Mapping the Future: Marta Ponzone’s Beauty Trends to Watch in 2025

Jan 9

*MARTA PONZONE

As the beauty industry enters 2025, it faces a year defined by innovation and reimagined possibilities. Few understand this evolution better than Marta Ponzone, founder of TERRA, a forward-thinking beauty innovation studio based in San Francisco and Los Angeles that scouts emerging technologies and redefines industry standards. Marta’s work sits at the intersection of technology, science, and artistry, making her one of the most compelling voices forecasting the trends that will shape beauty and wellness in the years ahead.

With roots in Italy’s flower fields and a career spanning global beauty hubs like Paris, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, Marta’s unique perspective bridges tradition and innovation. At TERRA, she works closely with leading brands to uncover the micro-trends driving tomorrow’s beauty landscape, from neurocosmetics that connect skincare to emotional well-being to AI-driven tools predicting our skin’s needs before issues arise.

For Marta Ponzone, 2025 is the year beauty takes a quantum leap. Trends like longevity-focused skincare, sensory-driven formulations, and biotech innovations signal a profound shift in how consumers experience beauty and efficacity. Today consumers are ‘pro-sumer,’” Marta notes, “actively shaping the industry through their demand for simplicity, sustainability, and personalization.”

In this exclusive Future of Skincare interview, Marta Ponzone unpacks the breakthroughs poised to redefine beauty for 2025. From AI-powered fragrance creation to the decline of the 12-step skincare routine, her predictions offer a front-row seat to the trends that will transform not just how we look, but how we live.

From Italy to Silicon Valley, your career path is unique. How has this journey influenced your perspective on beauty innovation?

Growing up in Italy, surrounded by my grandparents’ flower business, I developed a deep appreciation for nature’s precision, beauty and scent. My passion for perfume led me to Paris 10 years ago, immersing me in the heart of luxury and aesthetics. Fascinated by Silicon Valley’s transformative approach to technology, I eventually settled in San Francisco, where I now focus on emerging technologies and trends to create the beauty products of tomorrow.

My experience at LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics as well as Estée Lauder Companies shaped my understanding of global brand innovation, while my move to Silicon Valley deepened my expertise in AI and digital startups. This combination allows me to identify untapped opportunities for brands and connect traditional luxury principles with technology.

You’ve launched TERRA, your own Beauty Innovation Studio. What inspired you to create a studio dedicated to beauty innovation, and what sets your approach apart? Can you share more about TERRA’s mission and the types of projects you’re working on?

At TERRA, we help brands shape the future of beauty by collaborating with Open Innovation, Product Innovation, Product Development, and R&D teams. TERRA’s mission is to reimagine beauty by integrating emerging technologies, leveraging AI purposefully, and addressing the evolving needs of consumers.

We scout emerging technologies and trends that are redefining the beauty landscape and imagine innovative product concepts. With a focus on the US market, we act as a bridge between global beauty brands and the latest technological advances.

To keep up with the ever-changing market, brands must look at what startups are doing. Startups are the ones experimenting with new claims, technologies, textures, and even emotional connections to beauty. These innovations often disrupt traditional beauty standards and create new benchmarks for consumer expectations, making it essential for established brands to stay ahead by partnering with or taking inspiration from them.

Our work at TERRA includes:

Scouting Emerging Technologies: Helping Open Innovation teams integrate advancements into beauty products, such as new materials, robotics, beauty tech, and artificial intelligence sourced from startups, universities, and research labs.
Detecting Beauty Product Trends: Tracking innovations in makeup, skincare and perfume, focusing on micro-trends from US startups that influence the consumers of tomorrow. These trends often predict upcoming needs and expectations.
Organizing Innovation Tours: Providing custom experiences for beauty teams to meet startups, immerse themselves in the US retail market, and explore future opportunities.

