Hydrafacial’s 2024 Skintuition Report: What’s Next in Beauty and Skin Care

For years, Hydrafacial has been revolutionizing the skin-care industry. Known for providing users with an immediate glow, Hydrafacial’s innovative treatments—like the recently launched Hydralock HA Booster—also infuse the skin with complexion-improving boosters. These treatments are tailored to each patient’s needs and improve various skin conditions from acne to pore size and even the appearance of wrinkles. Hydrafacial’s contributions to the world of aesthetic skin care go further than just the treatment room, though. Enter Hydrafacial’s 2024 Skintuition Report.

This week, Hydrafacial’s 2024 Skintuition Report was released, which takes a look at the biggest trends expert dermatologists are seeing in their practices. The report also gives an insider look at what’s ahead in the world of aesthetic dermatology. Ahead are some of the key takeaways from the informative report.

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Hydrafacial’s 2024 Skintuition Report: What You Should Know

‘Skintellectual’ Consumers

In the past few years, the skin-care industry has evolved. But, as Hydrafacial’s 2024 data shows, certain trends are here to stay. Experts, like New York’s renowned dermatologist Dendy Engleman, MD, are pleased with how things are going. The first of Hydrafacial’s 2025 trend predictions is what the brand describes as the “skintellectual consumer.” “Consumers are more savvy than ever about skin-care ingredients and medical aesthetics,” explained Beauty Health CEO Marla Beck at the morning launch event for the 2024 data. “They’re on TikTok watching doctors, they’re looking at everything they’re saying and obsessing over it, so this rise of this intellectual consumer is only increasing.” This increase is also impacting the crossover between beauty and medical aesthetics, Hydrafacial’s report finds. The brand notes that, nowadays, 61 percent of consumers consider regular in-office facial treatments as a part of their ongoing beauty routine.

While being more educated on skin care as a whole is a positive, Dr. Engleman notes some downsides to the constant influx of information at our fingertips. “For me, it’s a double-edged sword because there is so much information out there and a lot of it is good, but a lot of it is false. Something only has to be in the top five hits in Google two or three times before it becomes indoctrinated in the layperson’s mind and it could be completely false. Some people do come [into my office] asking ‘What do you think about this trend I saw on TikTok’ or ‘Is this real?’ And I love that I’m their fact checker. The problem with me being their fact checker, though, is that I can only see so many patients in a day. With there being so much information, often the teenagers or the younger patients think they’re an expert when, in fact, they’re not and sometimes they don’t know when to ask.”

The Rise of Utility Routines

Another key finding in the report highlights the rise of what the company calls a “utility” centric routine. This includes the decrease in the once-popular, 12-step, maximalist skin-care routine. According to Dr. Engleman, it’s a welcome change. “We’ve had the pendulum swing away from the 12-step beauty routine,” she says. “I’ve seen more and more patients becoming more interested and willing to invest in a few products that work instead of everything under the sun. You look at the graveyard products in your medicine cabinet that you hoped would work or you bought on a whim because it was on sale or your TikTok favorite told you it was great, and you don’t have long before you’re like, ‘I don’t like it.’”

Not only does Dr. Engleman see patients trending away from buying products haphazardly, but she also sees a trend in returning to clinically effective, tailored regimens. Namely in the way of in-office treatments like Hydrafacial, which provides instant glow, immediate gratification and long-lasting results. “Patients now are searching for that duality of clinical efficacy and quick results, which is tough. But, I think that it’s great that we do have this swing back to focussing on what’s effective, especially in the name of bespoke treatments tailored to your needs instead of just going through a blind, 50-step process that takes a lot of time and money.”

Prioritizing Skin Confidence Through Personalized Treatments

Acne in adolescents and adults has been one of the most prominent skin-care concerns for decades. However, recent data has found that the condition is only becoming more troublesome, prompting changes for in-office treatments. “The numbers from the American Academy of Dermatology for acne are skyrocketing,” says Dr. Engleman. “Today, 50 percent of women aged 20 to 29 are still suffering with acne and 25 percent of women age 40 to 49 are too.” As a result, more and more consumers are looking for tailored ways to treat their acne once and for all, not in the way of the antibiotics and topicals we grew up with.

“Historically, when you had acne and you went to see your dermatologist, you often got oral antibiotics,” Dr. Engleman says. “That was the standard of care as well as a topical regimen. Although dermatologists comprise about 5 percent of the doctors in the U.S., we were once responsible for over 10 percent of all prescriptions for antibiotics written, and that is not good medicine. We’ve now changed our ways because we know about things like the gut microbiome and antimicrobial resistance and how that they are not only unhelpful, but potentially harmful down the road. Now, we are looking for nonsystemic-based treatments for adolescents and adults.”

What is at the core of this drive for new, nonsystemic treatments? Confidence. According to Hydrafacial’s report, 77 percent of medspa goers get facial treatments to make their skin look and feel healthy. 74 percent say getting a facial boosts their confidence. And these facials are not run-of-the-mill either. Nowadays, practitioners are focussing more than ever on combining treatments like Hydrafacial with more invasive procedures like lasers for even more elevated, tailored results that boost skin health and bolster confidence, too.