Australians are spending more than $600 a year trying to look like they sleep eight hours, drink green juice, and meditate at sunrise. Serums, facials, masks, treatments, LED devices that look like they belong in a sci-fi film – all in service of one goal: the glow.
And yet, according to new research from the new ASICS Get The Glow campaign, the thing we’re all chasing might not be sitting in a skincare fridge at all. It might be happening in the 15 minutes you’re actively avoiding your phone.
The study found Australians are investing heavily in beauty routines. More than half spend at least $50 a month on skin care and treatments, while nearly half dedicate over an hour a week to their routines. That’s a lot of layering, patting, rolling and waiting for products to “fully absorb” into a life that is already quite full.
But here’s the twist: four in five Australians (81 per cent) report feeling glowing, energised or better in themselves after just 15 minutes of movement. Not a 10-step routine. Not a facial. And, not a new launch with “radiance” in the name. Just movement.
The glow industrial complex (and our subscription to it)
We’ve somehow arrived at a point where “glow” has become something you can buy, build and optimise. It sits somewhere between wellness and aesthetics – a feeling translated into a product category.
And Australians are buying in. Not just financially, but temporally. Nearly half of us are spending over an hour a week on beauty routines alone, which adds up to more than two full days a year devoted entirely to skincare, makeup and maintenance.
Then there’s the emotional cost. More than one in five people say they would give up something meaningful — sleep, time with loved ones, even major life experiences – in pursuit of their ideal glow.
Which is… a lot of pressure for a moisturiser to carry.
Meanwhile, the body is doing something much simpler
ASICS’ “Get The Glow” campaign is built around a slightly inconvenient idea for the beauty industry: glow isn’t something you apply. It’s something you activate.
And the body, apparently, has been doing it all along.
While 75 per cent of Australians say they feel glowing or energised after their skincare routine, that number jumps to 81 per cent after exercise. Movement, in other words, is quietly winning.
Gemma Dimond, beauty editor and founder of Glow Journal, who is fronting the campaign, puts it more plainly. “We’ve been taught that glow comes from what we put on our skin, but this research shows it’s much deeper than that,” she says.
“There’s a real emotional connection between how we look and how we feel… but the most powerful shift actually comes from movement rather than a physical product.”
Her version of movement isn’t complicated or performative. A walk. A dance class. Fresh air. Something that gets you out of your own head and back into your body. Even in a world saturated with skincare expertise, the reset isn’t always topical.
The 15-minute plot twist
The most interesting part of the research isn’t that movement helps. It’s how fast it works.
Fifteen minutes is enough for most people to report feeling noticeably better, more energised, more “glowy”. That’s less time than a commute delay. Less time than scrolling through “quick morning routine” videos you will absolutely not replicate. Less time than waiting for a mask to set while you pretend you’re not thinking about your inbox.
And yet the effect is consistent.
Younger women, in particular, are reporting the strongest response, with 82 per cent of millennial women and 79 per cent of Gen Z women saying they feel glowing after exercise. Not from how they look. From how they feel in their body afterwards.
A different definition of glow
ASICS’ Oceania Managing Director Mark Brunton says the campaign is about reframing where wellbeing actually comes from.
“At ASICS our brand philosophy is Sound Mind, Sound Body, and this research brings that to life in a powerful way,” he says.
What they’re pointing to is simple but slightly disruptive: we’re already investing time and money into chasing a feeling we can access in a far more immediate way.
No checkout required. No shipping delays. And no four-figure serums. Just movement – in whatever form you can actually sustain in real life, not in theory.
So where does that leave the bathroom shelf?
Skin care isn’t the villain here. Neither is beauty, or routine, or the small rituals that help people feel like themselves. But ASICS’ research does quietly challenge the hierarchy we’ve built around “looking well” versus “feeling well”.
Because if glow is the goal – the actual feeling, not the marketing term – then movement is already doing a very good job of getting us there.
And it does it in 15 minutes, no mirror required.
