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At Highlight, we’re always supporting deeper tech-enabled decision support with new Survey Blueprints–think of them as customizable templates that empower anyone to be a research pro.
At the moment, the platform offers 160 Blueprints and counting–and we wanted to play with our newest: Audience Profiler, a research approach that tells you everything you need to know about your core consumers–who they are, what they care about, and why would they buy your product over a competitor’s.
And maybe we were biased, thinking about what we want for Christmas this year, but we decided to focus on the skincare category for consumer research. (Afterall, in earlier research we learned that Gen Z women are most looking forward to splurging on Beauty & Personal Care this holiday season.)
It proved to be the right decision, as 71% of respondents said they hope to receive gifts from the beauty & personal care category this holiday season:
Read on to learn more about beauty shoppers, how they see themselves, and how they plan to spend this 2025 holiday season.
Do shoppers plan to purchase skincare products this holiday season?
According to the responses of 1,440 respondents from the Highlight community, the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
- 84% plan to purchase skincare products for themselves
- 59% plan to purchase skincare products for others
- 52% hope to receive skincare products as a gift
Gen Z are the most enthusiastic skincare shoppers, with 88% saying they have plans to purchase skincare products for themselves.
Which skincare brands and products are most popular this holiday season?
In this open-ended question, we gave respondents the opportunity to share exactly what’s on their wishlist this year. Highlight AI stepped in to help speed up our analysis by summarizing the open-ended responses:
Respondents named specific brands La Mer, Tatcha, and Drunk Elephant frequently. When we narrowed down to our most enthusiastic shoppers–Gen Z–we saw brand preference shift to La Roche-Posay, Tatcha, and CeraVe (with an honorable mention to Medicube–a popular Korean skincare brand).
What attributes are most important to you in a skincare product?
The Audience Profiler Survey Blueprint suggested including a question to reveal the “why” behind consumer preferences for skincare products–but the results aren’t likely to surprise you when it comes to skincare.
Across demographics, consumers are overwhelmingly prioritizing product efficacy when it comes to skincare, with 94% ranking that attribute as top priority. (How the product looks, feels, and smells came in second with 58%, and price came in third with 45%.)
See how skincare brand Aelia used Highlight to validate the claims they needed for a successful GTM launch
What, if anything, prevents you from buying more skincare products, or buying it more often?
With the macroeconomic challenges of recent history, it may not surprise you to hear that consumers identified their primary barrier to buying more skincare products is price. What did surprise us was the results once we filtered for Gen Z shoppers:
While in total, 70% of shoppers said price was their biggest barrier to buying more skincare products, only 66% of Gen Z shoppers identified price as their biggest barrier. While it was still the most popular answer, you might expect a younger generation with relatively smaller purchasing power to have more concerns about price than the average–but Gen Z priorities are different, as revealed by yet another insight:
While only 28% said “difficulty finding information” is a barrier for them, almost twice as many Gen Z shoppers (42%) said “difficulty finding information” is a barrier to buying more skincare products. In other words, when given the education, Gen Z are just as willing to spend on skincare as other shopper groups–if not slightly more so.
Where and how are shoppers buying skincare products?
Despite the growth of ecommerce channels, most shoppers continue to buy skincare products in a mix of both in-store and online shopping (71%), with Boomer shoppers maintaining a slight preference for in-store skincare shopping (23% of Boomers versus 15% overall).
Big box stores (Walmart, Target, etc.) and specialty stores (Sephora, Ulta, etc.) remain top choices for in-store shoppers, coming in at 76% and 72% respectively, with only 28% selecting online only–a minority, but a substantial one comprising more than 1 in 4 shoppers.
How much do shoppers expect to pay for skincare products?
When looking at the results in aggregate, most shoppers expect skincare products to fall in the range of $10 to $25 USD. When segmented by generation, we can see some variability in consumer expectations:
While the $10-$25 price range was the most popular answer, the next tier up–$26-$50–was not far behind. A whole 22% of Millennial skincare shoppers expect to pay as much as $50+ for skincare products.
How do skincare shoppers see themselves?
The Audience Profiler Blueprint suggested a question in which respondents describe themselves as a certain personality type, and the answers were very revealing: 24%, or about 1 in 4 skincare shoppers, describe themselves as “a planner.” In a category dominated by female shoppers, that may not surprise you. But the real fun began when we segmented by generation.
Although across age groups, “planner” remained the most popular answer, we definitely saw generational trends. Gen Z and Millennial skincare shoppers were much more likely to describe themselves as “adventurers” (18% and 17%, respectively), while Boomer shoppers clearly drove the bulk of the most popular answer “planner” (34% versus 24% across all generations), and chose “problem solver” as their second most popular answer (25%).
Share that insight with your Baby Boomer parent when you’re home for the holidays!
How do skincare product shoppers use social media?
Facebook (86%) and Instagram (78%) top the charts of most popularly regularly used media platforms, but when segmented by generation, those numbers change.
- Gen X is Facebook’s biggest fans, coming in at 92% saying they use the platform regularly (Boomers aren’t far behind at 87%)
- Gen Z and Millennials are driving Instagram popularity at 83% and 81% respectively
- 73% of Gen Z respondents said TikTok was their preferred platform
- Gen Z skincare shoppers are also regularly on Pinterest (59%) and Reddit (55%), significantly more so than other demographics
- Want to reach Gen Z skincare shoppers? You might consider Discord, where 30% of those respondents said they regularly spend time
As to which consumer groups are posting across these platforms, that’s fairly consistent across ages. Roughly two thirds of respondents say they post and share, while one third says they tend not to share.
Do skincare shoppers maintain distinct lifestyle habits?
Although 57% of respondents said they find living a healthy lifestyle a challenge, 92% said they typically walk for exercise–with yoga or pilates coming in at a distant second place with only 34% selecting that option.
- Gen Z are leading the way with their preference for a variety of different exercises, such as virtual exercise classes, strength training, and hiking.
- About a quarter of Millennial skincare shoppers say they are runners, compared to about one third of Gen Z skincare shoppers.
What do skincare shoppers love about their favorite products?
We included an open-ended question giving respondents the opportunity to tell us what they love about their favorite skincare products. Once again, Highlight AI made it easy to understand the main takeaways with automated summaries:
We also searched for answers mentioning “Tatcha” to see verbatims mentioning exactly what they love about this popular brand. Send us an email if you want us to search for any mentions of your skincare brand!
Your 2025 gift guide for skincare shoppers
Still wondering what to get the skincare shopper in your life? Start with these final insights from the Highlight platform:
- For any skincare shopper, make sure your gift is “personalized or thoughtful” (80% identified as what makes a gift feel “truly special”)
- For the Gen Zers in your life, ensure your gift “matches [their] personal style” (66%)
- For Millennials (57%) and Boomers (62%), make sure it’s “practical and useful”
- For Gen X (35%) and Boomers (48%), get them “something [they] wouldn’t buy for [themselves]”
Whatever your skincare shopping plans this year, we here at Highlight hope you have a wonderful 2025 holiday season and get everything on your wishlist!
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