Skincare brands are entering the New Year with a clear playbook for earning trust and driving AOV: lab-coat language that signals efficacy, “retinol-without-the-downside” positioning, and routines packaged as bundles that feel effortless.
In this New Year edition: 3 trend patterns to borrow, 3 DTC ads worth studying, and 3 organic posts that sparked real engagement.
Research powered by Brand Radar. If you want the exact ads and landing pages behind each example, click into Brand Radar and track your category.
1. Lead with the Lab Coat
Brands are highlighting specific, scientific-sounding ingredients and tech-forward language to build credibility and signal product efficacy.
Biossance: “BIOHACK YOUR COLLAGEN“
OneSkin: “Reduces key biomarkers associated with aging and senescence”
OSEA: “How to bio-hack your skin →”
TULA: “Powered by prebiotics”
📌 Takeaway: Frame your hero ingredients with scientific language to build trust and justify premium pricing.
2. Positioning Against Popular Ingredients
Brands are framing their products as gentle but effective alternatives to established, potentially irritating ingredients like retinol.
OSEA: “Retinol Without Downtime”
“Powerful Anti-Aging Minus The Irritation”
“MYTH Retinols lead to skin irritation TRUTH Bio-retinol won't”
Herbivore Botanicals: “RETINOL-LIKE RESULTS, NATURALLY”
📌 Takeaway: Identify a common pain point with a competitor ingredient and position your product as the superior solution.
3. Sell the Routine, Not Just the Product
Brands are bundling products into 'rituals' or 'duos' to increase average order value and frame skincare as a multi-step routine.
Glossier: “Glossier you. DUO”
Nécessaire: “The Body Ritual”
OSEA: “Total Body Glow Trio”
Herbivore Botanicals: “ROSE. RINSE. REPEAT.”
📌 Takeaway: Group complementary products into a single offering to simplify the customer journey and increase basket size.
🔬 Ad Analysis: Top 3 DTC Ads by Hook & Landing Page
Here are the top-performing ads that crossed our desk, broken down by their hook and the landing page pattern that sealed the deal.
1. OSEA - “Erase your wrinkles without the irritation”
Winning Hook:
Pattern: A myth-busting ad that directly confronts a common fear about a powerful ingredient, sending users to a product page that reinforces the gentle-yet-effective solution.
In Action: The hook works by relieving a specific anxiety about a popular ingredient, making the powerful promise of 'erasing wrinkles' feel safe and achievable.
2. Curology - FREE* 1-MONTH TRIAL BOX
Winning Landing Page:
Pattern: An aggressive offer-led ad that sends users to a dedicated promotional page, keeping the path from click to conversion extremely short and focused.
In Action: Combines a low-friction 'free trial' offer with strong urgency to drive clicks directly to a matching landing page built to capture subscriptions.
3. Glossier - Iconic in every size.
Winning Landing Page:
Pattern: A minimalist, product-focused ad that sends users directly to a clean product detail page mirroring the exact bundle and value proposition shown in the creative.
In Action: Drives high-intent clicks by showcasing a specific product bundle with a clear price reduction, leading to a frictionless path-to-purchase on the corresponding product page.
💯 Top-Performing Organic Posts
1️⃣ Rhode Skin - ready for 2026? 👀
Engagement: 241K Likes, 1.6k Comments
Strategy: Builds brand mystique and drives engagement by using moody, lo-fi influencer imagery and an ambiguous caption to tease a future launch and spark community speculation.
2️⃣ Glossier - New year, same shower rituals: singing our hearts out, rinsing off bad days, starting good ones.
Engagement: 6.6K Likes, 46 Comments
Strategy: Use a highly curated, monochromatic visual aesthetic to embed the product within an aspirational narrative of daily self-care and ritual.
3️⃣ Ilia Beauty - For all the art collectors out there…
Engagement: 5k Likes, 1.6k Comments
Strategy: Builds pre-launch excitement for a new product through a conceptual artist collaboration that visually demonstrates its key benefit, driving engagement and audience growth with a high-value giveaway.
✔ Thanks for reading!
Are you interested in learning more about how Loup Marketing’s Brand Radar conducts marketing research, and help to optimize your marketing campaigns?
Try it out for yourself
Our AI radar reveals the winning strategies and costly mistakes from your competition's ad campaigns.
See Brand Radar In Action