By monitoring the pulse of US startups, TERRA helps global brands detect and adopt trends that resonate with consumers. From AI-powered skin diagnostics to biotech-based formulations, US startups often pioneer innovations that become global standards, giving established brands a competitive edge.

What do you see as the most significant shifts happening in beauty and wellness by 2025?

By 2025, neuro-beauty and longevity will transform beauty and wellness.

Neuro-beauty: Skincare will blend with neuroscience to enhance emotional well-being through sensory experiences. Neurocosmetics will use ingredients that influence the nervous system to promote relaxation, happiness, and stress relief, creating a deeper connection between beauty routines and mental health. Innovations such as neuro-fragrances, neuro-ingredients, and neuro-textures will deliver products that soothe the mind as well as the skin, offering a sense of calm and balance.

Longevity: Shifting from anti-aging to proactive care, AI will enable predictive diagnostics and more precise personalized solutions. Preventive care will take center stage with predictive analytics enabling early detection of skin changes and personalized wellness strategies. AI-driven tools will help brands address genetic and environmental factors influencing skin health, extending the concept of beauty as a long-term investment in well-being.

How will biotechnology reshape the definition of ‘clean beauty’?

Biotechnology is transforming clean beauty from a focus on being “free from” harmful ingredients to delivering sustainable, effective, and scientifically advanced solutions. Innovations like IFF’s Designed Enzymatic Biopolymers are setting new standards, offering biodegradable, high-performance alternatives to traditional fossil-based polymers for skin and hair care. This shift ensures that clean beauty is not only safer for consumers but also environmentally responsible.

AI and biotech are also driving breakthroughs in ingredient discovery. Tools like Peking University’s ProLLaMA, a Protein Large Language Model (PLM), is revolutionizing protein engineering and the development of protein-based ingredients by analyzing complex protein structures.

What technologies or tools do you think will outstand in 2025?

AI-driven tools will transform beauty R&D and product development, optimizing every stage of product creation with precision and efficiency.

By end of 2025, we can expect beauty company using internally tools like:

Sensia: A strategic insights platform that provides a comprehensive understanding of market trends and consumers feedbacks, empowering smarter product positioning.

Potion AI: Allowing brands to search for ingredients and turn benchmarks into starting formulas.

Predicity: Advanced predictive perfume formulation tool analyzing consumer feedback and ingredient performance to identify optimal combinations that improve sensory and technical attributes.

Giuseppe AI by NotCo: Revolutionizing fragrance creation with a Generative AI Fragrance Formulator that produces premium scents in seconds.

These tools set new benchmarks for creativity, efficiency, and sustainability, enabling beauty brands to innovate faster and create products that are both effective and tailored to modern consumer needs. By integrating these tools, brands can streamline product development and reduce time-to-market.

What beauty rituals or concepts that are mainstream today might disappear within the next few years?

As consumers prioritize simplicity and sustainability, certain mainstream rituals may fade in the future. The 12-Step Skincare Routines, the elaborate skincare regimens popularized by K-Beauty may fade as multifunctional products and personalized solutions will replace overly complex regimens.

Heavy Contouring is also set to be less popular, as makeup trends are evolving towards natural, minimalistic looks that enhance rather than conceal. Heavy contouring, once a social media staple, is giving way to techniques that celebrate individual features and require fewer products.

This return to essentials reflects a broader movement towards conscious, thoughtful beauty choices that align with a more sustainable approach. Consumers are increasingly seeking products and routines that simplify their lives, prioritize sustainability, and align with their values, signaling a shift away from excess and toward intentional beauty practices.

AI and personalization are buzzwords in beauty—what concrete advancements can we expect to see by 2025?

