According to the Kline Group and GIA, marketing research companies, the world market of nutricosmetics amounts to $1 billion at present and should reach about $4.5 billion in 2017.

This new precept of beauty from within promises to be a very lucrative segment, so it justifies the interest some brands have for it. For example like from the kind of attendees at the Vitafoods show in Geneva: Yves Rocher, Boots and L’Oréal, all in search of these new solutions that you can drink up, bite into and swallow down.

Prevention and innovation A new generation of cosmetics promising to fill in what is lacking in depth, being diffused through the blood to places in the body showing a deficiency, appears to be an alternative to the invasive techniques like cosmetic surgery. Pioneering in this sector, the brand Oenobiol had to face the combined ambition of Nestlé and L’Oréal, who through their brand Inneov are aiming for the position of European leaders. In parallel, Biocyte, founded by Philippe Bruno, won an award at Victoires de la Beauté in 2010 for its direct action on prevention, as explains co-director Frédéric Levy: “Our aim is innovation on the one hand, and on the other effectiveness. We provide the dermis with preventive solutions, rounding out the actions of cosmetics that act on the epidermis. If you think about the three mainstays of the skin that are collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid, the skin has to be nourished, hydrated and firmed up by following these intensive treatments of about three months.”

Other initiatives come from small to midsize companies like D-Lab, which studies the lifestyles of women with long busy days: “I imagined founding a brand so I no longer had to be the docile witness of time going by, a daily reflex that ensures healthy skin that radiates,” announces founder Fleur Phelipeau. “We do everything possible to make women on the move more beautiful longer, through internal treatments that supplement beauty rituals. Far beyond being occasional skincare, the brand keeps up the body for the future.” Yet, in spite of the opportunity that’s hovering, it’s easy to observe that neither Europe nor France are the standards. “In France, food is not functional,” explains Sandie Jaidane, consultant/conceptualizer of Beauty Food Summit (to discover in 2012 at the next Vitafood show in Genève). “Our food is epicurean, convivial, dictated by pleasure. We know that good health rests on drinking a lot of liquids, eating lots of fruit. In this sense, we feel less of a need to consume supplements. In addition, marketers may well have innovated with herbal treatments, but they have not at all worked on taste, which causes a real slowdown in our culture. The second slowdown is more linked to results, because our medical profession doesn’t yet recognize these type of products, while the distribution channels for them are the pharmacies. For nutricosmetics to happen in France, it will have to design real cosmetic packaging and be marketed with skincare. Supermarket chains seem, for example, to be the next El Dorado if you believe the results, well ahead of pharmacies.”

Priska Sarraméa

Beyond Beauty MAG #33