Top 20 Skincare Products Trends in 2023
If 2022 was the year skincare got scientific, 2023 was the year it got viral. TikTok’s “SkinTok” corner turned niche dermatology terms into household vocabulary almost overnight, while K-beauty innovation kept pushing new ingredients and formats into the mainstream. Below, the 20 biggest skincare trends of the year, and the actual products fueling each one.
1. Skin Cycling
Key products: The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant, CeraVe Moisturizing Cream
Popularized by dermatologist Dr. Whitney Bowe, skin cycling structures your active ingredients into a four-night rotation exfoliation night, retinoid night, then two recovery nights focused on hydration and barrier repair. The trend caught fire specifically because it gave people permission to use fewer products more strategically, rather than layering every active every night.
2. Skin Flooding
Key products: hydrating serums layered under a rich moisturizer e.g., Laneige Water Bank Hyaluronic Serum, followed by Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Cream
A rebrand of an old layering technique, skin flooding involves applying hydrating products from thinnest to thickest onto damp skin, then sealing everything in with a heavier cream. The goal is maximum moisture retention in one sitting, and it became one of the most searched skincare terms of the year.
3. Slugging
Key products: Vaseline Original Petroleum Jelly, Aquaphor Healing Ointment, COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All in One Cream
Slugging, applying a thick, occlusive layer over your nighttime routine to lock in moisture had already been building for a year, but 2023 is when it went fully mainstream, with Vaseline mentions on social media reportedly up hundreds of percent year over year. The K-beauty-rooted technique proved especially popular for dry, dehydrated, or over-exfoliated skin, with snail mucin creams offering a slightly more sophisticated and less greasy alternative to plain petroleum jelly.
4. Snail Mucin Everything
Key products: COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence, Beauty of Joseon Revive Serum
Snail mucin’s moment fully arrived in 2023, with COSRX’s mucin essence becoming one of the most talked-about K-beauty exports of the year. Prized for its ability to hydrate, repair, and soothe simultaneously, it became a gateway ingredient for many people’s first real dive into Korean skincare.
5. Skinimalism
Key products: multi-tasking hybrids like Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops
A reaction to the ten-step-routine era, skinimalism champions fewer, more effective products over elaborate stacks of serums. Multi-functional formulas that combine hydration, brightening, and barrier support in one step became the trend’s signature format.
6. Barrier Repair Obsession
Key products: Krave Beauty Great Barrier Relief, La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5
As over-exfoliation fatigue set in from previous years’ acid-heavy routines, 2023 pivoted hard toward barrier repair. Ceramide- and centella-based balms became routine staples for calming reactive, compromised skin rather than continuing to treat it aggressively.
7. Glass Skin, Sustained
Key products: Then I Met You Living Cleansing Balm, I’m From Rice Toner
The glass skin aesthetic dewy, poreless, luminous complexion remained a dominant goal throughout the year, with double cleansing and hydration-focused toners like rice water formulas continuing to anchor the routines built around achieving it.
8. Fermented Skincare
Key products: SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, Then I Met You Soybean Essence
Fermented ingredients long a staple of Korean and Japanese skincare saw renewed Western interest in 2023, credited with enhanced absorption and added antioxidant benefits compared to their non-fermented counterparts.
9. Centella (Cica) Everything
Key products: Dr. Jart+ Cicapair Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment, Purito Centella Green Level Unscented Serum
Centella asiatica, often labeled “cica,” continued its reign as one of the decade’s defining calming ingredients, showing up in everything from serums to color-correcting creams for redness-prone and sensitive skin.
10. Peptide-Infused Everything
Key products: The Ordinary Buffet + Copper Peptides 1%, peptide-infused moisturizers from brands like Medik8
Peptides moved from prestige anti-aging lines into mainstream, accessible skincare in 2023, prized for signaling to skin to produce more collagen without the potential irritation of stronger actives like retinoids.
11. Tranexamic Acid for Brightening
Key products: serums and spot treatments formulated with tranexamic acid alongside niacinamide
Originally a medical ingredient used for its brightening and anti-pigmentation properties, tranexamic acid crossed over into mainstream skincare in 2023 as a gentler alternative to hydroquinone for addressing dark spots and post-acne marks.
12. Azelaic Acid’s Breakout Year
Key products: The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%, Paula’s Choice 10% Azelaic Acid Booster
Long recommended by dermatologists but underused by consumers, azelaic acid had a real breakout moment in 2023 for its ability to treat both breakouts and redness without the sensitivity spike associated with stronger acids.
13. Sunscreen Innovation (No White Cast)
Key products: Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotic SPF50, Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen
As SPF awareness grew, so did demand for formulas that didn’t leave a white cast or greasy finish. Beauty of Joseon’s rice-based sunscreen became a viral favorite specifically because it delivered a weightless, cosmetically elegant finish that made daily reapplication feel less like a chore.
14. Microbiome-Friendly Skincare
Key products: Gallinée Face Cream, prebiotic and probiotic-infused cleansers
Formulas designed to support rather than disrupt the skin’s microbiome gained real traction in 2023, part of the broader shift toward gentler, barrier-first skincare after years of aggressive exfoliation trends.
15. LED Face Masks at Home
Key products: CurrentBody Skin LED Light Therapy Mask, Dr. Dennis Gross SpectraLite FaceWare Pro
At-home LED devices moved from luxury novelty to genuine skincare staple in 2023, with red and blue light masks marketed for everything from collagen stimulation to acne management becoming a common gift-guide fixture.
16. Rice Water and Rice-Based Formulas
Key products: I’m From Rice Toner, Beauty of Joseon Rice + Probiotics products
Rice-based skincare, rooted in traditional Korean and Japanese beauty rituals, resurfaced as a major ingredient trend in 2023, credited with brightening and softening effects backed by generations of anecdotal use.
17. “Skin Streaming”
Key products: any full routine documented and shared step-by-step on social platforms
A social-media-driven trend rather than a specific ingredient, skin streaming saw people documenting their entire skincare routines in real time on platforms like TikTok Live, turning nightly routines into a form of low-key content and driving discovery of new products through communal, real-time recommendation.
18. PHA Exfoliants for Sensitive Skin
Key products: The Ordinary Mandelic Acid 10% + HA, COSRX Mild Away BHA Blackhead Liquid
Gentler than AHAs and BHAs, PHA (polyhydroxy acid) exfoliants gained popularity in 2023 among people who wanted exfoliation benefits without the irritation that had become associated with more aggressive acid routines earlier in the decade.
19. Bakuchiol as a Retinol Alternative
Key products: Herbivore Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Serum, Biossance Squalane + Phyto-Retinol Serum
Bakuchiol continued gaining ground as a plant-derived retinol alternative in 2023, appealing to pregnant users, sensitive skin types, and anyone wanting retinol-like benefits without the associated dryness and photosensitivity.
20. Personalized and AI-Matched Skincare
Key products: Function of Beauty Skincare, Curology’s custom formulations
Personalization continued expanding in 2023, with more brands offering quiz-based or dermatologist-reviewed custom formulations tailored to individual skin concerns rather than one-size-fits-all products part of a broader industry shift toward treating skincare as a personal, data-informed routine rather than a generic purchase.
The Takeaway
2023’s skincare trends had a clear throughline: after years of aggressive, acid-heavy routines, the pendulum swung firmly back toward barrier repair, hydration, and doing less but doing it smarter. Whether it was skin cycling’s structured approach to actives or slugging’s simple overnight seal, the biggest wins of the year came from techniques that worked with skin rather than against it.