By 2025, AI will move from simple personalization to predictive beauty, offering tailored solutions that anticipate skin needs based on lifestyle and environment. We will see the rise of preventive skincare. AI diagnostics will address concerns before they arise, reducing dependency on reactive treatments and promoting long-term skin health. We are also seeing precise AI Skincare Coach. Tools like SABi AI will act as virtual skin health assistants, analyzing hydration, stress, sleep, and pollution exposure to provide personalized, holistic recommendations that enhance both skin and overall well-being. Advanced Skin Analysis using technologies like NIR spectroscopy and invisible biometric sensing displays are set to revolutionize real-time skin diagnostics. Innovations like trinamiX will allow non-invasive measurements of biomarkers directly on the skin or hair, using microchips embedded in everyday devices like smartphones.

These innovations will make beauty more intuitive, accessible, and proactive.

How might neuroscience impact the way we approach aging and beauty in the near future?

Neuroscience will unlock a deeper understanding of how our brains perceive beauty and aging, introducing innovations that blend emotional well-being with physical results.

Neuro-cosmetics will stimulate skin-brain connections, promoting relaxation, happiness, and confidence through targeted ingredients and sensory textures.

We will see a strong sensory engagement, as products will incorporate neuro-ingredients and textures that interact with the nervous system, creating calming or invigorating effects, and boosting overall emotional well-being.

Neuro-fragrances are coming on stage with scents like those developed by skincare brand Sisley’s Neurae that uses neuroscience to change emotions.

By integrating neuroscience, beauty will become a holistic experience that prioritizes mental and physical harmony.

How do you see technology enhancing the emotional and sensory experience of beauty rather than replacing it?

Technology is enhancing the sensory experience of beauty by deepening emotional connections. Platforms like Scentmatic’s Kaorium Concept Model translate fragrances into words, bridging scent and language to create more profound olfactory experiences. It is enhancing our sensory perceptions, creating a more profound connection to the richness of scent and elevating the olfactory experience. Technology doesn’t replace human senses: it amplifies them, making beauty more immersive and personalized.

The rise of the 'pro-sumer' has empowered consumers. How will this trend shape innovation and brand strategies in the future?

The rise of the pro-sumer is transforming consumers from passive buyers into active co-creators, fundamentally reshaping how brands innovate and strategize.

Brands will increasingly use AI-powered platforms to crowdsource ideas and feedback in real-time, enabling faster innovation cycles and products that align more closely with consumer desires. This shift builds on the success of indie brands like Glossier, which pioneered co-creation with its community, but now we can actually analyze large datasets to uncover how products are perceived post-launch. AI tools bridge the gap between what brands aim to create and what consumers truly want, ensuring that innovations resonate both emotionally and functionally.

As pro-sumers demand greater involvement, brands must create an ecosystem where consumer insights drive meaningful, future-focused innovation.

If you could fast-forward to 2025, what innovation or shift in beauty would you be most excited to see?

I would be most excited to see the commercialization of digital scent technology, finally moving from lab research and prototypes to tangible consumer applications.

With companies like Osmo and DigitalScent leading the way, the ability to digitize and replicate smells opens up incredible possibilities for beauty and wellness. Imagine scent-tailored virtual experiences, or real-time personalized fragrances based on mood and environment.

Additionally, the Al-powered artificial noses like PiVIS’s Deep U-Nose AI, could revolutionize health diagnostics, enabling early detection of diseases through scent analysis.

This not only opens new possibilities in beauty but also creates cross-industry applications in wellness and healthcare, positioning beauty brands at the core of holistic well-being.

What is one current industry assumption you believe will be radically challenged or overturned by 2025?

The assumption that sustainability compromises performance will be overturned: the idea that sustainability and high performance cannot coexist in beauty formulations is not up to date anymore. For years, sustainability in beauty has been associated with compromise—whether in product efficacy, ingredient sourcing, or luxury experiences. However, biotechnology and AI are proving otherwise, enabling the creation of biodegradable, high-performance ingredients that outperform traditional materials.

What advice would you give to innovators working at the intersection of beauty and technology today?

Focus on enhancing the human experience. Technology should simplify routines, solve real problems, and create emotional connections. Stay curious and continuously learn—beauty is as much about culture, art, and storytelling as it is about science and technology.