Edible beauty and collagen boosters on the rise in 2022
10 Feb 2022 --- Attaining optimum health and mobility by preserving aging skin and joints with edible body care has resonated with beauty and personal care (BPC) consumers for centuries. Today, as global consumers recognize the importance of proactively striving to take care of their long-term health, consumers of all ages are turning to technologies and innovation.
Click to EnlargeFrom ingestible beauty products like capsules, gummies, juice shots and herbal powders, BPC consumers are welcoming new and exciting product developments such as supplements and bottle-based beauty. Responding to these demands, brands and manufacturers are increasingly conceptualizing and launching innovative formulations that extract naturally occurring ingredients and place them into more appetizing ingestible beauty products.
Nowadays, both the elderly population and younger consumers are captive and curious audiences when it comes to exploring and seeking to understand the benefits of edible beauty. Heightened awareness about long-term health is driving this increased interest from the key target groups.
Beauty claims are rising in prevalence for a variety of products, including food, beverages and supplements, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, findings from Innova Market Insights reveal. Globally, the industry has seen beauty mood claims increase by 11% year-on-year from 2019 to 2020.
Collagen leads edible beauty products
A promising ingredient with a starring role in the launch of beauty claims is collagen, which saw 3% market penetration growth during 2019 to 2020. A naturally occurring protein found in both humans and animals, collagen has proliferated its way through the nutricosmetics space to become a leading buzzword. Far from running its course as a mini-trend soon to disappear, brands and manufacturers are keen to innovate with collagen to meet beauty product demands.
Innovation in the collagen market offers a significant opportunity in tapping into consumer
demand for beauty products. Food and beverage launches with collagen as an ingredient in their formulations rose by 6% between 2019 and 2020, while supplement launches performed even better with a 9% growth, data from Innova Market Insights shows.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and is key to the body’s repair. With age, the body’s natural production of collagen diminishes, which is linked to signs of aging such as wrinkles or sagging skin. By itself, collagen is a regenerating active ingredient that tackles premature aging of skin cells and allows tissue healing. It also prevents skin dehydration and boosts the production of moisturizing ingredient, hyaluronic acid. The presence of collagen in the body also allows the skin to be smooth and firm as it increases elasticity and flexibility of skin, hair, bones, muscles and cartilage in joints.
Click to EnlargeThere are 28 different types of collagen identified within the human body - each one comprising a slight variation in its sequence of amino acids. Collagen proteins must be broken down into small chains of peptides to become smaller and therefore more beneficial for the host and their body. The peptides that are found in supplements and health products come from a variety of sources in many forms, including bovine collagen, chicken, marine collagen and even alternatives of plant origin which are obtained by fermentation.
Available in various formats, collagen products strive to reflect current lifestyle demands of both its young and older target demographics. Gelita processes collagen peptides for food, where taste is paramount. These peptides can be implemented into various types of liquid and solid functional food applications or nutricosmetics, simply and effectively, without compromising the sensory profile. From collagen water and concentrated ready-to-consume liquid shots, to tablets, capsules, and flavored powder mixes, all are appearing in the BPC space.
Gourmet flavors have become a key consideration in collagen delivery formats. Collagen-focused beauty-from-within brand Neocell sells Collagen Beauty Soft Chews, which come in acai berry flavor, tropical fruit and fruit punch flavors. The products claim to promote beautiful skin, hair and nail health, “making it easy to get your glow on the go”.
Edible gelatin hard and soft capsules, available over the counter, is currently the most popular collagen beauty-on-the-go product format. Life science company, Bioiberica, has developed its Collavant n2, a source of native type II collagen for use in nutraceutical products such as dietary supplements. As it works by providing efficacy at a low dose, the product can be incorporated into a person’s diet in the form of a pill that is taken once a day.
Ready-to-drink beauty drinks or powder blends are also highly sought-after by consumers, with brands adding powder blends to beverages, cereals or dairy products. Australian company Edible Earth offers marine collagen drinkable products that promise the “elixir of youth”. The brand’s products focus on beauty, anti-aging and regenerative properties.
In 2020, personalized vitamin brand Care/of expanded into the beauty category with the launch of six new products including ingestible collagen. The brand prides itself on its grass-fed bovine collagen powder.
Plant-based boosters
Natural or plant-based ingredients that promote beauty from within are drawing on the popularity of the natural and organic BPC sector, by acting as product “enhancers” or “boosters” of the existing collagen that is found in the body.
Click to EnlargeAcacia gum brand, Nexira, supplies natural ingredients to boost collagen, providing a wide range of certified organic, vegan and non-GMO ingredients that can be used in soft gels, capsules, gummies, stick packs, or ampoules. The company’s collagen boosters contain various vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C and magnesium, which the body needs to produce collagen.
Nexira’s Simag Collagen Skin Booster is a purified natural marine mineral
extract rich in magnesium. The brand has also released its NutriBeauty range which uses different natural materials such as hibiscus, pomegranate, nettle leaf and other ingredients which aid the production of natural collagen in the body.
Herbal solutions are also gaining traction in the marketplace, with brands and products focusing on collagen repair and providing appealing tastes and scents to accompany the product’s efficacy. Mibelle Biochemistry, concentrates on collagen repair with its DracoBelle Nu brand, a water-soluble plant extract powder prepared from the aerial parts of cultivated
Moldavian dragonhead, part of the mint family. The plant, native to Central Asia, is an aromatic annual edible that contains a lemon-balm aroma. Positioned to activate the anti-aging and longevity intrinsic pathway in the body, the brand notes the product strives to increase the amount of collagen in the skin and leads to a youthful look with dense and elastic skin.
As vegan beauty is increasingly resonating with BPC consumers, we can expect to see more brands combine the rising popularity of vegan and collagen to attract beauty buyers. German company Evonik has developed an advanced collagen platform produced via fermentation, without any animal-derived ingredients.
Consumers seeking glow-on-the-go are driving leading edible beauty trends, in particular, the rising popularity of various formats and collagen as a key and evolving ingredient. We can expect to see new products in convenient options that fit into consumers’ beauty and self-care routines. A growing number of consumers also demand transparent information about the products they put into their bodies, with edible beauty claims proving essential to build credibility and confidence.
Eat Pretty “Glow on the Go” - Collagen Reigns in Edible Beauty is available now from Innova Market Insights.
By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe, BPC Insights Senior Journalist
