Spotify Reports Huge Surge in Beauty Podcasts in 2020 — Here Are Our Favorites

It doesn’t take statistics to know that streaming services saw a huge surge in 2020 — everyone we know, ourselves included, marathoned even more series than we already were. But it wasn’t just screen-centric entertainment that got a pandemic-prompted bump. Podcasts became an increasingly popular way to pass the time, stay informed, be amused, and learn a thing or two. And while the subjects covered were myriad, beauty podcasts in particular that had an incredible year.

The Allure staff can tell you (seriously, just try to stop us from telling you) just how broad our beauty-podcast wardrobe became last year, but we’d have been fools to assume it was only a handful of beauty editors tuning in. As it turns out, according to new data from Spotify, the platform saw a remarkable 131-percent increase in unique listeners streaming beauty-related podcasts. 

And it wasn’t just well-established beauty podcasts like Fat Mascara and Natch Beaut that listeners had the option to enjoy. So many great new podcasts hit the digital airwaves in 2020, like Eyewitness Beauty and Smell Ya Later. In fact, Spotify’s podcasting platform, Anchor, saw more than 4,000 new shows launch in the beauty and fashion category in 2020, nearly doubling what was already available. 

Allure can count itself among the 2020 podcast newbies, having launched The Science of Beauty podcast in October. Since then, we’ve invited listeners into deep-dive discussions about a wide range of beauty topics, including shampoo, sunscreen, skin-care acids, and much more. So, inevitably, folks using some of the most-searched-for beauty terms — like skin care, hair care, and makeup — found themselves listening to the soothing sounds of editor in chief Michelle Lee and executive beauty director Jenny Bailly’s informative voices.