What's Next for Multi-Use Makeup
Multi-use makeup has already changed a lot about how people shop and think about their routines. Here's where we think the category is actually headed from here.
More Categories Getting the Multi-Use Treatment
So far, multi-use has concentrated mostly on cheek, lip, and light eye color. We expect the approach to keep expanding into categories that haven't been as fully addressed yet — more sophisticated eye products, brow solutions, and complexion products that cover an even broader range of needs in a single item.
Better Performance, Not Just More Convenience
Early multi-use products sometimes made real trade-offs to achieve versatility. We expect continued formulation improvements to close that gap further, so multi-use products increasingly perform at, or above, the level of dedicated single-purpose products, rather than asking for any compromise at all.
More Retailers Organizing Around the Category Explicitly
As multi-use continues to grow, we expect more retailers to create dedicated sections or navigation specifically for this category, rather than scattering these products across traditional single-purpose categories, making them easier to find and compare directly.
Growing Expectations for Genuine Versatility
As consumers become more familiar with what a genuinely well-made multi-use product can do, we expect tolerance for weaker, relabeled "multi-use" products to decrease. The bar for what actually counts as multi-use is likely to keep rising as the category matures.
More Brands Building Their Entire Identity Around This Category
We expect to see more brands specifically built around multi-use as a core philosophy, rather than treating it as one feature within a broader single-purpose catalog, as more companies recognize the durable demand behind this shift.
Continued Movement Toward Outcome-Based Shopping
As we've discussed elsewhere, shopping behavior is shifting from category-by-category browsing toward outcome-based decisions. We expect multi-use products to benefit further from this shift, since they're inherently well-suited to an outcome-focused evaluation.
Why We Think This Trajectory Is Durable
None of these developments depend on a specific aesthetic moment — they're driven by genuine, ongoing consumer priorities around time, cost, and simplicity that aren't likely to reverse. That's part of why we think this trajectory, unlike a lot of beauty trends, has real staying power.
Multi-use makeup isn't done evolving — expect broader category coverage, better performance, more dedicated retail organization, and rising standards for what genuinely counts as multi-use. We think the category still has considerable room to grow, and we intend to be part of building where it goes next.
Which makeup categories are likely to see more multi-use options in the future?
Beyond the current focus on cheek, lip, and light eye color, expect expansion into more sophisticated eye products, brow solutions, and complexion products covering an even broader range of needs.
Will multi-use products eventually perform as well as dedicated single-purpose products?
We expect continued formulation improvements to close this gap further, with multi-use products increasingly performing at or above the level of dedicated single-purpose alternatives, rather than requiring any real trade-off.
Why do you think the multi-use trend will keep growing rather than fading?
Because it's driven by genuine, ongoing consumer priorities around time, cost, and simplicity, rather than a specific aesthetic moment, which gives it more durability than a typical beauty trend.