Humans may not hibernate in the traditional sense, but what we do all winter long is the closest equivalent: a state of relative inactivity, but for one day — New Year’s Eve! — where we come out and make all the noise, drop all the balls, drink all the Champagne, and crawl back under the weighted blankets from whence we came.
Then, suddenly, it’s almost spring, and we open the curtains, shake the twigs from our hair, and reacquaint ourselves with the world around us. Hello, flower! Hello, tree. Less than three months into 2020, and we already have some catching up to do — namely, what’s going on out there now that the weather forecast predicts something other than 33 degrees and cloudy? What do we wear, who do we owe a text back, what do we put on our faces instead of the thickest possible moisturizer and a layer of oil on top to seal it all in?
Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves — spring isn’t here quite yet, and that economy-sized jar of Vaseline still has its purpose. But with the rest of the year laid out ahead of us, there’s a number of new skin-care trends set to make their way into the 2020 canon. Soon enough, the nights will be shorter, the days will be longer, and these four trends will be fueling your shopping decisions through Daylight Saving Time season and beyond.
At Refinery29, we’re here to help you navigate this overwhelming world of stuff. All of our market picks are independently selected and curated by the editorial team. If you buy something we link to on our site, Refinery29 may earn commission.
Stress Solutions
Long hours at the office, high costs of health care, rising sea levels, balancing our social lives with our work schedules, literally anything on the news: With so many stressors everywhere we turn, it’s only natural that we’re, well, stressed. That fraught state of being — and the flood of cortisol it produces — inevitably shows up on our skin.
“Stress promotes an increase in certain hormones that prepare the body for the stressful environment,” dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD, explains. “Those same hormones can have a negative impact on the skin.” While you’re frantically live-tweeting the Democratic debates and waking up in a cold sweat from a nightmare that you forgot to file your taxes, your skin is manifesting it all in the form of dryness, irritation, breakouts, and impaired barrier function.
If a daily gratitude practice isn’t quite cutting it for you on a superficial level, then there’s a whole emerging category of skin-care products that promise to act as CBT for your epidermis. “These products that target the effects of stress aim to restore healthy skin function,” Dr. Zeichner says. “They improve hydration, reduce inflammation, and promote collagen production.” Of course, those benefits aren’t limited to the skin of stressed-out people; a hydrating serum will still hydrate if you’re the most blissed-out you’ve ever been. Just be sure you aren’t expecting miracles when your money may be better spent on therapy — there’s no topical Xanax just yet.
Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Stress Rescue Super Serum with Niacinamide
Blend your ashwagandha, maitake mushroom, and maca root powders into your smoothie for the supposed adaptogenic benefits (or the placebo effect — your pick); use them on your face via this superfood-rich serum for skin-strengthening, barrier-restoring results.
Dr Dennis Gross Skincare Stress Rescue Super Serum with Niacinamide, $, available at Sephora
First Aid Beauty FAB Pharma Arnica Relief & Rescue Mask
With a cushiony, calming feel thanks to shea and cocoa butters, and the healing power of centella asiatica, this creamy leave-on mask cocoons skin to relieve sensitivity and irritation (because nothing says “stressed” quite like being sensitive and irritable). The addition of arnica, the preferred homeopathic solution for bumps and bruises, is believed to accelerate the skin’s natural healing processes.
First Aid Beauty FAB Pharma Arnica Relief & Rescue Mask , $, available at Sephora
Laneige Hypoallergenic Cica Sleeping Mask
Sometimes there’s just no substitute for a good night’s sleep — especially when this overnight replenishing mask is involved. Smoothed on before bed as the last step in your skin-care routine, the soothing blend of squalane, shea butter, and a particularly potent source of cica provides healthier, more chill skin by morning.
Laneige Hypoallergenic Cica Sleeping Mask , $, available at Sephora
Plant-Based Luxury
Clean beauty might have been considered a rising trend three years ago, but it’s now become ubiquitous; the term “clean beauty” in and of itself is a matter of debate. This year, we’ll continue to challenge the sheer definition of the category as it stands, looking deeper into the buzzwords, blacklisted ingredients, and hard science behind the movement — and, with that, the power it now holds over our wallets.
Plant-based beauty has come a long way from Whole Foods any way you swing it (and Whole Foods’ beauty aisle has come a long way, too…), but true luxury, from packaging and ingredients to the actual research behind them, feels like a new innovation in the space. The tinted glass bottles are beautiful, the botanical extracts hand-harvested and cold-pressed — and the price point more Dior than Dr. Bronner’s.
Furtuna Skin Porte Per La Vitalità
The care with which this Sicilian-born brand takes its wild-foraged ingredients is staggering; for most people, the price point is, too. But if the intersection of sustainably sourced botanicals and high-tech manufacturing is what you’re into, look no further than a universal serum that combines the good shit nature gave us — olive oil, tough-as-nails Anchusa azurea — with innovative technology (Soundbath extractions, anyone?) and packs it all up in UV-protective bottles to keep it as potent as possible.
Furtuna Skin PORTE PER LA VITALITÀ, $, available at Furtuna Skin
Votary Super Seed Serum – Broccoli Seed and Peptides
The term “serum” hardly does justice to this impossibly rich lotion; a powerhouse blend of plant oils and extracts that nourishes like your thickest moisturizer but sinks into skin like a dream. A high concentration of calming oat kernel flour means irritation is instantly quelled, and a laundry list of oils like broccoli seed, cloudberry, raspberry, and rosehip locks in moisture while hydrating from within.
