How Brands Are Investing in Both Topicals and Supplements

At 84 years old, Martha Stewart says her secret to glowing skin is a daily green juice and a curated skin care lineup. 

Stewart’s inner-outer approach led to the launch of her new brand Elm Biosciences, which launched in September with a two-part system that includes a topical, A3O Elemental Serum, $135, and a corresponding ingestible Inner Dose Daily Skin Supplement, $50, that the brand has dubbed a Dual Pathway Skin System.

“What you eat, what you digest, how you sleep, all these things are just as important and more important than what you apply on your skin,” said Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali, Stewart’s business partner with whom she collaborated on the launch.

The dynamic duo aren’t the only ones betting on an inner-outer approach, and looking to crack the code of selling ingestibles and topicals under the same brand umbrella.

“Wellness is converging [with everything]. Beauty is no longer beauty. Tech is not going to be tech at some point. It’s all going to integrate with wellness,” said Rachel Hirsch, founder of Wellness Growth Ventures and The 2% Club. “This is the new norm.” 

Over the years, supplement-first brands like Nutrafol, Olly, Designs for Health and even biohacker Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint have entered the topical skin care segment, while newer companies like Arey, Timebeam and Elm Biosciences launched with a vision to have both categories from the beginning. As wellness and beauty continue to blur, more brands are betting on this 360-degree approach, but there are significant challenges, including scientific validation, a multipronged operational approach and a shift in retail. 

Aside from the lines blurring between beauty and wellness, additional market changes are driving the trend, including increased consumer demand, the desire to capture more wellness wallet-share and ideally, to provide better results.

“We’re in a different time and space, even then just a few years ago, in terms of [the advancements in] medicine and science,” said Hirsch. “Secondly, companies want to own more of your wallet… Given market dynamics and everyone being so scared of a deep recession, and what that means for spend and what will be dropped off versus what people will continue to spend on, there’s also a diversification play.” 

According to a report from McKinsey, wellness, which makes up more than $500 billion of annual spend in the U.S., is one of the categories consumers are most likely to keep in their routine; most describe it as essential rather than discretionary. 

While beauty brands have long dabbled in the supplements space, historically it has proven more difficult for a brand best known for topical products to move into ingestibles. For example, in 2023 Caliray launched its Get Lit Beauty Booster, $48, a “beauty boosting supplement” in partnership with Thorne, that has since been discontinued. 

Experts say there are several reasons topical-first brands struggle to carve out a space in the broader wellness market. 

“When companies launch skin care supplements, it’s still within a very narrow focus. Their focus is skin [with] hyaluronic acid internally, collagen internally, and only [focused on] skin,” said Timebeam founder Dr. Lamees Hamdan, noting that as an integrative medicine doctor, she looks at things holistically.

What consumers seem to be gravitating toward instead are ingestibles that target need states like sleep, stress and immunity, for example, that also impact skin longevity. That is the approach Hamdan has taken with her brand Timebeam, which launched direct-to-consumer in May, and includes ingestible and topicals powered by NAD+ boosters.

Industry experts also posit that often topical-first brands include high levels of biotin in their supplements, which consumers are increasingly avoiding due to its connection to acne flareups. Moreover, some brands tapped white label formulas, resulting in nearly identical products hitting the shelves around the same time.

While many brands have struggled to successfully market both ingestible and topicals, Nutrafol cracked the code with its science-first approach, which is crucial for creating products that work synergistically. Sam Archer, vice president of product development at Nutrafol, attributed the brand’s success in topicals to simply waiting until they developed their own science: a plant exosome based on the ashwagandha featured in its nutraceutical. 

“If we were going to formulate based on that limited research, we’d all be formulating the same products, and we’d be limited to how much we can address,” Archer said, emphasizing the importance of creating a topical that works in tandem with and improves the efficacy of a supplement. 

Experts agree that today, scientific validation is table stakes. “[Clinicals] are all retailers want to see these days,” Hamdan said. “You do need to prove because there’s just so much misinformation on the market.” 

For example, when Olly launched its body care line Mind + Skin, a line of vitamin-infused and mood scent-based body care, validated functionality was the key driver. 

