Age of ingredients: Innovating actives for efficacy, function and format

As consumers become more informed about active ingredients, demand is stretching beyond well-established options like hyaluronic acid and peptides toward next-generation actives such as NAD+, exosomes, and ingestible botanicals. This shift is reshaping how beauty and personal care products are formulated, marketed, and understood, placing efficacy, transparency, and functionality at the core of innovation.

Innova Market Insights data suggets that active ingredient mentions in global personal care product launches grew at an average annual rate of 7% between April 2020 and March 2025. Skin care represented 49% of NPDs, with hair care seeing a 13% rise in active use over the same period. 

Across all segments, the market researcher indicates that demand is increasingly shaped by efficacy, sustainability, and alignment with personal values.

Personal Care Insights speaks with experts from Expanscience, Brenntag, and Innova Market Insights about the drivers behind today’s most in-demand active ingredients.

“The beauty and personal care markets are sitting on what a potential ‘age of ingredients’ may look like — the spotlight has shifted significantly from brand loyalty toward a strong sense of overall ingredient awareness. This paradigm shift in consumer attitudes is a key driving force behind the growing marketability of active ingredients across multiple trends,” says Innova Market Insight’s project lead for Beauty Personal Care and Home division.

Evolving age focus

The anti-aging conversation is undergoing a transformation, with consumers seeking gentler, more biomimetic alternatives to traditional actives. Innova’s project lead spotlights NAD+, saying: “The playbook with which brands are positioning the ingredient is also uniquely centered around its newness and novelty regarding the evolving approach to anti-aging trends.”

She explains that the ingredient shows a 16% increase in CAGR in the last five years, ending March 2025. The project lead attributes its increasing popularity to the changing tone of anti-aging innovations toward renewal, rejuvenation, regenerative, and longevity skin care trends.

“In brightening trends, you have glutathione and niacinamide growing rapidly in launches, and in age renewal trends, you see copper peptides and alt-retinols making their mark, but interestingly, the focus is coming back toward collagen,” the project lead notes.

Collagen’s comeback is part of the rise in “skin-identical” actives. “The narrative of collagen is shifting,” the Innova analyst says, “and it is carving a renewed spotlight in the skin care space by piggybacking multiple trends.”

Clinical validation and conscious sourcing are defining the next generation of actives.Data-driven consumer awareness

Ingredient-led marketing has evolved from trend to expectation. Consumers increasingly understand what actives do and expect transparency and credibility in product claims.

Innova Market Insights’ recent global surveys reinforce this claim: vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, and peptides were the top preferences in facial skin care. In hair care, aloe vera, keratin, collagen, and botanical extracts dominated, while aloe vera, antioxidants, and zinc oxide were the top choices in sun care.

This growing awareness, however, brings new responsibilities. “We are living in an era of exponentially growing consumer awareness that is fueled by the accessibility of information,” says the Innova Market Insights project lead.

“In this space, ‘active ingredient’ as a term holds worth and added value, and indiscriminately using it does more harm than good.”

She warns that companies must exercise caution in their marketing in this space if they want to be identified as a “serious” and “ingredient-driven” company.

She says brands that succeed are those that match novel actives with clear positioning and functional credibility. “Take The Ordinary, for instance. Their marketing is not centered around over-the-top claims, and they preserve a rather minimalist approach when it comes to communicating to their audience — which they always keep restricted to the ‘serious skin care’ user at surface level.”

Ingestible actives

As ingredient literacy evolves, so do the formats in which actives are delivered. Consumers are no longer looking solely at what a topical product contains — they are exploring solutions that work from the inside out.

This shift has given rise to a new breed of ingestible beauty actives that target skin health and emotional well-being.

“Globally, consumers increasingly prioritize preventive health, natural wellness solutions, and eco-conscious lifestyles. This is reflected in the rapid growth of the nutraceutical market — valued at over US$21 billion in the US,” Mélanie Serre, cosmetic and nutraceutical product manager at Expanscience, tells us.

“Consumers are no longer focusing solely on external treatments; they are actively seeking solutions that work from the inside out. Active ingredients play a central role in this evolution.”Ingestible beauty is gaining ground as consumers seek inside-out solutions for skin and stress.

For Expanscience, this shift marks an opportunity to extend its experience in botanical actives into the nutraceutical space with Tulsinity Bio, an extract of holy basil formulated to support both skin and mental well-being.

The extract is intended to be used as a companion to Expanscience’s topical tulsi-based active Ayuredi.

“Ayuredi has shown scientifically supported efficacy in protecting the skin against the cumulative impact of environmental and psychological stressors,” says Serre. “Tulsinity Bio offers a complementary ingestible solution, creating a robust in-and-out approach to skin wellness.”

In-house studies on Tulsinity Bio demonstrated that the extract reduces oxidative and inflammatory processes triggered by stress, helps preserve skin barrier function, and supports hydration, collagen, and elastin levels.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot clinical trial with 40 volunteers found improved skin elasticity and tone and reduced sensitivity. Participants also reported increased self-esteem and a perceived reduction in skin dryness.

While positioned to appeal to wellness-oriented consumers, its inclusion in nutraceutical formulations also reflects the broader demand for functional actives that simultaneously address stress, skin health, and sustainability.

Formulating with function

Sun care is one of the most tightly regulated categories in personal care, yet it is also a hotbed for functional innovation. UV filters such as bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine (BEMT) and methylene bis-benzotriazolyl tetramethylbutylphenol (MBBT) are both regulatory essentials but are increasingly seen as functional actives in their own right.

UV filters are evolving beyond regulation into high-performance, daily-use essentials.Brenntag recently unveiled two UV filter ingredients, Sarasorb BEMT and Sarasorb MBBT. 

Dennis Neumann, Brenntag’s business manager of Beauty and Care DACH and Nordic, tells us: “It’s fair to describe them as functional, active ingredients in the context of sun protection. They directly contribute to the product’s efficacy by absorbing or reflecting UV rays, which makes them essential for achieving SPF and UVA protection claims.”

“While they’re regulated from a legal standpoint, they’re also very much functional when it comes to what the product actually does.”

“Filters like Sarasorb BEMT and Sarasorb MBBT outperform many traditional options by maintaining efficacy under prolonged sun exposure while delivering improved compatibility in formulations,” Neumann says.

These ingredients are touted to contribute to more non-greasy textures, aligning with consumer expectations for comfortable, daily-use sun care products.

Prototypes like Brenntag’s Star Shield four-in-one sunscreen and Sun and Sea Mist hair spray reflect this evolution, combining photostable protection with light sensorial profiles. Consumers now expect sun care to be multifunctional, invisible, and suitable for daily wear — standards that high-performance actives aim to meet.