lundi 1 septembre 2025
Beauty's charm offensive
Trends Agency
If 2024 was our Brat summer, 2025 has undoubtedly been the summer of Labubu. In a flash, the furry, fiendish charm from Chinese toy manufacturer Pop Mart has gone from cult collectible to cultural craze, adorning the bags and TikTok feeds of everyone from Blackpink’s Lisa to Marc Jacobs and Madonna.
However, Labubu’s meteoric rise on the consumer radar is down to more than just celebrity endorsement - it represents the recognition of adult play as a key source of well-being in a high-stress world. In the US, it is adults who are driving growth in the toy category, with sales to this demographic up 18% YoY (Circana, August 2025).
While we first highlighted the charm trend last year in our What’s Up #21 report, love for accessorizing your accessories with cute collectibles continues to gain momentum as consumers look to inject their daily routines with a shot of personalized playfulness. The desire to decorate, customise and play isn’t just about aesthetics – it’s about identity. Research reveals that 67% of US adults believe self-expression is important (McKinsey, 2025), underscoring why customization is proving so powerful. And if recent beauty and lifestyle launches are anything to go by, we’ve still not reached peak charmcore, as brands lean further into the craze.
Recent launches highlight the expanding scope of this dynamic. 818 Spirits is bringing the charm economy into lifestyle with its Tequila Minis Charms, reframing bottles not as pure function but as collectible accessories, complete with a wink of playful luxury. Beauty too is doubling down: Odele Beauty tapped cult accessories designer Susan Alexandra for a beaded bag charm collab that pairs clean haircare with Y2K-coded whimsy. Hourglass Cosmetics has gone more elevated with its Charms Edition palette, fusing fine jewelry design with customizable makeup, empowering consumers to curate compacts as unique as their signature looks.
Mass brands aren’t missing a beat either. H&M Beauty’s July drop with Chupa Chups fuses foodcore with charmcore in a sweetly irreverent collection, while ColourPop’s PopSockets Grip reinvents multifunctionality with a 3-in-1 lip holder, grip and phone stand.
Retail spaces are amplifying the experience too, responding to consumers' desire for more interactive and playful shopping environments (Westfield Rise, 2024). In August, Space NK joined forces with Jellycat to celebrate the opening of its new Oxford Street flagship with a limited-edition Amuseables bag charm, while Crocs’s new Icon store in Soho, NYC, features a customization playground where shoppers can curate their own
Jibbitz™ charm collection, turning each purchase into a self-expression canvas.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Charm culture is thriving in a world shaped by stress and frugality; these micro-treats bring instant joy, while allowing consumers to engage in a small act of creative selfexpression. However, the next chapter for charms will head beyond cute: expect sustainability and multifunctionality to come to the fore, as brands meet the need for objects that are not only collectible but also purposeful and enduring.
Read more about the charm trend in our latest Beauty Foresight report, The New Unfolding - Makeup.
Join Cosmetic IC at MakeUp in New York (September 17-18,2025) at the agency’s booth A48 in The Forecasting and Innovation Corner.
Cosmetics Inspiration & Creation is an international trend forecasting and consulting agency founded in Paris in 2007. The agency is dedicated to driving beauty and wellness innovation, helping brands identify new pathways and realize long-term growth through strategic foresight and trend inspiration.
In a consultancy capacity, our global team of industry experts, cultural strategists, product developers, and beauty chemists works closely with brands to inspire new product directions and build innovative concepts. We have worked alongside the R&D departments of some of the world’s leading makeup and skincare brands, to elevate their scientific message and inspire future-proofed innovation.
2025 February, 12 & 13
LA Convention Center
