According to the most recent market data available from Kline Group – which closely tracks the market for beauty-from-within products – the global market for nutricosmetics was worth $1.5bn in 2007, and is expected to grow to $2.5bn by 2012.
This growth is being led by specific key markets, a factor that is underlined by the launch activity in recent years. Those key markets include Europe, where France and the UK have tended to lead the way, the US and Japan.
In Japan the category has long been highly developed and the product launches coming from here in recent years have included some of the most eye-catching and innovative, from collagen-based sweets to vitamin-infused sodas.
Variety is food, drinks, supplements
But in the West product offerings are becoming increasingly varied too, including countless beauty from within food and drinks, together with an ever-growing selection of increasingly varied supplements, all targeted at every type of beauty need.
Many products have been launched in combination, invariably as food and drink or supplement and drink products, or combinations of different supplements, all to target specific beauty needs.
The products in this article all appear in Mintel’s GNPD reveals and reflect how diverse the market has become in the past couple of years. Indeed, many of these products are defining the direction that this still young category will take in the future.
Targeting men
Although most launches have tended to target women, a handful have chosen to target a male audience. One example of this is France brand Skeen +, which has been launched as a vitamin enriched drink, Réanimator Jeunesse, targeted at men’s skin care.
The drink contains the active ingredient reservatrol, an anti-ageing antioxidant that targets the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles as well as skin firmness, together with green tea concentrate and vitamins A, E and C and is priced at around $60 (€46) for 50ml, very much putting at the prestige end of the market spectrum.
Likewise the launches are not being confined to the key developed markets for Nutricosmetics. With the explosion in growth of cosmetics in China in the last few years, new products are getting increasingly sophisticated, evinced by a handful of nutricosmetics.
One recent launch has been a range of beauty supplements under the YST brand name. the product is a combination of vitamin E, recommended to be taken at supper for maximum anti-aging effect and C taken tablets with Acerola cherry extract, recommended to be taken after breakfast to target skin whitening.
A capsule for every beauty need
Perhaps one of the most far-reaching product launches of late is a range of beauty supplements launched under Canada brand Functionalab. Costing more than US$120 it is priced as a premium or luxury product, and involves a daily round of different tablets and capsules targeting separate beauty functions.
The product contains a month’s supply of supplements that come in five separate forms, all to be taken as a daily ‘pack’. The first is a general multi-vitamin tablet, while the pack also contains collagen capsules, as well as lipoic acid and pycnogenal capsules targeting anti-oxidant activity, together with a tablet formulated for hair skin and nails.
Shiseido's In & On should be big
For years Japan has been leading the way in the nutricosmetics field and one brand that looks set to establish itself as a leader is In & On, given that it is being launched by global cosmetics giant Shiseido.
Launched worldwide just a few months ago, the range is a six week program of beauty drinks and supplements that again costs well in excess of $100 and contains a skin relaxing complex, formulated to moisturize the skin, increase elasticity, leaving it looking smoother and less wrinkled.
This handful of product launches from the nutricomsetics category not only underlines the wide range of different products that are out there, but also the enormous demographic scope that this category could eventually unlock.