With the new year on the horizon comes a new glow up – as most would say. However, according to SKIN functional, one of the fastest growing skincare brands in South Africa, the art of caring for your skin lies in effective ingredients and reproducible results®. In forecasting for 2024, we can expect a different kind of beauty refresh. Staying true to its ethos of honourable skintelligence® this leading skincare company predicts active ingredients impacting the market, brands and consumers in a big way. 

Kevin Khosa, Skin Expert at SKIN functional explained that: “Stressed-out skincare consumers are prioritising joy and pleasure in their wellness routines and pushing back against strict regimes that don't factor in fun or take into account that real life sometimes gets messy. Fuelled by Gen Z's growing anti-wellness attitude, a new wave of skincare is emerging that promotes indulgence and rejects the notion of sacrifice. Think low-maintenance, easy and simple skincare routines with products that are multi-functional offering consumers more than one skincare benefit.”  

In 2023, we saw active ingredients taking precedence in skincare, with searches for serums in specific almost doubling worldwide. 

“Brands are continually striving to come up with the ingredient formulations skin care consumers want. Wrinkle reduction and anti-aging effects have always been a must-have, but other characteristics like natural and clean ingredients are now more in demand than in previous years,” added Khosa. 

Active Ingredient #1 

Niacinamide is an obvious fan favourite. VOGUE dubbed it as the ‘it’ ingredient of 2023 because it’s suitable for all ages and skin types. It’s simply a form of vitamin B3 that’s known to be healing and soothing. We can thank Instagram and Tik Tok for the popularity of this ingredient in recent months, even though it has been an integral part of skincare for decades. In the last two years, the use of niacinamide in the beauty industry has jumped more than 220%, which is only set to grow in 2024. 

Active Ingredient #2 

Alternative retinoids. With more than 7.2 billion views on TikTok, retinol is having a resurgence as a must-have skincare ingredient. Retinol is a powerful form of vitamin A that has anti-ageing properties. But the recent popularity of retinol comes with a twist. It’s alt-retinols (also called bio-retinols) that are really trending. These are more gentle formulas that are plant-based instead of being derived from vitamin A. Some traditional retinol formulations can be too harsh for sensitive skin types but alt-retinol is perfect for people with normal to sensitive skin. Alt-retinols provide similar results as retinol but without the irritation, redness, and dryness. Common forms are bakuchiol and azelaic acid.

Active ingredient #3 

Copper peptides. Search volume for “copper peptides” is up more than 600% since 2019. Due to these ingredients, the effective ability to tell the skin to produce more collagen and molecules that will help support the structure of the skin resulting in plumper, bouncier skin is the main reason why it’s a buzz word for 2024. Think ‘Botox in a bottle.’ 

Active ingredient #4 

Alpha hydroxy acids. (AHAs) are a group of plant and animal-derived acids used in a variety of skincare products. These include daily anti-ageing products, such as serums, toners, and creams, as well as occasional concentrated treatments via chemical peels. Glycolic and lactic acids are the most promising and well researched. These two AHAs are also less likely to cause irritation. AHAs exfoliate, brighten, promote collagen production, reduce surface lines and wrinkles, promote blood flow, decrease discolouration and increase absorption. No wonder this is a trending ingredient for 2024! 

Active ingredient #5 

Snail Mucin Boosts Hydration. Mostly used in Korean skincare, this ingredient is often referred to as “snail slime”. It is, in fact, the substance a snail leaves behind as it moves and its technical name is “snail secretion filtrate”. It naturally contains skin-benefiting ingredients like glycoproteins, hyaluronic acid, and glycolic acid. It’s packed with nutrients, consists of between 91 percent and 98 percent water, it has anti-ageing properties and can soothe irritated skin as well as treat multiple skin issues. Look out for this in your skincare! 

“As a consistently revolutionising brand that is leading in the market, we expect to see skincare in 2024 continue to change and improve with new ingredient innovations in the coming months. Many of these formulas are likely to be targeted at improving the performance of an ingredient in order to make it work for a broader range of beauty customers,” concluded Khosa.