Why Millennials Don't Care If They Have Wrinkles on Their Skin

POPSUGAR Photography | Matthew Barnes
POPSUGAR Photography | Matthew Barnes

When I recently met with Taylor Frankel, the 18-year-old cofounder of Nudestix, she schooled me on millennial beauty and why they are such devotees of her line of multiuse pencils. Taylor explained how women her age want easy, natural, and minimalist makeup. Chubby crayons — like Nudestix, which can be applied to the eye, cheek, and lip — fill that need. The line is a year old and already sold at Sephora and Urban Outfitters.

This success story was stuck in my mind as I read a fascinating feature in WWD about millennial beauty trends. Times are certainly changing. Millennials differ from the baby boomers in that they care less about concealing signs of aging, flaunt their uniqueness, and seek natural-ingredient options. In many ways, I epitomize the Gen Y mindset in that I refuse to get Botox in my 30s (yes, I do have some fine lines) and focus on a holistic lifestyle that bleeds into my skin care regimen. And like my Gen Y peers, I love a full face of contoured makeup and fuchsia lipstick just as much as I enjoy going out with just mascara and a bit of highlighter.

Millennials will also affect what products some of the most prestigious, classic brands, such as Estée Lauder, Clinique, and Lancome, will launch in the coming seasons. For the record, all of these labels are releasing trend-forward cushion beauty products this season. And Estée debuted a new, more youthful range, The Edit, on Sephora, which is fronted by Kendall Jenner and blogger Irene Kim.

We know that Gen Next wants fast results, but they're also willing to put in the work to get there. This includes anything from working on their overall wellness by eating healthy and taking supplements to executing do-it-yourself projects. GlamGlow cofounder Shannon Dellimore said in the article: "Millennials, they want things beyond instantly . . . instantly isn't even good enough nowadays."

Keep reading to discover more facts about the most "disruptive" generation yet.

Millennials Don't Care About Wrinkles

According to the experts interviewed in this piece, Gen Next is less concerned with showing signs of aging than their parents. Yes, obviously this age group is on the younger side (many do not have fine lines or gray hairs yet), but their attitude is different, nonetheless. It predicted that they will accept signs of aging more easily and openly, since they embrace authenticity.

"For the last 10 years, it's been lines, wrinkles, lines, wrinkles," Karen Grant, global beauty industry analyst at The NPD Group, told WWD. "[Millennials] are just less anxious about the lines, the wrinkles, the gray hair, the natural hair . . . There's this overall sense of 'oh, that's good enough.' It's less about giving up and more about embracing who you are and what you are and how you look, and not feeling like you have to fit any mold."

Millennials Will Create What They Cannot Find

This generation craves bespoke skin care, which explains the popularity of boosters and custom serums (Kiehl's just launched a new make-your-own serum feature, and Skin Inc has been doing this via ecommerce for years). Multimasking has also been a viral phenomenon the past year.

It's all about personalization for this group. "[Millennials] are more skewed toward simplicity," said Sam Cheow, the chief product accelerator at L'Oréal. "They look at aging in a very different way. It's not top-of-mind for them, they are more problem-and-solution-centric."

Often finding those solutions means combining and creating. So you'll also rarely meet a Gen Yer who doesn't like a good DIY. "Millennials look at their skin care in a way that allows for interpretation," said Jane Hudis, group president at Estée Lauder (for Aerin, Origins, Aveda, Darphin, and La Mer). "They put themselves into the conversation, where Boomers are more likely to take instruction and use things in a particular way."

Millennials Prefer Social Media Campaigns to Traditional Advertising

Put a traditional glossy ad or an influencer-approved Instagram in front of a millennial, and guess which one will reign supreme? If you chose the latter, you are correct. Whether the product is being backed by Kendall Jenner, a vlogger, or a celebrity doctor, Gen Y is sold more easily on "authentic," authoritative endorsements.

Because millennials are on their phones all day and night, it makes sense that social media is the top way to create brand awareness. "Social media for us has always been our number-one communication channel," Glossier founder Emily Weiss said. "By the time we launched Glossier, we had 15,000 followers."

Photo-centric apps like Instagram and Snapchat lead the pack when it comes to the coolness factor.

"[Millennials] don't want to be spoken at, they want to be engaged," Cheow said. Want their attention? There's a Snapchat filter for that!

Millennials Care About Natural Ingredients in Products

Gen Y is also mindful about what is in the products they use. Thus, skin care brands that focus on holistic ingredients are often favored. S.W. Basics is such an example, and it was founded by Gen Yer Adina Grigore when the market was void of organic options she could get behind. "There has been a lot of natural stuff around for a long time, it's just that the brands don't try to speak to younger people," she said. The brand has seen a spike in sales, and it is sold at millennial-beloved superstore Target.

Alicia Yoon, the founder of Korean beauty ecommerce site Peach & Lily, echoed this notion: "There's this emphasis that you have to be real and raw and underneath all of that you still look good because you're healthy."

Ingestible supplements that support better beauty health (such as hair growth) are also a favored and growing category with Gen Next. You know it's a major category when Jen Atkin, aka the woman The New York Times deemed to be the "most influential hairstylist in the world," is creating them for her brand, Ouai. According to WWD, the supplements market has grown more than five times in two years, to $4.1 million in 2015.

Millennials Are Into Face Masks

Perhaps it's the fact that masks are so personal or just Instagrammable, but this is also a hot market right now. (Do we really need to tell you how adorable a panda-designed eye mask looks when worn?)

"We are living in an era where fun rules, and I think you can have great skin-care products and get people engaged and excited and also have a good time," Hudis said. "The idea of a mask is very visual — the PowerFoil mask is a sellout because it's so visual on Instagram . . . It's very experiential . . . that experience makes these products very interesting and exciting to share."

GlamGlow cofounder Glenn Dellimore added this conversion: "Before you wouldn't see anybody posting with an actual treatment mask — you're now seeing friends post together, couples post together." We even saw one woman wear her sheet mask on the subway!

Millennials LOVE Makeup!

You already know millennials love their selfies. So in addition to getting a #flawlessface thanks to skin care, they are also investing in makeup. According to WWD, makeup sales were up 13 percent in 2015. While there are some makeup minimalists — like the Glossier and Nudestix girls — there are also Gen Yers who love a fully contoured, strobed face accented with faux lashes, of course.

And do we even need to remind you of the lip phenomena started by Miss Kylie Jenner and her infamous Lip Kits? The resurgence of lip liner and stay-all-day pout colors is a fad that doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. This age group will have their matte lipstick and their supplement, too, thankyouverymuch!