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Healthy Skin

The Changing Skin Care Landscape

by Lisa Schofield | March 1, 2018

Today’s consumers are about more than being skin deep. Here’s how to help them put their best faces forward.

Healthy self-confidence is generated by accomplishment, as well as feeling good about looking good. Clear, glowing, moist, mostly wrinkle-free skin is the desired canvas for enhancement with color cosmetics for women.

According to Naomi Whittel, CEO and founder of Florida-based Reserveage Nutrition and author of Glow15, the global beauty supplements market consists of skin care, hair care, nail care, dental care, as well as other applications. In 2015, skin care supplements represented the largest share of more than 30 percent of the total global beauty supplements market and are expected to dominate the market in terms of revenue share in upcoming years. “Part of the reason for this may be that younger consumers (Millennials) are gravitating away from traditional antiaging skin care creams in favor of ingestible products that tout overall wellness qualities. In other words, beauty-from-within has become the skin care trend,” Whittel said.

Last year, Orbis Research (Texas) published its market research paper, “Global Anti-Aging Market Research Report and Forecast to 2017-2022,” tallying the global market for anti-aging products (not just beauty) to be worth $250 billion in 2016, with an estimated CAGR of 5.8 percent to reach $331.41 billion in 2021.

This firm segments the global anti-aging market by demographics: Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Product categories that are hot, report authors wrote, include UV absorbers, anti-wrinkle products, anti-stretch mark products and hair color. The authors asserted, “Baby Boomer and Generation X are considered as the majority informed and cost-effective customer group for the anti-aging market.”

Meanwhile, the November 2016-published report entitled, “Growth Opportunities in the Global Skincare Product Industry,” by market research firm Lucintel is highly optimistic about the future of the global skin care product industry; according to the firm, there are solid opportunities in the areas of body care lotions, sun protection and multi-functional skin cream. In the introduction, the authors write, “Within the skin care product industry, facial care is expected to be the largest segment by value and volume.”

According to the report, the active drivers for market growth are increased awareness about what affects skin, skin issues and how to promote skin health, along with the desire for multi-functional skin care topicals. In the realm of heathy skin, there is growth in demand for products that address thwarting sunburn damage, as well as providing benefits such as anti-aging (reduction of visual aging factors) as well as skin lightening.

The idea of using a topical solution on the face to fight signs of aging has been a practice at least since ancient civilizations. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that women, such as the fabled Cleopatra, have used such compounds to preserve beauty.

Influencers and Ingredients

In more recent times, anti-aging skin care has become highly specialized, and a venerable brand has led market segmentation through several decades—the mass-market brand Olay has become synonymous with “anti-aging.” It launched in the early 1950s with a single product, Oil of Olay, marketed as a “beauty fluid” to women. It was sold to Procter and Gamble in 1985, which quickly and prodigiously expanded the brand to now include creams and cleansers for all skin types, soaps and body wash. The Olay mother brand now has eight “boutique” sub-brands.

And while it is a household name, visiting www.cosdna.com, and clicking on product names will show some synthetic ingredients that are not acceptable to the increasing number of women desirous of using only “natural and clean label” products. “The information age has dramatically changed the skin care landscape. Customers now have access to ingredient information that previously lived deep in cosmetic chemist laboratories,” observed Murphy D. Bishop, II, CEO/co-founder of The Better Skin Co. He credits the numerous bloggers and vloggers who have brought ingredient source, safety and efficacy directly to consumers who follow them. “Consumers now demand cleaner, safer formulas that work. It makes manufacturers accountable, which is a wonderful thing,” he added.

In agreement is Tammie Umbel, CEO of Virginia-based Shea Terra Organics, who noted that with a continued amount of education, mainly through blog posts, YouTube and online influencers, “individuals are waking up to the realization that toxic chemicals in their skin care and cosmetics are potentially threatening their health as well as the well-being of the planet.”

Umbel related that when she launched Shea Terra Organics, this peer-influential educational channel was practically non-existent. Social media and the internet share the trials and errors of what does and does not work in beauty and skin care. This connection through sharing, rather than marketing, she emphasizes, “has unleashed a growing trend toward exploration of plant remedies which often work more effectively for some than toxic chemical-based products.”

Beyond just looking good and feeling clean, Umbel expounded, there is a stronger concern and motivation among consumers to “clean toxic chemicals out of their systems and are sharing information with others.”

Indeed, this is true for products that are ingestible as well as topical (and of course, cleaning products). Cherie Boldt, marketing account director for Seabuck Wonders, Illinois, underscored that the skin care category has been evolving to embrace natural and clean ingredients only just a few steps behind the food and beverage category. “With the growth of the ingestible beauty products, the line between food and skin care has become less distinct, so it’s only natural that we would see this type of evolution with skin care products,” she remarked.

There have been some more recent trends concerning the evolution of modern anti-aging skin care. Umbel noted, “Sugar technology has been one of the biggest advances in skin care products; sugar has been made successfully into natural surfactants and emulsifiers.” And, women are looking to exotic plant ingredients that can nourish their skin. Shea Terra Organics specializes in abundant, sustainable ingredients found in African plants. “Many of the world’s most beneficial ingredients come from harsh, arid deserts like the Kalahari,” Umbel noted. Some of the ingredients featured in the company’s line include Africa’s gold tree butter, African potato, baobob, rooibos, ghassool, kigelli, marula, tsamma oil and West African shea butter, among others.

