Nutricosmetics are beauty products including pills, tablets, liquids or foods that offer a beauty angle or claim. These products can be found primarily in Asia.  In Japan, 18% of all dietary supplements sold in 2010 had a beauty positioning and China’s beauty supplement industry was worth US$ 6 billion dollars in 2010.

In Western Europe, specifically the UK, there are a growing number of dietary supplements on the market aimed at enhancing beauty. The two largest are Perfectil and Imedeen. However, The European Food Safety Authority has been tightening regulation on food and health claims, making it harder for companies to launch products with specific beauty claims.

Nutricosmetics have not taken off in other key markets such as the USA. The company Borba has recently partnered with Walgreens to stake a claim in the nutricosmetics market. Sales assistants from Borba will be on-hand at Walgreens to provide advice.

In order to grow, nutricosmetics companies will have to focus on emerging markets. For instance, Brazil had a supplement industry worth around 400 million US dollars in 2010, but only 13 million was taken by supplements with a beauty positioning.

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