Liberating Rewards - Pleasure by Design

Trends Agency

Source: Deathtostock - Photo by Marlen Stahlhuth

Beauty is becoming a space of heightened sensory connection, where touch, scent, and transformation merge to create a lasting emotional imprint. Shaped by the wellness movement and K-beauty’s sensorial sophistication, beauty is transforming into an augmented experience, one that soothes, engages, and performs beyond the surface.

As lives become increasingly optimized, disciplined, and performance-driven, consumers actively seek moments of release: 73% of Americans say that small indulgences are important to their quality of life and 62% consider little treats crucial to self-care. (1)

In response, consumers are investing in “comfort capital” (2) - small, restorative pleasures that provide lasting emotional relief and psychological balance. Within this context, sensoriality emerges as a strategic booster of both wellbeing and perceived efficacy. Beauty’s multisensory assets - texture, scent, and flavor - move from embellishment to performance drivers, becoming central to how value is experienced and remembered.

Liberating Rewards is one of the five key themes in Cosmetics IC’s predictions for 2026 and beyond - The Age of Flow. It captures the rise of sensory-led efficiency: textures, scents, and playful formats act as delivery systems, intensifying desire, encouraging engagement, and making performance feel effortless. Pleasure does not slow things down, it fuels motion.

Designing desire through sensation.

Hyper-specific pleasure cues now trigger desire instantly. Food-coded colors, scents, and textures operate as visual and sensory shortcuts to reward, activating familiarity, appetite, and emotion at first glance.

The resurgence of banana as a sensory obsession illustrates this dynamic. Going viral with its Banana Yellow Lip Balm (June 2025 - U.S.), Prada translates the iconic motif of its Spring/Summer 2011 collection into a playful yet refined beauty object. From the vibrant yellow bullet to the banana-inspired scent and warm golden finish, the product transforms pleasure into a recognizable brand code, both nostalgic and contemporary.

Edible as sensory capital.

Pleasure increasingly draws from collective food culture, where familiar indulgences carry emotional weight and cultural resonance. Interest in comfort food is surging on TikTok (+257% views YoY in the U.S. and +159% YoY in France), (3) while in beauty, flavored lip balms have seen a +85% YoY increase in Google searches in the U.S. (3)

By transforming its iconic 49-cent croissant into a limited-edition fragrance, Eau de Croissant (December 2025 - U.S.), Lidl U.S. elevates everyday indulgence into an object of desire. The scent of freshly baked pastry transmits nostalgia, humor, and emotional connection, turning a mass-market symbol into a sensorial reward.

Beauty brands adopt similar strategies through collaborations with renowned French pastry chefs. Cédric Grolet (October 2025) translates Gisou’s Honey Infused Lip Oil shades into limitededition pastries, while Nina Métayer (September 2025) reinterprets Burberry Goddess’ vanilla trio as a perfectly balanced dessert. In each case, pleasure acts as a bridge between scent, taste, and emotion, establishing indulgence as a multisensory language rather than a simple aesthetic cue.

Engineering emotional uplift.

Reward is no longer framed as a guilty indulgence. It becomes functional, measurable, and aligned with wellbeing. Products increasingly promise not only sensory delight, but psychological uplift.

Fel Beauty’s Kissylips Cushy Shine Lip and Cheek Balm™ (December 2025 - U.S.) explicitly positions pleasure as emotional payoff. Powered by brand’s proprietary fel-good complex™, the product references support for endorphins and oxytocin alongside soothing and nourishing benefits. Texture, shine, and immediate payoff work together to make emotional gratification visible, tangible, and repeatable.

WHAT’S NEXT?

For brands, pleasure is no longer a decorative layer - it is a design strategy. To stay relevant in an era of continuous flow, sensorial reward must be engineered into everyday beauty systems. Engineered as micro-rewards, pleasure transforms everyday beauty into a continuous system of engagement, motivation, and effortless performance.

This is an extract from “The Age of Flow - Navigating Beauty in an Era of Continuous Transformation,” the agency’s latest predictions that will be presented at the Makeup in LosAngeles Event.

Join Cosmetic Inspiration & Creation for a deep dive into the latest worldwide innovations, with the Inspiration Bar at the agency’s booth K48, next to the Beauty Talks.

About Cosmetics Inspiration & Creation

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, and trend inspiration. The agency’s services span Foresight & Beauty Intelligence, Innovation & Product Development, and Content & Narrative Strategy, supporting prestige brands, indie disruptors, ingredient suppliers, and manufacturers in building future-proof beauty strategies.

Sources

(1) Circana - Little Treat Culture

(2) Comfort Capital - terminology used by Mintel

(3) Spate: U.S. Google Searches - Year-over-Year growth rate - from Jan 2025 to Dec 2025 vs. Jan

2024 to Dec 2024 / TikTok U.S. views - Year-over-Year growth rate - from Jan 26, 2025 to Jan 25,

2026 vs. Jan 28, 2024 to Jan 26, 2025