Winning in Gen Alpha's ‘VirtuReal' World and Making Beauty More Science-driven: Key FIT Capstone Takeaways
'You're lowkey missing the vibe,' said a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology's Masters in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management program on Thursday evening, kicking off the program's 2025 capstone presentations.
She was alluding to the influx of Gen Alpha consumers — and their slang — into the beauty industry and delivering the first of the night's three graduate research presentations, focused on the Gen Alpha beauty opportunity; innovating smartly with AI, and the 'medicalization' of beauty.
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The night began at the school's Haft Theater with an acknowledgment of Leonard A. Lauder, who passed away earlier this month at age 92 and was, as professor and chairperson of the program Stephen Kanlian put it, 'an icon of the industry and the brainchild of the [CFMM] program.'
FIT president Dr. Joyce F. Brown, who has stepped down from the role at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year after a nearly 26-year run, also delivered opening remarks.
Gen Alpha, the oldest of whom are now 15 years old and are otherwise referred to as 'Sephora kids,' represent the 'longest customer relationship opportunity in beauty history,' graduates said. The cohort spent $8 billion on beauty in 2023, a number that grew to $14 billion in 2024. They are making their first beauty purchase as young as 6 years old, are expected to live well into their 80s, and are thus poised to be 'the most valuable generation in beauty,' one graduate said.
'Gen Alpha isn't defined by conventional life stages; they're defined by behaviors, values and experiences that are continuously evolving,' said one graduate. 'In the 'virtureal' world, Gen Alpha's flagship beauty destination is their phone; their beauty counter, a TikTok feed; their sampling bar, an AR filter — they're not just hanging out online, they're living there,' added another.
The group, or Generation 'Next,' as graduated dubbed the presenters, have skin concerns that shift roughly every 18 to 24 months, from hydration to acne and beyond. Their favorite brand, too, changes roughly every 120 days. 'This demands faster, more agile product development,' one graduate said.
While AI is currently used to make product recommendations based on an individual's concerns, graduates imagine that, in the future, it can be used to create 'base formulas with adaptable ingredients that respond in real time to the environment, stress and skin changes.'
The kinds of predictive data harnessed by tech giants like Netflix and Amazon to create hyper-personalized user experiences must be adopted by beauty players who want to win, too. At the same time, it's crucial to navigate the world of generative AI with intention given that large language models can internalize biases in the data they are trained with. Companies must familiarize themselves with the risks of AI before diving in to avoid 'building on shaky ground,' one graduate said.
Consumers are quickly embracing AI — 68 percent said they trust AI-generated product recommendations over traditional marketing claims — and brands, too, must not only keep up, but stay ahead. Food and beverage companies like Oreo-maker Mondelez International are already using AI to 'forecast demand, speed up development times, conduct sharper clinical trials and smarter scenario planning,' offering a model for beauty companies looking to do the same.
As GLP-1s like Ozempic increasingly impact the beauty and wellness industries and the longevity movement gains steam, the future of beauty will be 'medical,' graduates said. This means 'consumers are turning to integrated medicine to solve beauty concerns,' while the prevailing formulation theme shifts 'from clean to clinical to medical.'
According to graduates' research, 60 percent of consumers agree that it is 'very important' to purchase longevity products, while 70 percent plan to buy more in the future. Seventy-nine percent of plastic surgeons, meanwhile, say that 'looking better in selfies and on video calls' is a major reason why consumers are seeking cosmetic procedures. In the last four years alone, aesthetic procedures have surged 40 percent.
The graduates define medicalized beauty as the convergence of aesthetics with medicine, where 'beauty concerns are reframed as biological,' rather than being 'skin-deep.' To resonate with consumers moving forward, brands should lean into science-based formulas, 'clinical visual cues' in packaging and e-commerce, increasingly collaborate with dermatologists and aestheticians and ramp up investments in product research and development. 'Imagine what could happen if beauty spent less money on selling, and more on solving,' one graduate said.
'In the future, beauty consumers will live in an optimization culture where wellness isn't a trend, it's infrastructure,' said another.
The next generation coming to shake up the beauty industry includes: Chloe Lo; Hallie Gersten; Al Mezo; Angela Toscano; Rahul Sabhnani; Marisa Mazzoni; Sophia Mohamed; Caroline Bartholomew; Ali Valentin; Joshue Joseveski; Alejandra Espinosa; Haley Spechler; Rachael Larsen; Kathryn Wanner; Alexandra Voigt; Carolyn Kosturik; Brianna Bookhart; Marisa Hann; Rina Yashayeva; Julia Buonanno; Bari Blitzer; Brittany O'Leary; Delilah Owens-Schwartz; Vince Stavale and Miranda Huang.
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