The surge of logins on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube continue to rise daily. Nearly half of all millennials cruise Facebook every day. A third make a daily practice of glazing over Instagram. Our feed is always a familiar state. There’s the woman whose career you want. The woman whose body you want. The blogger with the adorable newborn. The college frenemy who found her curls. The reality starlet with the razor-sharp cat eye. And they’ve all packaged themselves to look perfect on a three-by-five screen. Save for a few holdouts who don’t know any better, they’ve all reached your fingertips in a similar fashion:
Searching for quick fixes to generate camera-ready faces has encouraged millennials to buy more makeup than ever. We’re a little vain, and that’s okay. Within the $13 billion cosmetics market, millennial women stand as the most dynamic spending power, accounting for 47 percent of all heavy-buyer purchases (heavy buyers are defined as those who purchase ten or more cosmetics). In turn we’ve invested less in skin care, and even less within the anti-aging market, whose delayed promises of youth are too slow-paced for our insta-needs. How much do we not give a hoot about anti-aging? Consider this: Millennials are more likely to use lip balm, facial wipes, and acne treatments before they reach for a tube of anything that promises to harness youth. As a result, the anti-aging sector has continued its steady five-year decline (sales have fallen from roughly $2.2 billion in 2010 to $1.9 billion in 2015 according to a report)
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And then there’s the other side:
I know this all sounds overwhelming, but looking good and looking young have never been easier. The makeup wizards have made sure of this. In the past few years, beauty brand after beauty brand has launched products written in the social-media vernacular. There are the primers that promise to “blur” and “smooth;” the foundation that calls itself a “photo filter,” and the color-correcting “First Light Priming Filter” from Becca, to name a few.
But when we do invest in skin care, we want something that works quickly and instantly. Gone are the days when baby boomers would place their faith in a bottle of fiming cream, and then devote the next three years of their lives to a nightly ritual in the hopes that some day it would pay off. Millennials are wise to these dubious-sounding claims and if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Same goes for fat-busting creams and cellulite creams, you wouldn’t see a millennial caught dead with one. Science over fiction, results over anticipation. With this new impatient emboldened attitude, it is no wonder that millennials are seeking out high-tech methods earlier. Straight from the beauty routines of millennials and other beauty bloggers, here are some of their primping favourites:
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Hair Removal Laser over Waxing
Millennials cannot understand why someone would spend 10% of their lives devoted to the painful process of waxing, unless it is some sort of perverse addiction to pain. With no long term results to speak off, they are horrified that this process has to be repeated like an eternity in hell. According to aesthetic doctors, the increase in teens seeking out Laser hair removal has increased substantially in the last five years. “I see patients as young as twelve coming in for laser hair removal” says Dr Low Chai Ling, aesthetic maestro at SW1 Clinic. “It’s no longer limited to just underarms and legs, now they are seeking hair removal for their faces and backs as well” she says.
And why not? With a permanent de-fuzzing benefit, the number of sessions towards hair-lessness is capped at about six (if you are using a in-clinic laser) or about ten (if you are penny pinching and using salon grade IPL). While adverse events of redness and burns can occur if you are seeking an unqualified bootleg version, the treatments are largely safe and comfortable.
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Pico Pigment laser over anti-pigment cream
Millennials are a strange breed. They would devote an hour to contouring and highlighting their faces for Instagram perfection, then another hour to adding the correct filter and edits to ‘beautify’ their faces. But mention a five-minute daily skin routine involving anything more than one skincare product, and they wrinkle up their noses with protests “But I’ve no time!” Unfortunately, UV and hormones do not spare the millennials’ skins, showing up as blemishes and freckles over time. However, the millennials are more likely to speed dial their dermatologist for an appointment to get rid of their pigmentation than scour online for dubious whitening creams. “I’m not stupid, I know what works” says the twenty-year old intern we recently hired “And the best laser to lighten pigmentation right now is the Pico laser“. And that matches the trend seen by Dr Low who says that indulgent parents are bringing in their children to have lasers earlier as they recognize that grooming and looks play a part in life; most want to give their kids the best start possible. Even those footing the bill with their hard-earned cash is happy to part with one or two sessions because in their opinion, clearing it partially in a month is still greater returns than what a cream in a bottle would give them in the same duration. Smart girls!
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Revitalift Lips over lip plumpers, glosses…
This is probably the most surprising considering we expected some amount of trepidation over the idea of an injection would have stopped millennials in its tracks. This trend kicked off when Kylie Jenner debut her plumper pout when she was just a teen. Despite her denials that she had anything more than mere lip liner, millennials knew lip fillers when they see it. The internet is a treasure trove of information. While not all millennials fancy lips a-la Kylie, many agreed that they would definitely love an enhancement, the sort of effect one gets when you apply lip plumper or over-line your lips, but nothing that would leave you looking like you had an allergic reaction to kissing a goldfish. “The thing about lip fillers that many people don’t realise is that it isn’t one filler we’re talking about” says Dr Low, who recommended Revitalift lips for millennials seeking subtle enhancements. “There is a whole range of fillers that can give different benefits from simple hydration of the lips, reduction of lip lines, to volumizing the lips”. That said, the technique of lip fillers will also results in different results, think a pencil in our hands or Michaelangelo’s hands. According to Dr Low, many younger patients seek out lip shaping rather than volumization, which entails creating two pillows for the lower lip and augmenting the cupid’s bow (the central portion of the upper lip). The effect is subtle gorgeousness… just the way millennials love.
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