This article was originally published in the Supplements Trend Report. Receive your copy here
Beauty supplements are booming. Growing by 9.4% globally in 2023, the category is forecast to rise by a CAGR of 13.6% over the coming decade, according to Future Market Insights.
While beauty supplements traditionally focus on improving the appearance of the skin, hair and nails, the opportunity that brands are now exploring – and which offers huge potential for category growth – is the blurring of beauty with wellness and health.
Nick Vaus, Partner and Creative Director of brand design agency Free The Birds says: “There is significant growth in the demand for crossover products between beauty and wellness.
“The mind-body trend expected to dominate 2024 sees the concept of self care accelerating as consumers gain an increased understanding of how their internal mechanisms affect their external appearance.
“Holistic wellness is officially set to go mainstream.”
New US drink supplement brand Make Time, for example, addresses women’s brain health while also supporting body and beauty needs, having identified that brain health is “a forgotten category”.
Menopause supplements are a thriving area for innovation as women seek solutions to address the many different changes they experience during this life stage, while another source of growing innovation is gut health and the impact this can have on the skin.
One brand that encapsulates how the health, wellness and beauty space is evolving within supplements is Alo Yoga.
The fashion and lifestyle brand expanded its portfolio outside of clothing and accessories with body care, skin care, hair care and, most recently, beauty and wellness supplements.
Danny Harris, Alo Yoga’s co-CEO and co-founder, tells Cosmetics Business: “Alo is uniquely making a splash in the current consumer market because we are offering our community a 360 view of wellness.”
He adds: “Wellness is a fast-growing market, and when looking closer at supplements specifically, there is even more demand.
“On the heels of Covid, as a society we are more focused on our health than ever.”
Here, Cosmetics Business premiers five of the biggest supplements trends for 2024.
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Trend 1: Ready-to-drink beauty beverages
The ring-pull has been cracked on a whole new ingestible beauty trend: beverages with benefits.
Ready-to-drink potions featuring ingredients such as collagen and vitamin C, biotin and hyaluronic acid, positioned for offering skin care benefits, are a niche but rapidly emerging category.
Of course, the concept of ready-to-drink beauty beverages is far from new: Coca Cola piloted a beauty drink called Beautific Oenobiol, in partnership with Sanofi in 2012 and CollaGin, a gin infused with collagen, proved a hit when it launched in 2016.
But while these were one-off launches, new players are for the first time tapping into a distinct beauty drinks scene, that is both aspirational and accessible.
Trend 2: The gut glow up
When it comes to tackling conditions like acne and psoriasis, consumers are going beyond skin- deep.
The connection between gut dysbiosis and skin issues has long been recognised, but as the gut-skin axis becomes a hotbed of research, the space is buzzing with a host of new brands and launches.
An acceleration in consumer understanding has also propelled the space forward further over the past year.
TikTok has undoubtedly played a role here, with #GutTok racking up 1.1 billion views, while #GutHealth has 6.5 billion, putting gut health on the radar of Gen Z. TV shows like Know Your Sh!t have also supported a step-up in knowledge.
This trend offers a deep dive into how the space is now evolving.
Trend 3: Menopause support
Supplements that aim to support women through the menopause and perimenopause have blown up as one of the biggest category trends in recent years.
But it has not been a smooth journey. Concerns of ‘menowashing’ and opportunistic brands coming into a space where women are feeling quite vulnerable are blighting the category.
Nevertheless, amid a category that has for years been subject to long-standing neglect and silence, brands are still leading the way in a space where women are desperate for more support, by offering options, education and awareness.
Trend 4: Beauty foods with benefits
Whether it’s nut butter that helps the skin glow, or ready-to-pour bone broth that aids healthy skin hair and nails, beauty foods will be on the rise this year, and grocery aisles will expand to meet rising consumer demand.
Emily Reed, Global Product Trend and Vision Manager at Holland & Barrett, says: “2024 will be the year that ‘edible skin care’ goes mainstream.
“Diets will play an even bigger role in our skin care routines as consumers focus on the evolution of ‘inside out beauty’ and the impact of what they consume has on their skin health.”
Expect to see a growing range of on-the-go and every day foods that offer a functional way to support consumers' beauty and wellness goals.
Trend 5: Packaging designs that spark joy
In the supplements space, beauty doesn’t only come from within: brands are radiating joy through their vibrant and fun packaging designs.
But while brands are shaking up the traditional design codes, this is a relatively new trend in supplement packaging design.
Sophie Grant-Vaswani, Futures Director at creative design agency Pearlfisher London says: “Supplements are a really interesting category in terms of design, as we’ve seen a significant shift away from very functional, clinical communications into a more emotional and expressive space.”
This trend highlights four brands that are changing the face of supplements packaging with their feel-good designs.
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