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Skin food: how traditional Chinese medicine is driving millennial beauty trend
- Ingredients used in TCM are increasingly found in beauty products as part of the ‘beauty from within’ trend
- Sales of beauty-oriented food supplements are increasing, especially in the United States
Reading Time:5 minutes
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Schisandra may not ring a bell for even the most enthusiastic of beauty buffs, but most have probably heard of Moon Juice, the Los Angeles company that touts “dusts” and serums to aid in everything from low sex drive to dull skin.
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One of their key ingredients, the schisandra berry, is an ancient tonic in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that was traditionally used to treat the lungs and kidneys and then was linked to beauty.
The influence of TCM is growing in the modern beauty world, but it’s only in the past several years that it has been thrust to the front lines as part of a larger ingestible supplement trend. Nutrition Insight, an aggregator of nutrition news, calls “beauty from within” a “mega-trend” this year, and notes that the United States is the most dynamic market in this space, with an 11 per cent increase in launches of beauty-oriented food supplements.
Meanwhile, ingredients used in TCM such as goji berries, dates, pears and mushrooms are being seen in everything from vitamins and tea to acne treatments and beauty masks.
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In Moon Juice’s products, which gained somewhat of a cult following thanks to plugs from Gwyneth Paltrow, schisandra berry is promoted as a “beautifying stamina booster”, and its antioxidant and stress-reducing properties touted.
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