Back in the 90s, as the country dealt with the serious economic hangover from the head-banging excess of the previous decade, the idea of using big, glossy red lips and huge hair to sell a fantasy of perfection lost its shine. The ensuing minimalism with a focus on ‘the natural look’ put normal skin under an unforgiving spotlight, and so there began a new era of harsh anti-ageing lingo, blinding consumers with ‘science’ (or intimidating jargon) and scaring into self-flagellating their own evolving looks.

Having previously focused on smooth, soft and firm skin without really disclosing any ingredient information, the market was flooded with deep wrinkle fillers, anti-ageing serums facelift creams, acid peels – all purported the idea that you could genuinely prevent your body from getting older. The beauty focus became fixed on arming yourself with weapons of anti-ageing. ‘Batten down the hatches, the wrinkles are coming!’ skincare brands warned us, bellowing the unequivocally depressing syntax of ‘dark spots’, ‘irreversible damage’ and enemy lines. It was all a bit, well, mean.

‘Labelling products [like that] will work for those who believe that they have these so-called problems,’ says psychotherapist, Rachel Shattock Dawson of Therapy On Thames, ‘Even though the labels may well trigger image anxieties about ageing, or loss of looks.’

"For those who felt compelled to halt the signs of ageing, the overriding feeling was one of insecurity, of doom"

Meanwhile, the media was adding to this collective anxiety by indulging in a spot of point-and-laugh reporting, shaming celebrities caught without makeup. ‘It told women that bodily imperfections are potential objects of ridicule, and anything less than perfection is unacceptable,’ observes Shattock. For those who felt compelled to halt the signs of ageing, the overriding feeling was one of insecurity, of doom. Hell bent on eradicating these life-ruining marks of time, the beauty consumer was so bogged down with hyper-critical, catastrophic threats, she all but checked out completely.

Now, however, beauty brands have cottoned on to the fact that it’s far more valuable to make a woman feel good about herself and her skin than it is to frighten her with the big, bad ageing monster. The new generation of beauty products still tackle the same signs of ageing, and with some pretty mind-boggling technology, but the language is markedly different – it’s flattering, whimsical and kind of makes us feel as though we’re all in it together; which really, we are. 

Dior Capture Total DreamSkin (a serum with built-in skin tone correctors), £79, and Lancome DreamTone Beautiful Skin Tone Creator (a dark spot serum-makeup hybrid), £69, work a Disney-does-skincare dynamic: the skin you’ve always dreamed of really can come true. Or perhaps you’re after a more biblical transformation? How could you go wrong with Nude Miracle Mask (exfoliator), £38, and This Works Perfect Legs Skin Miracle (skin tone serum with instant tan), £37, or the very latest launch: Garnier’s new Miracle Skin Cream (a moisturiser that protects, firms and brightens over time with the instant correction of built-in pigment) £12.99 (out next month). Those skincare negatives of old have been replaced with uplifting positives.

The queen of this fairy-tale rhetoric has to be makeup artist, Charlotte Tilbury, who launched her range of makeup and skincare in September of last year. Magic Cream, £70, Wonder Glow, £38.50, and Multi-Miracle Glow Cleanser, Mask and Balm, £45, are just a few of the fanciful names in her collection. 'I wanted the language of my own brand to represent feeling and looking beautiful, with words to drum up excitement and actually sound gorgeous,' she explains, 'There is a dialect associated with 'beauty' that is derogative, so we need to offset this with positive, uplifting language. It should be fun, non-judgemental and above all easy to understand.'

But what has triggered this change of spirit? 'An evolution in language may be a sign of growing customer sensitivity,' says Mark Tungate, author of Branded Beauty: How Marketing Changed the Way We Look, 'I think customers have become wary of meaningless scientific claims - they know very well that a cream cannot rid them of a wrinkle. At the same time, [brands] are aware that they're now targeting consumers in emerging markets who have a concern with status, so their language has become less direct and more aspirational.'

According to Telegraph Magazine’s beauty editor Kate Shapland, who recently launched the Legology skincare line for legs, it’s just that life is too tough for beauty to be so stressful and shaming anymore. For the first Legology product, she chose a name that would reflect the content’s empathetic, forgiving approach to skin: Air-Lite, notably leaving ‘cellulite’ out. 'Yes, well cellulite is such an all-consuming 'problem' that it has hijacked the leg care market, much the same way that anti-ageing has bombed out skin care. Air-Lite is about happiness, energy, lightness, not a brutal attack on your thighs. I felt that so much of beauty had become so aggressive, but it’s not only about solutions and newness; we’re looking for things that bring us joy. It should be an escape, a fantasy.'

Of course to promise miracles and a dream-come-true scenario, you’ve got to have balls. Or at the very least, convincing stats. Brands have grown more confident using these ‘miracle’ and ‘dream’ superlatives as efficacy has improved; all of this outlandish dialogue is backed up with some pretty outstanding results. Products really are performing better than ever and on more than one level, multi-tasking to deliver on promises that would have been pie-in-the-sky a mere 20 years ago. Makeup-skincare hybrids with built-in concealers, illuminators and tanning agents instantly improve skin tone for a seemingly miraculous transformation. Yes, the word miracle might be slightly inflated but these are not sweeping, unfounded promises, there’s empirical proof of their worth.

 A staggering 84% of the 200+ women who trialled Lancome’s DreamTone Beautiful Skin Tone Corrector saw a visible improvement in skin tone. More recently, 91% of the 1,600+ women who trialled Garnier’s new Miracle Skin Cream for four weeks agreed their skin looked more luminous, while 77% found wrinkles and fine lines looked reduced. In fact, in their focus groups of over 2500 women across 8 countries, 83% of testers agreed it should be called Miracle Skin Cream, noting that it was aspirational but also conveyed a sense of care and softness, says Garnier Skincare International Marketing Director, Charles Finaz. 'It was really key to look for a positive, simple yet powerful way to express an everyday skin transformation. Women want names that convey the notion of a solution, not a problem.'

In fact in many cases ‘youth’ is the new ‘anti-ageing’ – essentially the same thing, it’s been spin-doctored for a more positive effect on the consumer’s mind and our interpretation of its effects. In 2008 Dove refigured ‘anti-ageing’ in another way, with the ‘this isn’t anti-ageing, this is Pro Age’ skincare campaign. It’s not suggesting you don’t need skincare, but rather you embrace the ageing process and make the most of the skin you have right now with the support of these products.

In the case of larger-than-life personalities like Charlotte Tilbury, the names also do well to reflect her joyful exuberance for beauty – and she’s not alone in this, they are pretty amazing. 'My product names are often composed of phrases that people have uttered after they’ve tried them! I’m not afraid to use words like 'miraculous' and 'magic' - I don't see them as hyperbole, I just love them for their etymology.'

So does using more positive language contribute to improved self confidence in the consumer? 'I don't believe that positive marketing language boosts body confidence in itself, but it is very likely to influence buying behaviour, as it promises desirable results,' says Rachel, 'People will buy into a believable promise.' If nothing else, hopefully this new language of skincare will encourage us all to take a leaf out of Charlotte’s beauty bible, and take delight in our products. Above all, beauty should be a sybaritic act that infers self-love and this new buoyant dialogue is there to help us segue into that.