Beverages tipped to be the future of the beauty food segment

A recent report from market research company Leatherhead Foods highlighted beauty beverages as growing segments in the US, UK, France and Germany.

In the US, the market potential of soft drinks purporting skin benefits has attracted the attention of some of the mainstream operators such as Hansen Beverage and Jones Soda as well as multinationals like Nestlé and Kraft.

Fortified waters are leading the way, and ingredients include vitamins, minerals and botanical extracts, according to the report.

A number of recent launches from smaller players in the region include Noah’s Naturals ‘Drink Yourself Gorgeous’, a daily drink in powdered form, and a resveratrol-enhanced water from Anti-Aging Products.

In the UK, the Sip range of fortified drinks was launched back in 2007 and is available in upmarket supermarkets such as Waitrose, the food hall of department store Harvey Nichols, and the natural and organic retailer the Whole Foods Market.

A more recent launch in the UK is a range of beauty juice drinks launched earlier this year by Daniels Group under its Johnsons Juice brand. The range, Ju, claims to ‘cleanse your body from the inside out’, and includes zinc, iron and vitamin c as well as aloe vera and goji berries.

France boasts Vichy Célestins range ‘Complexe Anti-Age’. Well known for its mineral water from the springs of Vichy, the company now boasts an anti-aging range as well as its ‘Draino-Coach’ product, which claims to help eliminate toxins.

Anja Dahten from analyze & realize, a Germany-based research and consulting firm on natural products, explained to CosmeticsDesign how the beverage was becoming a popular form because of its inherent hydration benefits and ease of formulation.

“The current trend is a move towards beverages as you can put a lot of different ingredients in, and you already have the hydration effect because of the drink.”​

Dairy products claiming to have skin benefits such as yogurts represent another product category highlighted as relatively developed in the Leatherhead report; despite the sector having suffered some very high profile product failures.

Danone’s Essensis yoghurt was rolled out across a number of European countries in 2007 but has since been pulled from the market as sales did not meet expectations.

However, according to Leatherhead Foods, the launch of high profile products like Danone’s does much to raise the profile of the sector, even if they are then removed. In the case of Danone’s Essensis, it even led to similar product launches from rival brands and some retailer own-brands.

These thoughts were echoed by Dr Joerg Gruenwald, co founder of analyze and realize, who said a high failure rate is normal in new products and that the experience of some unsuccessful product ranges in the beauty food sector should not be taken as harbingers of doom for the future of the segment.