Beauty & Wellness in 2021
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Our beauty and wellness macrotrend for 2021, Synchronised Care, examines how people are adjusting to life in and out of lockdowns. Many are committed to staying in control of their physical, mental and emotional health, driving a new definition of self-care – one that considers health on both an individual and a collective scale.

‘We’ve done ourselves a disservice by thinking wellness only has to do with fitness and nutrition when we actually need to evolve to take a more proactive stance in the areas that truly impact our overall health, mental state, environment and culture in general,’ says Joe Holder, Nike master trainer and founder of The Ocho System.

But it doesn’t stop there. Future standards for wellbeing will also redefine self-care as an environmental practice as much as a personal one. This all-encompassing mindset is establishing holistic frameworks for living that combine and connect previously distinct pillars of health, resulting in new terms and concepts that reflect these crossovers.

In the years ahead, the beauty and wellness sectors will need to think more holistically about consumers and their more expansive needs, ranging from those that affect the individual to those that affect the world.

With many office-based employees now operating in a hybrid model of working, a campaign from computer hardware brand HP highlights the holistic benefits of work-from-anywhere lifestyles to market its devices. In a humorous film, Work Anywhere, an office worker's HP laptop transports him to far-flung locations around the world.

The ad shows the worker in a hair salon, in the back of a farmer’s truck and on the top of a mountain, and posits HP laptops as ideal hardware for a free-spirited approach to work that in turn fosters a sense of control and wellbeing among workers. It was created by advertising agency AKQA Berlin, and follows the brand’s 2020 campaign, Work Better.

By aligning itself with the conversation about remote working and positioning technology as a tool for freedom, HP sets an example for other technology brands on how to support the growing number of Wandering Workers, many of whom are seeking greater work/life balance.

Spotlighted in our daily news, Post Service's wellbeing space is dedicated to helping people manage feelings of bereavement and loss, with the intention that its interior design can support mental and emotional responses.

The carefully calibrated clinic, designed by Danish studio Tableau, uses furniture, lighting and colour theory to help foster a sense of community and to boost psychological health. Every feature inside Post Service acts in harmony to support the healing process, with technology playing an important role. The organisation offers talk sessions, for example, held in private infrared saunas designed to help people confront difficult subjects through sensory stimulation. ‘I really believe that design can take a big part in helping a person become better,’ explains Julius Værnes Iversen, founder of Tableau.

By engaging the body and mind in the healing process, Post Service acknowledges that mental health is interconnected with all aspects of our lives, including the physical built environment, textiles and temperatures we experience.

Now that you know what shaped 2021, discover what’s on the horizon. Download our Future Forecast 2022 report comprising 50 new trends across 10 key consumer sectors, insights from our analysts and interviews with global innovators.