There is a mystique to the idea we could all one day lead a cosmic lifestyle. In 1609, German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote a novel in which a young traveller lands on the Moon to find that lunar beings believe Earth revolves around them. In the 1960s, fresh off the back of the first moon landing, space-age aesthetics catapulted style, make-up, architecture and interiors into the future with André Courreges introducing the world to the Space Age look. 

Today, as we get a steady stream of space exploration discoveries, creatives are just as inspired by the cosmos as ever, perhaps reflecting a need for escapism and creating moments of awe as the world undergoes a polycrisis. For Thom Browne’s AW23 show, Isamaya Ffrench created intergalactic make-up in line with the collection’s homage to The Little Prince, space uniforms and NASA. FKA twigs’ recent red-carpet look by @tildax_x_ seemed to draw from a nebula and black hole visual vernacular, just as NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory led astronomers to discover a lonely galaxy located about 9.2 billion light-years from Earth. 

Space has long influenced beauty aesthetics, but now it’s literally influencing beauty as the industry increasingly looks to technology and scientific breakthroughs from the world of space travel. Skincare brands have begun to develop products for life in microgravity. “Tested in Space” is the motto of 111Skin, which was founded when scientists from the Soviet space programme reached out to Dr Yannis Alexandrides for help treating the wounds of astronauts in space.

“Space is a laboratory for ageing because it accelerates everything,” Dr Alexandrides says. In space, there is no protection from the atmosphere, collagen production is negatively affected, and the lack of gravity thins the skin and speeds up the ageing process. Dr Alexandrides’s work with the astronauts led to the development of the brand’s Y Theorem Repair Serum which includes a unique antioxidant combo, NAC Y². And with better performance up there, come dramatic results down here on Earth.

In 2020, Estée Lauder sent bottles of its Advanced Night Repair serum into space, as part of NASA’s efforts to promote business opportunities on the International Space Station, while PCA Skin sent live skin tissue samples to the ISS last February to explore the effects of microgravity on skin-related genes. Meanwhile, Japanese companies ANA and Pola Orbis are working towards creating the world’s first space-friendly cosmetics line by 2023 which will feature make-up that feels comfortable on the skin in the zero gravity conditions of space.

Clariant, one of the world’s leading companies in care chemicals, has a dedicated Space beauty category, showcasing four active ingredients inspired by outer space’s extreme environment and the stresses it can put on cell functions. Starting with Epseama, Clariant pulled from NASA’s study of twin astronauts, where one twin was sent to space and the other remained on Earth to determine how space conditions can affect premature ageing. According to Clariant, Epseama stimulates and protects RNA nc886, which affects the Kinase-R (PKR) protein, known to induce premature ageing. Another active ingredient developed by Clariant is inspired by the scarcity of water in space. BioDTox is designed to detoxify and cleanse skin with minimum amounts of water. Clariant’s VageStop protects against the sun and takes inspiration from astronauts’ exposure to high amounts of sun radiation. 

Space manufacturing is also underway as the private sector seeks to master how materials and processes behave in space conditions and how this can boost innovation. According to McKinsey, the number of patents including “microgravity” increased from 21 in 2000 to 155 in 2020. California-based start-up Varda has designed the Rocket Lab to manufacture in space and is preparing to launch its first production facility into orbit.

Space mining is considered one of the most promising areas of space industrialism and could impact where some beauty ingredients are sourced. Asteroids are filled with metal resources including iron, nickel, cobalt and precious metals such as gold and platinum. Originally here because of a 200,000 year old meteor shower, platinum is used in luxury beauty products such as La Prairie’s $1,460 Platinum Rare Cellular Night Elixir and could in the future come from an outer space supply chain.

Some experts are calling asteroid mining the 21st-century gold rush and an extremely viable opportunity for investors, with NASA finding there are between 1.1m and 1.9m asteroids larger than one kilometre in the main asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter). Astrophysicist and media figure Neil deGrasse Tyson predicts that the world’s first trillionaire will come from asteroid mining, given the 16 Psyche asteroid was estimated at $700 quintillion, if the core is confirmed to be rich in iron, nickel and gold. 

As aspirational and intriguing as this may be, it will be critical to embed sustainability and regulations in space exploration, microgravity manufacturing and asteroid mining. Human-made space junk is already an alarming issue, with scientists calling for a global binding treaty to protect Earth’s orbit. The same principles of sustainable beauty manufacturing and workplace practices on Earth will need to apply to space. So far, most industries – including the beauty industry – are failing to consider this, and are more interested in tapping into the innovation and novelty. 

This begs the question: are we shifting from space dreamers to space colonialists? Pioneering perspectives are early signals of what we may face in the next century. Planetary Personhood by studio Nonhuman Nonsense is a speculative interplanetary campaign against space colonisation. By granting legal personhood to Mars, the project aims to create a symbiotic relationship with the larger universe. There is also a growing body of work challenging our limited understanding of the cosmos, an approach defined as cosmic imagination. Interspecies Future created by LAS, a Berlin-based art foundation that brings together art, technology and science, is a cross-disciplinary movement dedicated to advancing the rights and opportunities of nonhuman life on Earth. 

With the space industry estimated to reach $1tn in annual revenue by 2040, beauty brands seeking to harness the universe’s geology yet claiming to be sustainable should see this as an opportunity to apply ethical principles all the way. This is fertile ground for undoing polluting and colonialist dynamics, out of sync with equity and sustainability imperatives we face on Earth. After all, we as humans are formed of cosmic dust, with nearly all the elements in our body made in a star. Today the possibility of beauty ingredients being sourced in space is closer than ever. What matters are the ethical choices we make. For space is not really a final frontier, it was always part of nature’s ecosystem to begin with.