Rising Skin Care Trends: The Secrets That Google Searches Reveal About Skin Care Trends

Google performed an extensive analysis of beauty and skin care trends in three key markets – the U.S., France, and Japan. Google’s goal was to help marketers understand (through keyword analysis), what kinds of products and ingredients were top of mind for consumers and also what was falling out of favor.

Our search experts took a deep dive into this massive 78 page report and summarized what we feel are the most actionable and relevant trends for the U.S. market only. Our illustrated report boils down Google’s data into the following key sections.

1. Rising Trends (Google dubs these “rising searches”) – A summary of what skin care products and ingredients are sure bets – those terms that have seen steady growth over the past two years.
2. Falling Trends (Google dubs these “sustained decliners”) – A summary of of what skin care terms are fading in popularity, including those terms that were once hot trends that have hit their peak and are declining.
3. Key Takeaways – A bulleted summary of skin care keywords that you’ll want to know about (e.g., “Vegan Skin Care” is a very hot trend).
4. Our take on how you can use this data – We weigh in on how you can leverage this data to gain a competitive advantage.

A summary of what’s hot (or cool) in skin care

Google’s data includes terms that have shown steady growth over the two years the study was conducted (2014 through 2016) and we verified that the terms listed are still trending by plugging them into Google Trends. Based on this (collaborative) analysis, here are a few highlights from our Key Insights Report.

• “Epsom salt bath” was the number one “sustained riser” from 2014 through 2016 and searches for this term have remained high through 2018 at 40,500 per month in the U.S.
• The top “seasonal” riser (searched performed in November and December which coincide with the holidays) was “bath bombs,” with 165,000 searches per month in the U.S.
• The term “charcoal mask” was the top Rising Star (these are terms that have shown sudden growth which may not last) with 40,500 searches per month in the U.S.

How you can use this information

Our report includes a summary of all the top terms in each of the three Rising Trends categories. Beauty and skin care marketers can compare the terms they’re currently bidding on to what’s trending and revise their search strategy accordingly. This information is also useful when planning what products and ingredients to focus on through the holidays and beyond.  

If you’re intrigued and want to dig deeper, then download our free Key Insights Report.

Pro Tip: Knowing which products and ingredients are declining in popularity can be just as useful to optimizing your content as knowing what’s hot. Our report includes this information too! For a quick taste on what’s falling out of favor, check out this post.