Australia’s Fastest Growing Self-Care Trends

Australia has a booming AU$176 billion wellness industry,¹https://ami.org.au/knowledge-hub/australias-wellness-economy-surges-to-us126-7-billion-ranks-fourth-in-apac/ with the average Aussie spending an estimated $6,737 on wellness per year. Self-care is a growing subject in the wellness industry and is defined as an activity that you do to keep your mind, body and emotions healthy. It’s about deliberating, taking time for yourself to either rest, reset or recharge.

To find out which self-care products and treatments are most popular in Australia, the health insurance comparison service, iSelect, has analysed monthly search volume and trends over the years to reveal which are most sought after and at what cost.

Self-care products or treatments costs and trends

The LED face mask, which uses red light to boost collagen and help reduce fine lines, has seen an explosive 900% increase in search volume over the past five years, paired with 3K more queries than the average monthly searches for a traditional facial. The average price for one of the at-home masks is around $557, which is equivalent to 3.13 professional facials, meaning you would only have to use it four times to make it worthwhile! However, while at-home devices offer convenience, professional facials deliver more than just the LED – they can include expert skin analysis, tailored techniques, and the hands-on experience of a trained therapist, something an LED mask alone can’t replicate.

Smart rings that help track health and fitness metrics have been on the market since 2015 and are reporting only 1.5K monthly searches. However, they have seen a 509% increase over the past five years. This could be the beginning of an emerging health-tracking device, but with an average price of $529, it may be the sticking point for many Aussies.

Meanwhile, smart watches are more affordable, averaging $288, and more popular, with 23K searches per month and a 5% increase in searches over the past five years. Smart watches seem to have plateaued but continue to peak every December, which could suggest it to be a go-to Christmas gift, or Aussies searching for deals to help kick off the year by tracking their fitness goals.

Bathhouses, which usually include a sauna, cold plunge and spa experience, are becoming more popular with Aussies; they saw a 426% increase in search volume over the past five years. The sessions average around $62 per person, with searches for bathhouses peaking in May 2026. This could be another emerging self-care trend to watch, with a growing shift toward experience-based self-care, where the ritual and social element play just as important a role as the experience itself. 

Ice baths are an increasingly popular alternative to visiting a bathhouse, with interest rising 271% in Google search volume over the past five years. While it’s possible to DIY one using a standard bathtub and ice, higher-end options with built-in filtration systems maintain consistently freezing temperatures while offering a more premium backyard aesthetic. These filter-controlled ice baths average $2,712, making them the most expensive self-care trend on our list. At an average bathhouse session price of $62, they would need to be used 44 times to break even, but this only replicates one half of the traditional bathhouse experience.

Similarly, at-home saunas are reporting 2.7K monthly searches and a 190% increase in interest over the past five years. Installing an infrared sauna costs an average of $2,369 and requires about 39 uses to match the cost of bathhouse visits. If you were to install both a sauna and an ice bath, the setup costs $5,081, requiring around 82 sessions to match the cost of visiting a bathhouse, or around 10 months if used twice a week.

Massage guns have one of the highest search volumes, but interest has declined by 47% over the past five years after peaking in December 2022. At an average price of $251, a massage gun costs roughly three professional massages at the average session cost of $96. However, despite the rise of at-home alternatives, demand for professional treatments remains strong. Massage-related searches are the highest on our list at 34K per month, with just a 3% decrease over the past five years, indicating Australians still search for and value the expertise and experience of having a treatment performed by a professional.