The beauty industry is moving faster than ever and staying ahead means understanding not just where consumers are today, but where they’re heading next. Renude, the AI-powered skin advisor trusted by leading brands and retailers, has released its third Insights Report, and it’s packed with the intelligence beauty professionals need to compete in 2026 and beyond.
Here’s what’s inside, and why you should download it now.
The generation that will define the next decade of beauty
Trend forecaster and former WGSN senior beauty strategist Theresa Yee opens the report with a deep dive into the twin forces reshaping beauty retail: Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Gen Z’s spending power is projected to hit $12 trillion by 2030, yet many brands are still marketing to them the wrong way. According to Kyra’s State of Beauty 2026 report, 79% of UK Gen Z consumers say influencers and social media directly shape their beauty purchases and they’re using platforms like TikTok and YouTube not just for entertainment, but as search engines. They arrive at the beauty counter already decided: they’ve watched the tutorial, read the reviews, and consulted AI tools before they’ve even left the house.
But if Gen Z is reshaping beauty now, Gen Alpha will define what comes next. The first fully AI-native generation, reaching over 2 billion globally, their spending is forecast to reach $5.46 trillion by 2029. Sixty percent have already discovered new brands on gaming platforms. They don’t just want to shop, they want to be immersed, gamified, and engaged.
Despite being the most digital-savvy consumers in history, 64% of Gen Z still prefer to shop in physical retail stores. The report explores why physical retail is far from dead, and what brands must do to evolve: from AI skin scanning and AR try-on mirrors to pop-up activations that serve as both sensory playground and social content creation opportunity. As retail expert Wizz Selvey puts it: “Physical retail needs to evolve beyond being a point of sale and instead become a place that creates experiences, generates content and builds community.”
The hidden reason your paid media isn’t scaling
Wesley Hartley, CCO at performance marketing specialists Leaf Signal, shares insights that every DTC beauty brand’s marketing team needs to read.
The uncomfortable truth? Most brands are working with broken conversion tracking, and it’s quietly sabotaging their paid media performance. While creative and strategy rightly get the spotlight, it is data quality that determines whether campaigns actually scale. Hartley explains how automated platforms like Meta’s Advantage+ and Google’s Performance Max live or die by the quality of conversion signals they receive (and most brands are feeding them a fraction of what’s possible).
The solution is enriched, full-funnel tracking: capturing not just purchases, but intent signals throughout the customer journey - product views, add-to-carts, checkout starts - layered with meaningful customer context. This is how brands can unlock more precise audience targeting, dynamic product ads tied to personalised recommendations, and campaigns optimised around real purchase intent rather than guesswork.
Real data. Real results.
The report doesn’t just offer opinion - it also delivers proprietary data from Renude’s AI Skin Advisor.
Purchases of sunscreen surged 96.6% from February to April 2026 compared to the previous quarter, while treatment products (serums, toners) held firm as the number one category across both periods. Peptides, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin C dominate as the top three active ingredients by purchase volume.
Renude Insights Volume 3 is available now. Whether you’re a brand director, marketing lead, retailer, or product developer, this is one of the most actionable reads available in beauty right now.