Boldt observed that more and more, many of us are now “drinking and chewing our way to healthier, more beautiful skin. Why not slather ingredients from the kitchen directly onto the skin? It appears there has been a major uptick in topically applying edible ingredients (particularly superfoods like kale, moringa and sea buckthorn). Dry brushing and masks with innovative ingredients such as clay, tea and charcoal have also become more popular.”

Antioxidants in topical products similarly are now being viewed as skin-beneficial, natural and safe, according to Whittel, who noted that the importance of antioxidants such as resveratrol in preventing oxidation that contributes to the appearance of aging skin is well established. Resveratrol is rapidly metabolized and eliminated from the body, curtailing its antioxidant ability.

Reserveage, she stated, employs TriActiv Technology, a sustained-release process that delivers standardized trans-resveratrol for up to four hours. “Not only does this help protect cells from oxidation for four hours, but it provides longer exposure for resveratrol to help activate the ‘longevity gene,’” she said.

Choice Products

There is quite a lengthy list of desirable skin care products that are natural and clean label, as well as sophisticated that will appeal to the most discerning of your customers.

The venerable Annemarie Börlind product lines address different skin concerns, using unique formulations of botanical extracts, according to Georgiana Rowley, brand manager of the New York-based company. “They are regenerative, moisturizing, soothing, protective, with strong antioxidants, infused with vitamins, ceramides or pH balancing characteristics,” she described. Further, she added, the brand’s R&D focuses on products that allow women to “grow” with the brand. For example, Rowley offered, if a woman uses the Rose Dew and Combination Skin systems in her 20s and 30s, she can transition to the LL Regeneration and Aquanature systems in her middle-age years. Products that women of any age and skin type can use are the Beauty Essentials (Orange Blossom Energizer, Eye Wrinkle Cream, Rose Blossom Revitalizer, Facial Firming Gel, Ceramide Vital Fluid).

Third-party dermatological labs independently test Börlind products for efficacy (as well as safety), Rowley added. Specifically, test results show “quantifiable reduction of wrinkle and line depth, increased hydration and regeneration, or in case of Börlind’s ZZ Sensitive line, reduction of skin reactivity to environmental allergens. The results are beautiful, younger looking and healthy skin.”

The Better Skin Co.’s products, said Bishop, follow the regularly updated Whole Foods ‘No’ List, which he deems one of the most comprehensive lists of unfavorable and questionable ingredients. “We use technologically advanced plant-based actives that have proven clinical results,” he said. The company offers a cleanser, Better Skin Lava Magik and a moisture-balance cream (Better Skin Mirakle Cream), a vitamin C serum (Epik C) to reduce appearance of fine lines (along with a stick that helps reduce pimples (Zit No More) looking, healthier looking skin. Beautiful skin is the best accessory,” he added.

Seabuck Wonders’ Ultimate Hair, Skin and Nails product is “perfect for daily use to support beautiful, shiny hair and strong nails,” Boldt said. It’s rich in omega-7 from sea buckthorn berry oil and also contains sea buckthorn seed oil, as well as biotin for the best beauty support possible. Omega-7 and other components of sea buckthorn oil, she said, can help to “restore the skin’s natural omega balance, protecting skin cells and aiding with the healing of cells. Our facial cream and body lotion are loaded with the rich omegas (3, 6, 9 and 7) naturally found in the sea buckthorn berry, and provide superior hydration and helps improve the health and feel of skin.”

Seabuck Wonders’ exfoliating cleanser contains natural jojoba esters that revive dull skin without roughness, Boldt said. Exfoliation boosts blood circulation in the skin, freshening complexion and texture; it also serves as a deeper cleanse, dislodging unwanted material in pores.

Shea Terra Organics’ skin care products are, said Umbel, based on the knowledge and traditional uses of indigenous peoples throughout the world, particularly in Africa. “I have collected herbal butters, oils and powders from dozens of villages. Many of these materials are unknown outside of their region,” Umbel shared, adding that another distinction is use of the whole plant material as opposed to an isolated part. “As opposed to extracts which generally have only a tiny fraction of a bioactive, we utilize the whole herb for its synergistic benefits on the skin,” she said.

Retailers that have more food and supplements may indeed want to expand the store’s personal care product department. More and more, consumers want to cut down on how many retailer visits they need to do in any given “errand” day. In addition, although women love to research new products on the internet, this cyber-exploration is done more leisurely. When they enter your doors for healthy ingestibles, remind them that you have indulgent and clean-label skin care (and body care and hair care and nail care!) products for them to try and enjoy. VR

For More Information:
Annemarie Börlind, www.borlind.com
Reserveage Nutrition, www.reserveage.com
Seabuck Wonders, www.seabuckwonders.com
Shea Terra Organics, www.sheaterraorganics.com
The Better Skin Co., www.thebetterskinco.com

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