“Consumers today are overwhelmed by choice but also increasingly looking for products that deliver more than just surface-level benefits. That guided our approach and positioning,” said Sarah McLaren, head of personal care at Olly. “We launched Olly Mood + Skin as an extension of the wellness benefits from Olly’s well-known supplements. Our goal is to bring together mood science and skin health, and by leveraging neuroscience-backed fragrance technology, we were able to offer something differentiated.” 

Similarly, Arey, which provides topical and ingestible solutions to support hair pigment and slow graying, has invested in clinical trials to prove the efficacy of its products, particularly when used together.

Of course, having both categories under one roof doesn’t come without its challenges. For starters, it’s required a lot of education. For Arey cofounder Jay Small, explaining the brand’s positioning to investors during its early days was difficult, as they all asked whether it was a supplement or topical company. Now, more people are starting to catch on to the concept, consumers especially.

Both Small and Bhanusali report that the brands’ duos that include both a topical and supplement are the bestsellers. Small emphasized that consumers now see the benefit of having both in their routine and compared having an ingestible and a topical to having fuel and a jumper cable.

Operationally, this approach can also cause some hurdles. “It’s a juggling act because the person who produces our milky serum is different from the person who produces my balms is different from the person who produces my supplements,” said Hamdan.

Meanwhile, at Nutrafol, it requires two separate research and development teams, and at Arey it’s all about a diverse advisory board which includes a dietitian, internal medicine doctor, dermatologist, fertility specialist and more. Additionally, “the challenge comes in a relatable cadence for replenishment,” said Small, as the topicals and supplements are produced in different facilities and have different shelf lives. 

For Olly, which has maintained its status as an accessible supplement brand for over a decade, it had to pivot to educate consumers on an entirely new segment. Offering mini sizes so that consumers can try the products before purchasing a full size has been crucial to the line’s success, according to McLaren.

“The biggest challenge wasn’t just standing out on crowded shelves but carving out a distinct reason for being in a category where consumers have endless options. Knowing that, we couldn’t rely on traditional claims alone and are continuously looking to prove efficacy and emotional payoff with our science-backed products,” she said. “Olly is known first for its incredible supplements, so expanding into the body care category requires us to continue to help consumers connect the dots between internal and external wellness and how intertwined it is.” 

As more brands come to market with both, retailers are also trying to figure out how best to merchandise. “We’ve worked very hard to merge the two together to help retailers understand that despite the delivery system, the effect is cohesive,” said Small. 

However, in many cases, the products from most of these brands are separated in stores. Founders highlighted Credo Beauty, which recently relaunched supplements, as a retailer that merchandises by brand with topicals and supplements together. 

“[A] key launch was Stripes Beauty, Naomi Watts’ menopause-focused brand, offering both topical treatments and supplements,” said Credo Beauty merchant Gabriella Ramirez. “We emphasized bundling, both digitally and on shelves, to remove the guesswork around building an effective routine. Our goal is to educate consumers on the power of combining topical and internal solutions, helping them understand that true beauty and wellness start from within.”

As retailers and brands invest more in both topicals and ingestibles, that level of education will only become more crucial.  “We are in a world where there is a lot more out there today for consumers to choose from, and so it’s a lot more confusing of a market today,” said Archer. “The education has shifted from explaining that supplements should be part of your hair health routine, to why specific supplements or what you need to look for in your supplements to ensure you’re getting the best out of your routine.” 

SIDEBAR: 

Arey The System, $100 

With a daily ingestible and serum, Arey’s The System supports overall hair health, while boosting and preserving hair pigment to slow down grays. 

Timebeam The Ultimate Skin Longevity Bundle, $223

Timebeam’s kit features two duos of a pixie stick-style supplement and topical for AM and PM, each powered by NAD+ boosters for skin longevity. 

Elm Biosciences Dual Pathway Skin System, $185

This duo of a daily ingestible and serum targets aging from the inside-out and outside-in for a more youthful appearance. 

Olly Mind + Skin, all $13

Olly’s Mind + Skin collection combines functional scents and skin-loving ingredients in body care formulas based on its bestselling supplements.