Inside Design : Future Inspirations
The Aqua Vibro Automatic Shampoo Machine by beauty salon/spa equipment supplier Takara Belmont could be the model for a future personal "hair robot."By Jeanine Recckio
As technology advances, it will have an amazing impact on the beauty industry. It's exciting to think about. As a beauty futurologist, I track changes and study every new development, in every area. I encourage you to go on a journey with me to take a quick look at what the future holds.
Let's think about the year 2025. What new types of beauty products and packages will you need to develop for it?
Look Beyond the Obvious
To get ready for the future, look beyond the obvious and keep an open mind. Find inspiration from nontraditional sources. Look outside your category—it's where exciting and new ideas live. Think about and identify macrotrends that are happening in technology, food, culture, science, and fashion, and link them to packaging and your category. And watch the magic happen!
New ideas exist in every part of our life. From different rooms in our house to the clothing in our closets to the creams we put on our skin, the future is going to revolutionize our lives.
The Home of the Future
The home, as we know it, is going to change. Imagine everything in your home communicating with you—or with other products. You wake up because your scent alarm has just infused the room with the scent of oranges and grapefruits. It then talks to your PDA and determines that you have a busy day ahead, so it tells your shower to brew a custom soap potion. Maybe that brew will include lavender to ease your stress?
The smart refrigerator lets you know when you are out of something. Such a device already exists in Japan.
In the shower, a full-body scanner reads your cellulite and energy levels. It then talks to your fridge, which in turn creates an electronic shopping list of the foods you should be eating for your body type and what you need to stock.
Germ Warfare
We will declare war on germs. New surfaces will be developed that won't let germs attach themselves. These technological developments could be used on countertops, but also on packaging and applicators. New types of synthetic sponges will look and feel like natural sea sponges, without the potential for bacteria.
Your windows at home will be self-cleaning...why can't a compact mirror do the same?
Goof-proof laundry will also be available. Someone has already invented colored towels that won't change color with bleach or stain with hair dye. (They were at Cosmoprof North America this year.) Create something similar for cosmetics application.
Makeup with a Brain
Smart digital mirrors will be on our vanity tables and also in our compacts. They will simulate makeup application right on your face, showing how you'd look in the latest colors. Clear makeup may be self-programmed into the mirror, and nanobots would give it color direction. Imagine never having to match a foundation color anymore. Makeup itself will sense whether it should fade or deepen, right there on your skin.
Think about the ultimate in customization—the consumer's own picture on an eye shadow.
New synthetic polymers will be used to create long-lasting films, such as peel-off makeup.
Future Formulations
Preservative-free skin care products are the wave of the future. Think organic SPFs, fresh-mix formulas, and custom blends. For all these new, fresh-mix formulations, we'll probably need more dual-chamber packages. For transport-friendly, temperature-controlled components—think about applying vacuum-insulated technology.
Our medicine cabinets will all be refrigerated, which would be useful now for storing pharmaceuticals, but will be a necessity for perishable makeup. (These cabinets already retail for about $5000.)
Self-tanners will still be very important—look how far we've come in that category, getting them down to the $2.99 tan-in-a-can. Airbrush makeup will also continue to be developed.
Expect more customized potions. There is a product out now in Korea that matches consumer requirements. It only requires the addition of plain tap water, with vitamin C and ions already infused into it.
Save the Date
No more hiding a date in the crimp of a tube! Strict laws regarding the printing of expiration dates will be passed.
Fashion and Textiles
The fashion world gives us lots of cues and inspiring ideas. For instance, textile innovations can inspire smarter fibers, which can be used for many items, such as the brush hairs of a mascara wand. Could nanotechnology be used to make a mascara brush light up for easier application?
Some fabrics are able to detect a mood. Imagine if they could monitor your health, letting you know about any deficiencies!
Scent-infused sheets on your bed have the power to completely change your mood. How would we wash and reinfuse them? What if our clothing was able to contain vitamin C? It might be absorbed by our skin and keep us from getting a cold.
Imagine the day when a woman no longer lugs around a bulky purse. Bulging pockets are no solution, so maybe we need Velcro pockets inside the cuffs of boot-cut trousers, to carry makeup effortlessly and secretly.
Sensory Driven
Products that change color with heat or cold are already in both fashion and home markets. How could we use this knowledge in packaging? Maybe there will be a compact that can change like a mood ring. And wouldn't it be beautiful to have packages that glow when the lights go down?
Skin Chips
Active skin tattoos made by tiny LCD screens embedded in skin will continue branding, right on the consumer's arm!
Active skin chips could be trained to exercise the muscles in your face, eliminating the need for Botox. (The electronic wrinkle patch already exists.)
Future Buzzwords and Inspirations
And while you are exploring and looking for new ideas, think about current categories that may disappear. As new inventions are released, other, supporting inventions will need to be developed to help these new devices operate.
One example is the hair robot, which has been shown at Cosmoprof Bologna for the past three years. Will there be a need for new types of shampoos, with a cartridge-like package to fit into this machine? Will your packages need small spouts to make it easy to pour the product into the robot? This device may one day be in everyone's home, just like the dishwasher.
Another invention is the nanobot, which may one day be programmed to do just about anything. In the future, we may need only apply our toothpaste for nanobots to use to scrub our teeth. The toothbrush would become obsolete.
Here are some other possibilities:
- Super bioengineered flowers and food.
- Food will inspire many new flavors and fragrances.
- The color and texture of fish skins will influence everything.
- Virtual plastic surgery will be done with noninvasive lasers.
- Makeup will deliver new sensations.
- Fragrance will convey texture.
To really see the future, your imagination is your most important resource. I hope to have inspired you to imagine it.
Jeanine Recckio is founder of Mirror Mirror Imagination Group (New York City). Recckio forecasts color, texture, formula, and packaging trends for the beauty industry in her Crystal Ball Beauty Trend Report. This article was inspired by her Crystal Ball Beauty & Lifestyle Trend Report for 2025.