Just as with fashion, trends in the beauty industry alter each year. What was once the hottest craze in hairstyles ten years ago, may now just cause a giggle when looking at old photographs. During 2020, tutorials and beauty tips flooded Instagram and TikTok with a fresh batch of trends and styles. So, what are the UK’s most popular beauty trends?
To find out, The Body Shop analysed online search data across 64 countries to highlight the world’s biggest beauty trends today.
The top 10 UK’s biggest beauty trends based on monthly searches are:
| RANK | Trend | Average Monthly Search Volume | City Most Searched For In |
| 1 | short hair styles | 165000 | Newcastle |
| 2 | microblading | 60500 | Manchester |
| 3 | eyelash extensions | 60500 | Newcastle |
| 4 | lip filler | 33100 | Newcastle |
| 5 | bob haircut | 27100 | Newcastle |
| 6 | eyebrow tinting | 27100 | Newcastle |
| 7 | boycut hair style | 27100 | Manchester |
| 8 | botox | 27100 | Manchester |
| 9 | hd brows | 27100 | Newcastle |
| 10 | eyebrow microblading | 27100 | Newcastle |
Results show that the most popular trends in the UK are short haircuts, and perfectly-shaped eyebrows. While many years ago, small and thin, pencil-like eyebrows were popular, now full, thick and defined eyebrows are the go-to. In fact, “brow lamination” is the search term which saw the biggest increase in popularity in the last year, with an extra 1,495% searches since 2019, followed by “pastel eyeliner” with a rise of 735%.
Au Natural
Just like the impact of Covid-19 on our everyday lives, throwing us into a “new normal” of staying home and reducing our social contact to virtual means, it is evident from The Body Shop’s research that the global pandemic has also influenced our hair and beauty habits. In more ways than one, for many of us 2020 was the year of less is more and this rings true for our beauty routines throughout the year. “Natural makeup looks” received a whopping total of over 114,200 searches in the UK in 2020 – that’s a 56% increase from 2019 and 122% increase since 2016. Nottingham and Plymouth were the cities with the biggest demand for this trend, with a 73% increase between 2019 and 2020 respectively, followed by Brighton with a 71% increase.
Natural hair appears to be the biggest trend of the last year with seven of the top ten searches for natural beauty trends based around hair. Short hair seems to specifically be the talk of the town as this dominates the top ten; the top two searches, “short hair styles” and “bob haircut” were searched for the most in Newcastle, while Manchester searched for third-place “boycut hair style” the most.
Based on average monthly searches, the UK’s top 10 searches for natural beauty trends are as follows:
| Rank | Natural Beauty Trend | UK Average Monthly Search Volume | City Most Searched For In |
| 1 | short hair styles | 165000 | Newcastle |
| 2 | bob haircut | 27100 | Newcastle |
| 3 | boycut hair style | 27100 | Manchester |
| 4 | hairstyles for long hair | 22200 | Newcastle |
| 5 | short haircuts for men | 22200 | Manchester |
| 6 | short haircuts for women | 22200 | Brighton |
| 7 | eyebrow threading | 18100 | Manchester |
| 8 | long hairstyles for men | 14800 | Manchester |
| 9 | monobrows | 6600 | Manchester |
| 10 | boys long haircuts | 4400 | Plymouth |
Make-Up
Out of the top ten most searched for beauty trends around the world, “red lipstick” placed tenth and the UK is the country which had searched for this the most in 2020. Manchester is the city which searched for this the most, as well as “lip plumper gloss” and “winged eyeliner”. When looking at the top searches for make-up in the UK however, Newcastle is the city which searched for the top two make-up trends – “bronzer” and “how to contour” – the most. On the other hand, it appears Glaswegians are now opting for more natural habits with “natural makeup looks” being most popular in their city in 2020.
