Capital-eyes 👁
With mask wearing a part of our daily lives, it’s no wonder there is so much more talk surrounding expressivity through the eyes. In fact, recent articles I’ve come across have described how to smile with your eyes, while celebrities and influencers have upped their eye game on their platforms.
Obviously, the makeup industry has had to make a lot of adjustments due to the virus, so now it’s all about the eyes. Not that eye products weren’t widely popular before, but due to the pandemic, it’s really all that companies can successfully target.
Once masks became widespread, consumers focused more on eye products while the opposite is true for lip products (Eye makeup sales are up 204% since June 28th.) In order to enhance your appearance or brighten up your look when wearing a mask, eye makeup seems your best bet. So, it only makes sense that companies are highly advertising and promoting their eye specific products.
Many people use makeup as an expression of their identity and prominent eye-makeup looks in the midst of the pandemic prove it. Not only are makeup companies profiting off of these times and coming up with new PR strategies, but makeup youtubers/influencers are creating videos catered towards these same mask looks and ways to enhance your appearance while wearing one.
Also, in addition to eye products, companies such as Maybelline and Revoln Inc are marketing products on social media that suit virtual meetings/get-togethers including an emphasis on skin care products and at home hair-coloring kits. It’ll be interesting to see if this current trend has a lasting impact on the future of the makeup industry post pandemic.
As said in Groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, social media has largely transformed how businesses are run, and how they advertise or market their products is entirely dependent upon what the groundswell deems sellable and worthy. With mask wearing now a must during the pandemic, expressivity through eyes is where’s it’s at for makeup conscious people. Like makeup companies now, brands are likely to succeed if they follow and capitalize off trends that develop during the pandemic.
Hey Deirdre! I'm so glad you wrote your post about this topic because I was truly just talking to my roommates about this. I think an important thing to touch on when talking about this is the communications of it all--with a mask on, we lose almost all of our nonverbal communication cues that alert each other as to what we're feeling and how we're communicating. Our eye makeup is one of the only ways that we can express ourselves physically right now, and that's pretty crazy! I agree that companies should continue to follow trends that develop due to the pandemic because that's going to be one of the only ways to succeed as a business right now.
ReplyDeleteHi Deridre!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting topic, and I have been thinking about how the beauty world is changing so much due to these masks! Whenever I put lipstick on now, I always realize that there is no point is doing that as no one will be seeing my lips. On top of curating makeup to the pandemic, I also think it is crazy how so many businesses are profiting off of making masks. I always think about if someone from last year during this time were to shop online and see the products being sold, it would seem absolutely crazy. I was shopping the other day and I saw a shirt being sold with a matching mask. It is crazy to me how quickly companies and businesses jump onto any trend happening and adapt to the world that we are living in. It truly is amazing how the marketing world works, and I think times such as these make that even more evident.
Love reading your post Deirdre! You chose a very unexpected perspective to discuss the impact of the pandemic. I'm amazed at how fast the whole industry could react, especially as you mentioned, Maybelline and Revlon even switched focus at-home self-care products. Also, the question you raised is also fun to observe, how will the makeup industry look like after the pandemic?
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