Clare Varga, Head of Beauty, WGSN07.05.21
Digital Lavender is WGSN’s Color of the Year for 2023—with purple hues set to return with a bang. (Photo on left above via an IG post by WGSN/source @alicedoddsmakeup )
Representing wellness and digital escapism, Digital Lavender will connect to wellbeing, offering a sense of stability, balance and recuperation.
Research suggests that colors with a shorter wavelength, such as Digital Lavender, evoke calmness and serenity making them a powerful color for meditation and mindful rituals, including beauty and self-care. It is also a color embedded in digital culture, spanning both the virtual and physical worlds.
In beauty, Digital Lavender has applications across all categories, product types and packaging.
It’s also an inclusive shade that works for all skin tones and genders making it a perfect symbol of self-expression and unity. In color cosmetics, as well as being a key color for eyes, lips, cheeks and nails it will be used to bring soft—but statement-making—powdery colour to brows and hair. Its ethereal quality also lends itself to shimmering metallics and the growing “fairy-core trend” so we can expect to see it in bath and body care also.
Digital Lavender will also move into tech and tools. We’ve been forecasting the rise of “warm tech” for a couple of seasons now and as consumers move away from clinical whites and silvers we’ll see more “digitally cozy” shades used in beauty devices and tools that reflect their softer haptic forms.
In wellness rituals, Digital Lavender will also see amethyst become the stone of choice in facial tools, boosting circulation and detoxification and leaving the skin plump and glowing.
Digital Lavender is also an interesting color for packaging. It's a very versatile color which can feel both cool or warm depending on finish or materials.
In both primary and secondary packaging, it can be used to communicate safely via its slightly clinical edge, something that will be a priority for the post-Covid consumer, or evoke a feeling of calmness and relaxation.
Digital Lavender can also have strong youth appeal and can feel playful, futuristic or romantic depending on other colors with which it’s paired.
