Whether we’ve been working from home or not, our leisure time has become a great time to become creative and experimental with old hobbies or new inspirations. (Or you could just be ticking off your Netflix watch list. No judgement!)

An April article by ABC News Australia discovered that some people are using extra time at home— and no doubt, less time around other people who may like to have their two cents— to give themselves an appearance make-over.

While some declarations of cutting your own hair because your favourite salon is closed should be taken with a grain of salt, others could potentially be seen as an omen for change: “A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life”, as Coco Chanel said.

Staying at home may have its challenges but it’s created an opportunity for us to experiment with our appearances and adapt our ideas around societal beauty and pressures. And it turns out that supermarket and pharmacy beauty overtook luxury beauty during the peak of Lockdown 1.0 in March.

Beauty lovers are missing the time spent in luxe department stores or specialty beauty shops and salons. They’re heading to supermarkets and pharmacies which have not closed down throughout the restricted COVID-19 period.

We have seen an increase of online beauty purchases through some of our beauty clients, as the ease of shopping at a supermarket and pharmacy is changing habits of skincare and cosmetics consumers.

Images featuring hand creams performed much better than they perhaps ordinarily would have during non-COVID-19 hand sanitising frenzy, and purchases of at-home hair colouring kits went through the roof whilst salons were shut down.

In a recent Vogue Codes webinar, Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris provided some interesting facts and statistics around top selling items since March, saying that the COVID-19 affected period has caused order volumes relative to Christmas.

She explained that just like the community more generally, the company experienced the same Stage 1-3 transition internally: panic buying, increased self-care purchases, then the normalisation of purchases after the easing of lockdown.

The panic buying phase meant more orders for shampoo, conditioner, soap, and yes, you guessed it: hand sanitiser. “People wanted what they couldn’t live without,” Morris said.

As lockdown became the new norm, DIY beauty became the big money-driver, with products like face masks becoming popular for self-care at home. Nail polish purchases increased, as did candles — up a huge 180% on their site.

When restrictions were lifted, beauty orders normalised and cosmetics went up again as everyone started to go out and see friends and family again.

We’ll be interested to see how the reversion to Stage 2-3 lockdown in Victoria will continue to affect consumers’ beauty behaviour and whether trends will be similar, or more calm this time around!