Beauty from within: the state of the trend

Fei Xu, a market intelligence director for Information and Inspiration consumer trends firm, explains that nutricosmetics is enjoying particularly fast growth across Asia.

In Japan this year, the market’s growth was up 2.9%,he explains. In China, over half of consumers (54%) say the regularly buy food and drink products with added beauty benefits, and in Korea, sales of inner beauty products increased 52% this year.

The major trends leading within the beauty supplement market are herbal medicine, food therapy and fermented food, the expert notes.

Naturals meets traditional trends​

Traditional and herbal-inspired beauty has always been dominant in Asia, a sister-trend to its traditional and herbal medicines and health. Increasingly, due to the rise of the naturals trend on the global stage, these influences are now getting international attention.

“Renewed interest in natural healing and wellness has advanced growth and innovation in herbal/ traditional (H/T) consumer health​,” confirmed Euromonitor said in its latest report on herbal and traditional products.

“As consumers take more ownership of their health, they also seek products perceived as safer and efficacious. As a result, the demand for botanical options has generated growth, particularly in cough and cold remedies and dietary supplements.”​

Key ingredients​

Fei Xu explains that several key ingredients are crossing over from traditional Chinese medicine to see widespread use in nutricosmetics, popularised globally by demand for naturals.

Ginseng, bird’s nest, cogi berry, jujube, lotus seed and antler are among the list of ingredients increasingly making appearances in nutricosmetics.

Drinks: a top trend​

Drinks are fast becoming the major vehicle by which nutricosmetics are seeing popular consumption. Vinegar drinks, tied into the enthusiasm for fermented foods, are enjoying a boom in Asia.

“Fruit vinaigrette drinks emerged as the new "it" food among Korean consumers, thanks to its multiple benefits such as detoxifying, anti-stress, anti-fatigue, appetite stimulating, slimming, anti-cancer, anti-aging, etc,​” explains Fei Xu.

“Vinegar bars are common in Japan, they offer fermented drinks, suggesting a social experience of vinegar drink consumption that is similar to that experienced at coffee shops.”​

Juice bars (Cosmetics Kitchen) and recipe sites (Shiseido) are other concepts tapping into this marriage of beauty from within and naturals in Asia, and could see global popularity.