BEAUTY

Classics reworked

Beauty’s biggest blockbusters are getting a 2026 upgrade – are you ready to embrace the change?

CASSIE STEER PHOTO: STOCKSY

N othing strikes fear into the heart of a self-respecting beauty devotee quite like the word “reformulated”. That might seem overdramatic, but there’s bona fide psychology at play – humans feel losses more strongly than equivalent gains, a phenomenon known as loss aversion. In other words, losing a beloved lipstick hurts more than the thrill of discovering a new one.

It hits harder in beauty because our products are woven into our daily routines. Reformulations can feel unsettling, even if the new version is objectively better, because of the loss of a familiar formula coupled with expectation violation (it has the same name but it’s not quite the same product).

So what happens when beauty’s most beloved superstars get a glow-up that nobody asked for? Spoiler: we think you’re going to like the results.

All change!

The Chinese Year of the Fire Horse has just begun and transformative energy is already galloping through the beauty world.