Beauty has always been more than skin deep, but now brands are looking to offer more than just a quick confidence boost from that swipe of red lipstick.
Post pandemic, we are more health conscious, finely attuned to our state of mental health and more aware of the transitory nature of our wellbeing than ever before. Understanding how the choices we make influence how we feel – and products and services that promise to help – is increasingly alluring.
Marita Burke, Chief MECCAMaginations Officer at MECCA, the popular beauty emporiums across Australia and New Zealand, confirms that such concerns will be a key focus.
“We can expect to see a greater breadth of brands in the wellness space as more customers adopt this philosophy when shopping beauty,” she says. “There will be a greater demand for products that improve one’s sense of health as well as services to support this, be that acupuncture, nutrition, naturopathy or meditation.”
Beauty products may offer traditional benefits such as colour (cosmetics) or hydration alongside more holistic benefits, like improving sleep or enhancing mood. Issues that sit at the convergence of beauty and
health like emotional, hormonal or sexual wellness, inflammatory skin and scalp concerns, hair loss, the skin-gut connection and more, are among the most visible targets for new and established brands alike.
New releases offer extended benefits
MECCA is embracing the evolution. Among its stable, Moon Juice includes adaptogenic reishi mushroom extract in its AHA exfoliant, while ‘energising’ fragrance brand Vyrao includes a ‘supercharged Herkimer diamond crystal energised by [the brand’s] healer, Louise Mita’. The brand says that Herkimer diamonds are known to clear, amplify and raise energy.
Elsewhere, The Nue Co’s latest functional scent Water Therapy uses olfactory technology to recreate the feeling of being around water to invoke an overall sense of calm and reduce stress. The fragrance also includes notes of seaweed, salt, cardamom and rose.
Fragrance giant Givaudan has recently developed its DreamScentz™ technology that helps beauty brands create products that use scent to optimise the quality of sleep. It’s based on the link between fragrance, positive mood states, and a proper night’s sleep and comes with a number of studies that show sleep-enhancing fragrances led to a significantly higher quality of sleep than no fragrance. Not only in terms of how the participants felt afterwards, but on a scientific level as well. It can already be found in products including Dr. LeWinn’s Ultra R4 Collagen Surge Overnight Sleep Mask.
Beauty supplements grow
Meanwhile, personalised vitamins and supplements that take a targeted ‘inside out’ approach to beauty and improved quality of life continue to grow beyond basic skin and hair offerings to include a wider focus on
skin health and resilience, energy, hormones, and cognitive function. Matcha, a type of powdered, high-quality green tea, is increasingly visible as both a energy-boosting supplement and as an antioxidant-rich skincare ingredient, while melatonin, often found in sleep-regulating ingestibles, is also being used in skincare for its antioxidant properties.
Neutrogena is about to bring the approach to the masses with 3D printed personalised supplements called SkinStacks. The vegan, sugar-free gummies are created by first using Neutrogena’s digital skin assessment that involves taking a 180-degree selfie using the brands’ Skin360 app. The detected results inform a ‘printed’ edible seven-layer supplement ‘stack’, each layer containing a nutrient like that caters to a specific skin concern.
Five to try:
While many existing brands are embracing the idea of delivering wellness benefits alongside the primary intention of their products, newer brands are keeping this intention at their forefront. While few studies have shown proven benefits beyond their
Kora Organics
Created by Miranda Kerr, Kora Organics is a popular Australian natural skincare brand that uses botanical extracts and organic ingredients to nourish skin as well as adding a sprinkling of wisdom about the benefits of crystals. The brand’s newest serum contains bakuchiol and alfalfa extract but is also infused with amethyst and rose quartz crystals too.
Vyrao
Australian Yasmin Sewell has held some of the biggest jobs in fashion in the UK and Europe, but during the pandemic she changed lanes, founding functional fragrance brand Vyrao. The unique scents are blended with the intention of boosting the wearer’s energy and mood and come with a tiny crystal in the bottle for extra good vibes, should you believe in the stone’s mystical properties.
The Nue Co
One of the innovators in the space where health and beauty meet, US-based brand The Nue offers range of dietary supplements and wellbeing products including functional fragrances said to help with the likes of improving stress, invigorate mental energy and boost focus.
Vida Glow
Australian beauty success story Vida Glow is a line of beauty-boosting ingestible supplements designed to improve collagen, acne, hair health and skin radiance as well as more traditional topical skincare for an inside out and outside in approach.
Stripes
A new brand created by actor Naomi Watts to address a number of the the changes women experience during menopause. Stripes line-up includes cleanser, cooling face mist, thickening scalp serum, hydrating vaginal gel, probiotic supplement, body oil and more.