Votary Super Seed Serum – Broccoli Seed and Peptides, $, available at Votary
Monastery Flora Botanical Cream Serum
It’s not properly a cream, nor is it a serum — think of this multitasking solution as a kind of does-it-all salve for your skin woes. Lightweight yet substantial enough to replace moisturizer altogether for most skin types (except the very dry), blending fruit and floral oils into a soothing aloe base creates a formula that can be used year-round, in most skin situations, to hydrate and balance.
Monastery Flora Botanical Cream Serum, $, available at CAP Beauty
Menopause Goes Mainstream
Gen Z might be the future, but the 14-to-21 age range isn’t the one skin-care brands are scrambling to cater to right now: First, it’s time for the 35-to-50 and beyond to get their due. Products marketed toward “mature skin” have historically focused on moisture and fine lines, never accounting for the realities of menopause — no doubt because of the residual taboo of discussing “the change” openly. “The concerns of women in this demographic tend to get overlooked in general. We call her ‘the Invisible Woman,'” dermatologist Robin Schaffran, MD, says. “I think we are only now starting to talk about these issues and wake up to the needs of this group.”
The average age of menopause in the United States is 51, but for some women, the hormonal changes begin to unfold as early as your mid-30s in a transitional phase called perimenopause. “During the perimenopausal period, estrogen (female-type hormones) decrease and the relative proportion of androgens (male-type hormones) increase,” Dr. Schaffran says. When estrogen levels dip, the skin becomes thinner and drier; as androgen levels increase, so does oil production. “The pores don’t work as efficiently to eliminate this excess oil and dead skin,” Dr. Schaffran explains, “ultimately resulting in clogged pores and new acne lesions.”
Breaking out at the same time you’re battling dullness and fine lines is beyond frustrating — but it’s definitely not hopeless, especially not when a handful of new brands seeks to bring the skin-care needs of the “invisible woman” into the light.
Emepelle Serum
The key ingredients here are par for the course in a good serum: niacinamide, ascorbic and ferulic acids, sodium hyaluronate, a handful of peptides. But what makes this particular formula remarkable is methyl estradiolpropanoate, or MEP, a non-hormonal topical that was shown in a recent double-blind randomized study to be safe and effective in treating skin that’s showing those signs of estrogen deficiency.
Emepelle Emepelle Serum, $, available at Emepelle
BalmLabs ClearBalm 3-Step System
This Canadian brand, for which Dr. Schaffran is the chief dermatologist, is new on the scene, but its before-and-afters are compelling and the experts behind it worth trusting. The three-step system, which can also be purchased à la carte, makes a point of being gentle, not by skimping on actives but by finding new ones altogether — like under-the-radar Bixa orellana seed extract for regulating oil production without drying — and pairing them with proven cutting-edge nourishing ingredients, like nano-encapsulated hemp-derived full-spectrum CBD.
BalmLabs ClearBalm 3-Step System, $, available at BalmLabs
Pause Well-Aging Collagen Boosting Moisturizer
A decrease in collagen production, marked by a loss of “plumpness” and elasticity, is one of menopause’s telltale effects on skin. By reinforcing the skin’s natural ability to generate new cells and prevent moisture loss, the proprietary complex of vitamins, antioxidants, and peptides used throughout this line works to combat that shift. This aptly-named moisturizer also incorporates glycolic acid to encourage cell turnover for brighter, glowier skin.
Pause Well-Aging Collagen Boosting Moisturizer, $, available at Pause Well-Aging
Better Breakouts
For one reason or another, adult women are reporting more acne cases than ever — and the spot treatments that did the trick (and bleached our pillowcases) when we were 14 just don’t hit the same.
“There’s been an assumption that the available products on the market are effective,” Dr. Schaffran says. “Many of them are, but where innovation has been lacking is an understanding that for older women, issues like dryness, thinning of the skin, fine lines, and adult acne occur all at once. You can’t just tackle one in isolation.”
Dr. Zeichner explains that familiar ingredients like salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, and adapalene still have their place in the category. But Dr. Schaffran argues that, while the more superficial acne you get when you’re younger in the form of blackheads and pustules responds well to those actives, they’re usually too drying for adult women, and don’t penetrate deeply enough to get to the root of adult acne.
For those who can’t tolerate the over-the-counter standbys the way they did when they were 18, the new adult acne-fighting products are combining tried-and-true topical therapies with more modern formulas and ingredient innovations. They’re revolutionizing the way we treat our breakouts, and saving our pillowcases, too — nowadays, we spend good money on those.
Dr. Jart+ Teatreement Toner
This is not your local health-food store’s tea tree spot treatment; rather, it’s the perfect post-cleansing step for treating existing breakouts and preventing new ones from occurring, thanks to a calming complex of chamomile, green tea, and aloe leaf extracts that dilutes the tea tree enough that it won’t cause irritation but leaves its antibacterial properties intact.
Dr. Jart+ Teatreement Toner, $, available at Sephora
cocokind Turmeric Tonic
Speaking of spot treatments: This roll-on formula isn’t like any others you’ve ever tried. With ginger, tea tree, turmeric, and witch hazel, it’s impossibly gentle, completely invisible, and shockingly effective for hard-to-treat cysts that typically don’t respond to topical treatments. Use it once the initial inflammation has gone to quell dark spots, too.
cocokind Turmeric Tonic, $, available at cocokind
CeraVe Acne Foaming Cream Cleanser
Don’t rule out the old faithful benzoyl peroxide just yet — when paired with the right companion ingredients, like barrier-strengthening ceramides and hyaluronic acid, in a creamy, gentle sulfate-free cleansing formula, it can help treat breakouts without drying or compromising the skin’s natural barrier.
CeraVe Acne Foaming Cream Cleanser, $, available at Ulta Beauty
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