based line of clean skincare was founded by designer Jenni Kayne. Since then, the brand has gone from DTC to Nordstrom to 250+ Ulta Beauty stores, before launching on Amazon in December 2025, expanding into bodycare and fragrance along the way.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2024, Oak Essentials saw 30% sales growth and over 500,000 products sold since its launch. In 2025, it raised $8 million from Silas Capital and Unilever Ventures, received more than 8,300 five-star reviews on Ulta, and generated $20-$30 million in revenue.
“For us, scaling isn’t about getting bigger for the sake of it, it’s about thoughtfully translating those same feelings into new contexts,” Harris said. “We believe the brand comes to life in person—through eventing, education, and tactile experiences that allow someone to really experience the world of Oak Essentials.”
That approach is working its way across the industry, with 84% of beauty brands increasing experiential marketing budgets in the past three years, allocating 10%-30% of spend to events.
Harris went on to say that it should feel good to set up your skin for long-term health with products that inspire you to slow down and relish the moment: “We’re all doing our skincare and bodycare routines multiple times a day. Why not take a few extra minutes to enjoy the process?”
Why not, indeed? Especially for younger consumers who are hitting a wall with digital overwhelm.
The Digital Fatigue Economy
Neurocosmetics-inspired In Real Life Skin (IRL)speaks directly to the burnout and digital overwhelm being felt en masse by younger consumers. According to founder Alyssa Ashley, “Many skincare brands focus only on appearance, overlooking ambitious, high-stress individuals who want products that support skin health and overall well-being,” whereas IRL is created in response by a Gen Zer with firsthand experience.
81% of Gen Z adults often wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily. 48% feel overwhelmed by screen time, and 44% have intentionally reduced it in the last six months. 45% worry they may be addicted to social media, while 53% feel better when they spend less time on it. This exhaustion rewires discovery, which is why younger consumers are now gravitating towards friction-first environments like IRL events and newsletters over algorithmic feeds.
And their buying behavior reflects it. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are product loyal, not brand loyal: 20% are less likely than older generations to buy the same brand consistently. They don’t “default buy”— they research, compare, and choose with intention.
Younger generations describe algorithmic feeds as exhausting and manipulative, yet they’re not logging off. Instead, they’re curating where their attention goes, preferring controlled, intentional environments like in-person gatherings, private groups, and drop communities. Research from 2025 suggests that more than half of Gen Z want tangible experiences, saying they primarily shop for beauty/grooming products in-store.
According to research from Archrival and Vogue Business, Gen Z has “broken the marketing funnel,” rewiring it into infinite loops of community and intention—and this is where slow beauty rituals thrive.
Beyond Oak: The Slow Playbook
Oak Essentials and Kindred Black are not alone in taking things slow. Other brands are also building models that resist algorithmic acceleration.
Lush permanently quit Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat in 2021, citing psychological harm and algorithmic toxicity (despite having more than 8 million followers on Instagram and 3 million on Facebook). To date, the British cosmetics company remains off social media platforms, yet sales and brand equity stay strong.
In the year following its social media blackout, Lush delivered a record $54.9 million (£40.5 million) in December sales, 13.1% higher than 2021 and 11% above pre‑pandemic 2019 levels, and today the business is still turning over close to (949.3 million) £700 million a year globally.
Its anti-social media strategy pushed Lush to increase its own digital communication, leading to 1.75 million app users and 6 million newsletter subscribers globally. From Vogue Business to Dazed platforms and publications are calling 2026 the year of analog living, leading more people than ever to turn their backs on social media. Lush’s anti-algorithm positioning offers a roadmap for other brands looking to “touch more grass.”
According to Dr. Steven Dayan, beauty is in its neuroaesthetic era—and slow, subtle beauty is taking over. Having researched this topic extensively for the past decade, plastic surgeon Dayan co-founded XOMD Skincare, a line of neurocosmetics, with dermatologist Sabrina Fabi, MD. The self-proclaimed world’s first “moodceutical” line of products is backed by a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that supports the psycho-social-dermal axis—the idea that skin health, emotional well-being, and social confidence are intrinsically connected.
Ashley echoes this: “Comforted skin leads to fewer stress signals.” IRL leans heavily into sensory experiences because skin can trigger a parasympathetic response. “Our products are designed to help users feel different, not just look different.”
Others in the growing slow beauty category? Intentionally minimalist, British influencer
Lorna Luxe founded 98 Beauty in 2025 with a single product, the Hydra Bond Hydrating Mask, instead of launching with a full product suite. Similarly, Revitalist15, founded by Tokyo-born and New York–based Maiko Shimazaki, offers a science-backed Japanese wellness ritual through its one hero product: a self-heating eye mask that encourages users to incorporate nervous system regulation into their self-care routine.
What all these brands share is a rejection of trend velocity. Instead of launching based on what’s viral, they’re building based on what’s sustainable, emotionally grounding, and impossible to replicate algorithmically.
But if Gen Z and Gen Alpha are 20% less brand loyal and constantly hunting for distinctive products, how do slow beauty brands retain them?
The Retention Paradox
The answer is counterintuitive. Slowness creates participation over perfection, and ritual becomes a habitual anchor in a consistently chaotic digital world. Hence, Gen Z and Gen Alpha seek tactile, sensory experiences that can’t be replicated by algorithms.
“IRL acknowledges Gen Z curiosity and designs for experimentation rather than resisting it,” Ashley said. “Customers may try new brands but return to products that reliably make them feel grounded. Emotional connection turns products into habitual anchors. Habit formation occurs when skipping the routine feels noticeable.”
Harris echoed this: “Ultimately, we feel that connection to a brand comes from more than just a purchase; it comes from the feeling of being seen and supported.”
This is the retention paradox of slow beauty: Gen Z’s low brand loyalty works in favor of brands that build ritual. They’ll abandon products that don’t serve them, but they’ll return (and stay) with products that make them feel different.
Slow beauty also allows for premium pricing when ritual is delivered. Take Oak Essentials’ Moisture Rich Balm, which retails for $88. Younger consumers are still willing to pay more for sustainable and ethical products (62% value sustainability; 73% will pay more for it), and these brands are capitalizing on that willingness by positioning their products as emotional infrastructure, not just cosmetic solutions. Oak Essentials’ year-over-year growth further proves that slower beauty has retention power.
McKinsey’s State of Beauty report identifies wellness, emotional drivers, and routine-building as key engines of beauty growth from 2025 to 2028. Slow beauty isn’t fighting this trend: it’s the embodiment of it.
Why This Matters for the Beauty Industry
For indie brands, slow beauty allows premium pricing if you deliver ritual. The DTC-to-retail path is proven through the Oak Essentials model, and minimalist SKU counts reduce complexity while increasing margin. As for retailers, experiential retail budgets are increasing while in-store events are driving Gen Z foot traffic, and education-led merchandising matters more than trend velocity.
But for bigger brands, the question is whether they can pivot messaging from “instant results” to “daily ritual.” Loyalty is reserved for experiences that demand attention, as routine-building beats hero product launches.
The bottom line: Gen Z and Gen Alpha are exhausted by frictionless feeds but unwilling to log off. They’re resistant to algorithmic manipulation but hungry for discovery. They crave depth, ritual, story, and intention—not instant gratification. And they’re about to dominate the next decade of beauty spending.
Beauty brands that design toward deeper, slower, more intentional experiences will become the ones younger generations stay loyal to. The question for legacy brands: Can you slow down fast enough to keep up?
