The approach to beauty has definitely changed in the last few years, even more so since the beginning of the health crisis. The boundaries between beauty, health, and well-being, are blurring. Thinking that having beautiful skin requires a healthier lifestyle is becoming more and more mainstream among consumers.
Beauty comes from the inside
Understanding nutricosmetics means that we need to revise our approach to beauty and skincare. Applying a cream or a mask to our face to get rid of imperfections temporarily is one way to go about it. But, thanks to nutrients, micronutrients, and other active ingredients, the new way is treating ourselves from the inside and reaping the visible benefits.
The new Ingredients and the importance of taste
These new edible cosmetics are available in all forms, from pills, powders, or ready-to-drink beauty products. The trend is growing, and the cosmetics industry is welcoming new active ingredients, which are about to change consumers’ beauty routines, moving a big part of them from bathroom to kitchen.
Interestingly, many high-performing beauty-from-within ingredients, collagen and MSM included, often don’t taste or smell very pleasant. So, when we combine them in a formulation, we can get, what we call, an unbalanced product. We will, of course, with the right concentration, achieve high function and performance on the one hand. Still, on the other, we will get a poor user experience because of low palatability, especially with highly concentrated products.
And if we consider taste as one of the essential competitive drivers in nutricosmetics, pursuing this balance between performance and palatability is of the highest importance. The logic behind that is that the consumers might temporarily sacrifice the poorer user experience in terms of bad taste as long as they can see the visible results.
But we have to consider that dreading the taste of your morning beauty drink could be one of the main reasons for consumers dropping the newly developed habits. So as soon as they find an alternative product that tastes better, is more convenient, or more natural but still provides the same function, they will make the switch rather quickly.
Taking that into account and working specifically on high-performing collagen formulations, in the past years, we spent a big part of our R&D efforts on developing our own masking technology that allows us to reach high palatability even at the highest product concentrations.
VELIOUS™ Masking Technology
VELIOUS™ Masking Technology was developed to enable the elimination of the strong taste of collagen, known to be a powerful ingredient with a very invasive aftertaste. It gives the products a more rounded and whole body. Therefore, our formulations are designed to meet high consumer standards, delivering advanced products with superior organoleptic properties.
Just recently, to officially evaluate the performance of our Velious™ masking technology, we conducted an official sensory study in cooperation with VIST’s Institute for Cosmetics. The goal was to determine if the product using Velious™ masking technology performs better regarding its perceived palatability than the other three tested products.
Therefore, the study focused on pairwise comparison of the product using Velious™ with products without it. All compared products had the same concentration of active substances but differed in the presence of sugar, sweeteners, flavors, and form (powder vs. liquid).
The results confirmed the superior palatability of the product using our masking technology. In addition, the product using Velious™ was chosen as more palatable in all pairwise comparisons by the majority of the 30 panelists.
If you would be interested in a deeper understanding of the study or our Velious™ masking technology, don’t hesitate to send us a message. We’ll be happy to answer any questions or arrange a whole sensory experience for your team!