Based on average monthly searches, the UK’s top 10 searches for make-up trends are as follows:
| Rank | Search Term | UK Average Monthly Search Volume | City Most Searched For In |
| 1 | bronzer | 9900 | Newcastle |
| 2 | how to contour | 8100 | Newcastle |
| 3 | natural makeup looks | 6600 | Glasgow |
| 4 | lip plumper gloss | 5400 | Manchester |
| 5 | red lipstick | 5400 | Manchester |
| 6 | winged eyeliner | 4400 | Manchester |
| 7 | cream blusher | 3600 | Newcastle |
| 8 | makeup for men | 3600 | Brighton |
| 9 | pink lipstick | 1900 | Brighton |
| 10 | eye makeup natural | 1900 | Belfast |
Hair
Again, it’s Newcastle that dominates the top ten searches for hair trends with the city being home to the most searches for eight out of the top ten search terms, with Manchester taking the crown for the remaining two. Styling and colouring are the themes which populate the top ten searches for hair here in the UK, and when it comes to dyeing our locks, un-natural colours were the biggest trend for 2020. Pink, purple, red, and blue hair dye all place in the top, however it’s pink, green and blue hair dye that have seen the biggest increase in searches with all three seeing a rise in popularity of over 200% since 2019. Searches for “natural red hair colour” also saw a climb, with 202% more searches for this term compared to the previous year.
The top 10 searches for hairstyle trends in the UK, based on average monthly searches are:
| Rank | Search Term | UK Average Monthly Search Volume | City Most Searched For In |
| 1 | short hair styles | 165000 | Newcastle |
| 2 | bob haircut | 27100 | Newcastle |
| 3 | hairstyles for long hair | 22200 | Newcastle |
| 4 | pink hair dye | 12100 | Newcastle |
| 5 | hair dye purple | 9900 | Newcastle |
| 6 | red hair dye | 9900 | Newcastle |
| 7 | blue hair dye | 8100 | Newcastle |
| 8 | curly hair how to style | 4400 | Manchester |
| 9 | how to get wavy hair | 2900 | Newcastle |
| 10 | styling straight hair | 1900 | Manchester |
Men
Hair trends take the top three spots in the popular searches for beauty trends for men. It appears “short haircuts for men” takes the crown, followed by “long hairstyles for men” and “hair dye for men”. The top two are searched for the most in Manchester while third place resides in Newcastle. Looking elsewhere, “eyebrow slits men” is searched for the most in Plymouth and has seen the biggest increase in searches with a 212% rise between 2019 and 2020, and a whopping 15,456% increase since 2016. The trend of “long hairstyles for men” has seen the second highest increase with 154% more searches in 2020 than in 2019, followed by “skincare for men” with a 120% rise in popularity.
Global
The research was not just limited to the UK; to compare how beauty trends differ across the world, The Body Shop analysed and compared Google search data on beauty trends in 64 countries across all continents. Short hair appears to be a common trend across the globe as the style has taken the top three most popular searches for natural beauty trends. The most searched for beauty trend around the world is “short hair styles” with over 1.4 million Google searches a month. It is in fact the UK which searches for this term the most with an average of 165,000 searches each month. The trend “boycut hair style” ranks second in the list, and is most searched for in Guyana, while the third ranked trend of the “bob haircut” is most popular in Germany.
The top 10 most searched for natural beauty trends around the world are:
| Rank | Natural Beauty Trend | Country Most Searched For In |
| 1 | short hair styles | United Kingdom |
| 2 | boycut hair style | Guyana |
| 3 | bob haircut | Germany |
| 4 | eyebrow threading | United States |
| 5 | spray tans | United States |
| 6 | natural makeup | Paraguay |
| 7 | bronzer | Monaco |
| 8 | pink blush | Poland |
| 9 | how to contour | Italy |
| 10 | red lipstick | United Kingdom |
Top 3 Beauty Predictions for 2021
- Colourful liner and locks
- Snatched brows
- Au-natural beauty
The Body Shop predicts that 2021 will be the year of colour; with terms such as “neon eyeliner”, “pastel eyeliner” and colourful hair dye all seeing significant growth in searches in recent years.
The “neon eyeliner” trend continues to gain popularity with a 1,014% increase in searches since 2016. Between 2016 and 2020, “pastel eyeliner” has seen a significant growth of 896%, with searches seeing huge spikes over the last year alone.
Pink, green and blue hair dye have all increased more than 200% since 2019, so expect to see plenty of colourful locks in 2021 as we look ahead to more brighter days.
For eyebrows, it’s their time to shine in 2021. The biggest increase in searches in the last year has been for “brow lamination” with a growth of 1,495%. Similarly, the term “soap brows” has seen a rise of 381% and “eyebrow slits men” has been searched for 212% more than in 2019.
The research has also highlighted how the UK’s admiration continues to grow for natural beauty which terms such as “fake freckles makeup” seeing an increase of 180% in the last year. While some things may be uncertain over the next twelve months, one thing to be sure about is that 2021 is the year to embrace natural beauty.
To find out more about the UK’s top beauty trends, please visit The Body Shop’s research here.
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com
