Boots reveals top trends and beauty bestsellers of 2023

Boots has revealed its bestselling beauty products of 2023, with smart skincare and advanced hair health among the top trends of the year.

Skincare

The most searched for skincare ingredient on boots.com last year was retinol, followed by hyaluronic acid and collagen.

Searches for ‘peptide serum’ also increased over 55%, following the launch of No7’s Future Renew range in April 2023.

It became the fastest selling No7 product launch ever, with one product from the collection selling every two seconds on launch day and over half a million transactions in the first four weeks.

No7’s Future Renew Serum emerged as 2023’s bestselling overall skincare product at Boots, followed by its Future Renew Day Cream SPF40 and Future Renew Night Cream.

Another bestseller was La Roche-Posay's Anthelios UVMUNE 400 Invisible Fluid SPF50 50ML. With over three billion views of #SPF on TikTok in the last 12 months, facial sun protection remained an important skincare step for Boots customers.

Affordable skin-restoring brands including CeraVe and BYOMA also increased in popularity during the year – with searches for ‘BYOMA’ increasing by over 800% online at Boots.

It expects this trend to continue in 2024, with a focus on finding dermatologist-approved solutions for conditions and concerns.

Makeup

During the year, ‘mascara’ was the top makeup search term on boots.com, followed by ‘concealer’ and ‘foundation’ – with searches for the latter almost doubled year-on-year.

Maybelline’s viral Lash Sensational Sky High Mascara was the bestselling self-selection makeup product at Boots (by volume) for the second year running, whilst Elf’s Halo Glow Liquid Filter was the most-searched-for cosmetic on boots.com.

With pink emerging as the colour of year, ultra-feminine and girly makeup looks also had a strong influence in 2023.

Searches for ‘blush’ lifted, with Benefit’s Benetint Rose-Tinted Lip and Cheek Stain amongst the bestselling premium cosmetics products at Boots, with sales up 64% (by volume).

Haircare

35% of customers purchased a haircare product from Boots last year. This came amid a surge in customer demand for salon-grade haircare, which saw the retailer introduce twelve new premium and professional hair brands in 2023.

OUAI, Kerastase and Redken proved the most popular with customers. Meanwhile, Philip Kingsley and ARKIVE also achieved sales growth at online and in-store at Boots.

Skincare continued to influence the category, with sales of The Ordinary haircare up 69% and Vichy Dercos up 58%.

A rise in prominence of scalp health saw searches for ‘scalp care’ also increased 85% year-on-year, with ‘scalp serum’ being one of the most in demand products – showing an increase in searches of 57% since the previous year.

Grace Vernon, Head of Global Trends & Cultural Insights at Boots & No7 Beauty Company, said: "From revolutionary skincare science to hyper-feminine cosmetics and elevated haircare regimes, 2023 was the year we all stepped up our beauty game.

"The healthy skin category has continued to boom, cosmetics have made a comeback, No7 launched a groundbreaking skincare innovation and Boots ended the year by opening a brand-new beauty concept store at Battersea Power Station. 

"We don’t see any signs of beauty slowing down and many of the trends we saw in 2023 will continue to evolve in 2024.

"We will see skincare ingredients like peptides and ceramides continue to dominate, and skin protection will advance into skin longevity and damage reversal. Consumers will continue to strive for healthy skin – and this mentality will influence the rest of their beauty regimes, from haircare through to cosmetics."