Umm, 2024 was a weird one. It served up everything from a break-dancing Aussie to the ‘guy in finance' bop. As for 2024 beauty and wellness trends? The year undeniably crowned and reinforced some major trends (Espresso nail polish, eyeshadow and outfits, anyone?).
Unsurprisingly, TikTok helped to enshrine new favourites. The platform saw searches around magnesium rack up over a billion views. But celebrities like Sabrina Carpenter helped lead the way, too. She's been credited for helping bring back (at least in part) a renewed appreciation for bold, doll-like blush. Meanwhile the “brat” and “demure” movements, spearheaded by Charli XCX and Jools Lebron, respectively, helped divide the nation into two opposing aesthetics.
So, how on top of the 2024 beauty and wellness trends was your routine? Get ready to play beauty bingo below by ticking off the ones you tapped up. If you've scored six and up, you're totally on top of what's what.
Glazed blush
If you dusted off your blusher this year, you're not the only one. We saw Sabrina Carpenter's sheeny babydoll cheekbones inspire a surge in the product's popularity. Hailey Bieber added to the hype with the launch of her Rhode Pocket Blush shades. Boyfriend blush took off on TikTok, followed by Sunset Blush over summer, and Glazed Donut Blush is still doing numbers on social. Retailers have already felt the impact. Searches for “blush” on boots.com increased by 155% this year, whilst the total number of TikTok views for the hashtag #blush hit 8.6Bn. Meanwhile, at John Lewis, sales of blusher shot up by 23% between May and June 2024 when Sabrina Carpenter's song Espresso was number one in the charts.
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Brat vs demure
Unless you live under a rock, you'll know that summer 2024 was crowned “Brat” by Charli XCX. The launch of her Brat album gave way to a corresponding aesthetic defined by Charli herself as “quiet luxury” meets “trashy. Just a pack of cigs and a Bic lighter. A strappy white top with no bra. That's kind of all you need.” It lands somewhere between glam, grunge and grime, with messy hair, chipped nails and smudgy liner. In contrast, TikToker Jools Lebron helped blow-up the idea of looking and acting “very mindful, very demure”. It's tongue in cheek, but the idea is to look presentable and polished, kind of like a reincarnation of the clean-girl aesthetic. Although, TikTokers have run with it, making their own set of rules for what counts as mindful and demure (including bed rotting).
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Plus all the ways to introduce brat to your beauty routine.
The Kitty Cut
At the end of 2023, GLAMOUR coined the Kitty Cut as the chop that would rule 2024 hair trends and we were bang on. A sleeker take on shaggy hair, the layered lob blends delicately cascading layers with a sultry cropped length giving a polished, but also sexy and feline look. Since then, searches for the Kitty Cut have shot up by over 10,000% year on year, according to Google search data. It now rakes in over 49,5000 average monthly searches and it's showing no signs or slowing down, since the term was up 23% over the past three months. “Thanks to the subtlety of this cut, it works perfectly for almost all hair types. It’s particularly great for those who are growing out their curtain bangs,” notes Nicole Petty, hair expert for Milk & Blush.
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The Oura Ring
Tech and wellness have truly come together to meet us where we're at. And in 2024, one device in particular led the way. According to John Lewis sales data, one in two of all the rings sold at the retailer is now an Oura Ring, making it not just one of the biggest tech products of the year, but a major ‘jewellery’ brand. It's taken over from the Fitbit and the Apple Watch with its analysis of over 20 health metrics. Its position on your finger (and near a main artery that pumps blood from your heart) enables it to measure your sleep, stress levels, activity, heart rate and menstrual cycle with even more accuracy than other wearables. Plus its ease and comfort (it doesn't need to be removed for sleep, showering or going to the gym) has added to it appeal with everyone from Sofia Richie to Gwyneth Paltrow jumping on board.
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More magnesium
We've seen the rise in interest for magnesium ourselves on GLAMOUR. Our features on the mineral have become some of our top traffickers. It's exploded on TikTok, too, reaching over one billion views. So what gives? Alongside bolstering bone health and teeth, it's been doing the rounds on social media this year for its ability to soothe muscle cramps, boost energy levels and contribute to better sleep. Boots has seen the supplement fly off the shelves with the Boots Magnesium 375mg (£3.25) supplement, in particular, becoming a customer favourite. And the category, which also includes lotions and even spray formats has seen a 50% boost in popularity on the site, year on year.
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A transformative supplement.
Espresso everything
Even before Sabrina Carpenter's addictive song took off, shades of brown had begun to dominate fashion and beauty trends. Last year latte makeup popped off in a big way, in 2024 it got even richer with espresso tones featuring heavily in our OOTDs, manis and makeup looks, plus it offered up a softer alternative to black. Heading into next year, it looks like the parties still going since Pantone announced Mocha Mousse as the shade of 2025.
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Team gloss
Honestly, lip gloss kind of got left behind in the noughties alongside Lancôme's Juicy Tubes, but the lip product has been picking up a whole new-gen fan base over the past couple of years, so much so that it ruled 2024. Just two years ago lip glosses, balms and oils made up one-third of lip product sales at John Lewis. Now? Half of sales are from this category, Dior’s Addict Lip Glow Oil, in particular, driving the trend. According to John Lewis' annual trend report, “sales of lip glosses, balms and oils have shot up 34% vs last year, compared with lip sticks, which have increased but only by 2%.”
Lip products as lip care have really helped cement the trend, sheer formulas with a wash of tint and whole load of nourishers have given us the multi-taskers we want. And, once again, we can thank Hailey Bieber a little, with the hype. Her Rhode Peptide Lip Tints (and corresponding phone cases) have taken off.
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Dior Lip Glow has officially taken over the pout game!
Cherry cola
Alongside espresso, another shade has stolen our attention in 2024. Cherry cola has dominated hair colours and lip colours over the course of the year. We've seen everyone from Dua Lipa, to Katseye's Lara and Chappell Roan wear the colour through their strands, and it's become a headliner glossy lip shade with millions of views for ‘Cherry Cola lips’ on TikTok. It mimics fashion trends where burgundy and oxblood have become the ‘It girl’ colour to wear.
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Looking for a change? Look no further.
Bum bum is booming
If there were one beauty product to win MVP for 2024, we'd give it to Sol de Janeiro's Bum Bum Cream. It's been a top-player across our shopping pages and it's pretty much the scent of our generation. Every night out bathroom, or bottomless brunch is scented by Cheirosa '62, an addictive blend of vanilla and pistachio. You can wear it as a body mist, or up the wellness ante with the cream by massaging it into skin for unrivalled softness (you can even layer the two). According to John Lewis' annual trend report, "sales of body creams in total have jumped 25% over the last year, but Bum Bum has really stood out." Word from other retailers is that they've seen the same thing.
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And is smells incredible.
Bowing down to bows
If you were looking to update your hair or nails with an accessory in 2024, there was really only one stand-out hero that won the top spot. Hair bows have dominated hair trends over the course of the year, with everything from jumbo cool-girl bows, dainty coquette bows and grungy Victoriana bows in every shade and fabric getting air time. Likewise, it's made a dent in mani trends. In fact, Pinterest's autumn 2024 report found that searches for “bow nail designs” leapt up a whopper 2220% making it the most popular artwork, and that's after early success with the motif featuring in some of our favourite nail inspo throughout the entire year.
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And we have all the inpso ready for your next nail appointment.
So how many of the biggest 2024 beauty and wellness trends did you dial into…and are you set to go again in 2025?
For more from GLAMOUR's Senior Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
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