The Global Shift Towards DIY Beauty Remedies

On a Sunday evening, kitchen counters around the world are covered in mixing bowls, honey jars and half-used tubs of coconut oil. Instead of booking a £90 facial, people are whipping up turmeric masks from TikTok tutorials.

In the middle of a global cost-of-living crisis, beauty has moved from the salon chair to the kitchen sink. Since thepandemic, the prices of everything have skyrocketed, people’s lives rotate between work, home and commitments, which leaves almost no time for the luxury of spas and beauty treatments. And the price of a pedicure being the same as a week’s groceries, beauty has become political and incredibly self-reliant.

Sadly, beauty is slowly becoming a luxury, with salon prices rising, stylists becoming more restrictive with their clientele, and even booking of appointments during ‘off-peak’ times becoming too inconvenient for the mum of 3. These rising prices have forced women, men and the public to become more

creative with their resources, branch into different avenues with their social media, and

follow the trail of trends till they find what works for them.

YouTube tutorials have been around for decades, but the popularity of TikTok tutorials and Instagram reels has increased rapidly, from young girls to someone’s grandma experimenting with organic skincare, banana peel masks, anti-ageing creams and matcha skin care. TikTok tutorials have been the territory where people are uncovering the secrets of celebrities, methods from ancestral ages that are even more effective than store-bought cosmetics and ways to save products while making the best out of your drug store makeup.

When the world shut down in 2020, TikTok exploded. According to Sensor Tower, TikTok downloads surged by over 180% in early 2020 and now has over 2 billion downloads. At the same time, Google searches for “DIY Skincare” and “how to cut your own hair” spiked dramatically. Isolated and anxious, Gen Z turned to beauty for play.

Whilst some love the thick and luscious arches, many found the classic ‘90s thin brows worked best for them, pastel eyeshadows added a playful vibe to their eye makeup, and white eyeliner to brighten up

the waterline and make their eyes appear bigger, are just some of the makeup trends that were revived during the pandemic. Bedrooms turned studios, and beauty became performance art. It was control in a time of uncertainty. And now this experimentation has matured into something more pragmatic. In 2026, the DIY rebrand isn’t just aesthetic but economical.

Clean living has become more encouraged over the years, and this trend has translated from the food we eat to the products we put on our skin. There has been a distrust in the chemicals used in some makeup and skincare products; many have learnt that less is

more. Honey has been known to be an excellent, gentle cleanser and has antibacterial properties; oats are used as a gentle exfoliant, and even green tea as a toner. The rise of wellness culture has encouraged others to take back control and be experimental.

People have saved money and opted out of the rhetoric that maintaining beauty is costly. Instead of buying £50 for eyelash growth serums, it’s been encouraged to use castor oil; a £30 salon hair treatment can be replaced with an apple cider vinegar hair mask. This encouragement of natural ingredients has built consistency for many, realising that an effective skin care routine at home doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, and knowing this has probably unintentionally improved the skin of many.

DIY beauty has evolved into more than routine maintenance. Creativity gives structure when everything feels unstable. Finding a way to stand out and express yourself truly and freely within your budget has been the gateway many need in these uncertain times. DIY beauty has steps, it’s immediate, and most importantly, personal. Blending eyeshadow or perfecting your nail designs offers

something rare: a beginning, middle and end.

With a process you could control and a result you could see, this encourages more expression and experimentation. Young people have continued to use beauty to explore gender expression and challenge the

beauty norms, at home beauty remedies give you the freedom to wipe it off and try again. In such a generation fluent in fluid identity, makeup has become the testing ground for selfhood. Social media makeup influencers such as Golloria George and makeupbychelsea have encouraged their audience to be ‘free’ and embrace and enhance their natural features with all types of cosmetic products. And erasing the idea of being polished, trial and error tutorials, bleached bangs and layering are just proof of

participation in finding your niche.

Beauty is no longer dictated by magazine pages;

it’s crowd sourced. Techniques evolve collectively, and users remix each other’s looks whilst building on top of each other with their own unique perspective, showing DIY beauty builds community.

For a generation priced out of luxury, creativity has become currency; there has had to be more resourcefulness to achieve certain desires. Lip scrubs from sugar and press-on nails at home are the norm and reliable, not just because they’re a cost-cutting

measure, but also because they’re convenient and allow consumers to retain control.

DIY beauty may have accelerated since the pandemic and sustained by inflation, but its

staying in power lies in something deeper. It allows self-sufficiency, comfort and

freedom, which is essential for a generation shadowed by uncertainty.

So, with kitchens turning into labs and bedrooms into studios, beauty has become less

about consumption and more about creation. And in 2026, this shift is a silent revolution.