Beauty is losing its self-expressive spark, said The Future Laboratory cofounder Christopher Sanderson at the 2025 Beauty Inc Catalysts conference.

It’s a phenomenon he attributes, at least in part, to the rise of “the algorithm,” with programmed content patterns on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram increasingly delivering uniform ideals of beauty and wellness to users.

“Beauty has always mirrored the times; it reveals our social values,” said Sanderson. “Yet despite unprecedented levels of diversity that we now see in our culture, beauty has never looked more alike. From Hollywood glamour to Instagram’s poreless perfection, beauty’s evolution has traded aspiration for imitation.”

The industry has fostered an increasingly pervasive aesthetic sameness (think: “clean g

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