Soft focus is an optics problem solved with particles
1 / 8
The finish the market keeps renaming is built from particles that decide how light leaves the skin. Avon's fractal-particle gels pair the particles with polymers whose refractive index matches them, so the gel blurs wrinkles and skin imperfections while smoothing the surface. Sun Chemical coats 50 to 75 per cent of a substrate's surface with a metal oxide and mixes plate-like particles with other shapes; the coating limits direct reflection and spreads the light evenly, which is what blurs fine lines, wrinkles and spots. L'Oréal claims particles with a refractive index above 1.6 and a median size between 100 nanometres and 5 micrometres for the same effect. LG Household reaches it without powder at all, using diffuse reflection over the wrinkle area.
US prestige beauty grew 7% to $33.9 billion in 2024 and mass grew 3%, with fragrance the fastest-growing category at 12%. Face makeup did not lead that. In Q1 2025 prestige makeup held the top spot by volume while falling 1% in dollars, and face and eye lagged the stick formats that grew double digits. Chanel shows the same mechanism from the other side: with fragrance flat, makeup carried the beauty business and the face category was its main growth driver.
Strategy
The committed spend sits in a layer the public conversation never reaches
3 / 8
The category's coverage is about names and finishes. The money committed to making those finishes work sits in filings the consumer and trade press do not touch. Avon, L'Oréal, Unilever, Sun Chemical and Shin-Etsu have each filed on how particles control light at the skin surface, and the direction of that work is now a substitution: LVMH with Calyxia is building biodegradable microparticles that reproduce a silicone elastomer's cushion and matte finish, and Sun Chemical names the replacement of silicone elastomers as the point of its filing.
Research
The film that holds a foundation is the film that resists washing it off
4 / 8
Wear is a film problem. The base is a colourant and fillers held in a polymer film on the skin, and the film formers are largely trimethylsiloxysilicate and acrylate-silicone copolymers. A foundation for sensitive skin combines a hard film former that holds the makeup with a soft one that follows the skin, so the film stays flexible and breathable. Waterproof and sweat-resistant versions thicken the same film and add water-in-oil emulsifiers to stop it breaking down.
Market
The finish is the durable asset and the name is rented
5 / 8
Every finish now carries a name, and the names are coined by creators and editors who are credited for them. Each label earns its coverage by naming what the previous one got wrong: anti-iPhone face answers same-face glam and filler homogenisation, blurred skin is framed against last season's glossy, butter-like skin, and airbrushed skin as the end of the mega-glow.
Strategy
The answer to the shade problem is becoming a machine
6 / 8
Shade count was the category's competitive metric for a decade. The commitment now visible is to measure and mix instead of carrying more stock. DCYPHER opened its first physical counter at John Lewis on Oxford Street, mixing a bespoke foundation in under two minutes from a facial scan, with a national rollout through spring 2027 and a US launch planned for 2027. It sells the result at £39 for 30ml in three finishes rather than a shade wall. BoldHue has taken a standalone dispenser through grant in the US, with a scanner wand that reads skin tone and pumps pigments to a recipe, and L'Oréal holds a granted ecosystem patent for the same idea. Chromara is developing a counter-mounted unit that mixes a brand's own formula from six pigments, and Clarins sells the measurement half alone, turning a phone into a spectrometer for shade matching.
Research
Matching a shade to skin is a measurement problem first
7 / 8
Before a system can recommend a shade, it has to know the skin colour under whatever light the shopper is standing in. L'Oréal's method trains two models in sequence: the first estimates the illumination from a colour reference in the image, the second estimates skin colour from the image and that illumination reading, which is what lets it work outside a studio. Chanel measures each cosmetic under the conditions it is worn, then correlates those measurements with the person's skin on a shared colour map. MatchCo captures a calibrated image against a known lighting and colour standard and compares it with a reference dataset to derive a custom formulation.
Market
Two demand readings point to different briefs
8 / 8
CivicScience records a 20-point fall in daily makeup use among American women since 2019, with 49 per cent now preferring light, natural makeup. Reddit's Beauty Index, built from two years of beauty communities, finds conversation about experimental looks up close to 400 per cent while no-makeup makeup talk fell 81 per cent year on year.