From the label to the lab, ingredient knowledge is reshaping the beauty landscape.
More beauty consumers today are actively seeking out specific ingredients, clear proof of efficacy and clinically backed formulations – driven by growing concerns around safety, transparency and healthy ageing.¹ This heightened awareness has transformed how consumers evaluate beauty products: they are reading ingredient labels, researching actives online and making decisions based on functional benefits, not just brand appeal.
This shift is measurable. Mention of active ingredients in global personal care product launches grew at an average annual rate of 7% between April 2020 and March 2025, indicating that formulation is now a primary influence on purchase behaviour.² Trust is no longer built through marketing alone – it must be earned through formulation, transparency and performance.
Recent data shows that the percentage of consumers who consider full ingredient lists to be essential has risen steadily, with a significant increase in younger demographics. Top-searched ingredients such as salicylic acid, retinoids, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and peptides highlight a growing demand for efficacy, backed by science rather than just claims.³ Consumers are also more likely to seek out products that align with their personal health and environmental values – favouring clean, sustainable and multifunctional ingredients.
As a result, beauty brands face a new pressure: to not only keep up with changing ingredient trends, but to anticipate them. Ingredient innovation must be proactive, not reactive – powered by real-time insights, not retrospective reports. In this new landscape, brands that leverage data intelligence and regional consumer understanding to guide formulations are best positioned to stay relevant and build long-term trust.
The pressure on beauty brands to formulate smarter
As consumers sharpen their ingredient awareness, brands must formulate not only quickly – but intelligently. In 2025, high-performance actives are commanding attention, for example PDRN is gaining traction for its barrier-repair and regenerative potential.⁴ Peptides, essential for collagen support and skin rejuvenation, continue to rank among the most sought-after ingredients. Meanwhile, ectoin – a microbiome-friendly extremolyte – stands out as a protective, moisture-preserving powerhouse.
On the natural end, shea butter, celebrated for its rich fatty acid profile and anti-inflammatory benefits, is resurfacing as a top ingredient for 2025 formulation.⁵ These ingredient trends underscore consumer demand for comfort and efficacy-backed natural care – sometimes all rolled into one product.
But identifying what’s trending is no longer enough. Brands face mounting consumer demands for multifunctionality, ingredient transparency and verified performance. Surface-level trend reports leave brands trailing; what’s needed are actionable, real-time insights that explain why certain ingredients are rising – and in what contexts.
That’s where AI and real-time beauty intelligence becomes essential for brands. Platforms like Meiyume’s Beauty Intelligence Platform (BIP) are redefining how brands stay ahead.⁶ By analysing ingredient search behaviour, social media signals, regional conversations and regulatory shifts, the BIP enables Meiyume to uncover what ingredients are trending – and why.
As a global expert in end-to-end beauty solutions, Meiyume doesn’t stop at delivering insights. These findings are brought to life by in-house experts across innovation, formulation and product development, helping beauty brands translate their vision into reality with speed and precision.
Meiyume’s 2025 ODM collection is set to debut this August at an exclusive showcase titled ‘Your Beauty Blueprint’ at its Indonesia manufacturing hub, and embodies how intelligence fuels innovation.⁷ The collection features three new product ranges, each spotlighting trending and effective ingredients identified through the BIP and shaped by real consumer needs. Every range directly responds to what consumers are actively searching for today – translating data-driven insights into high-performance, market-ready beauty solutions that give brands a competitive edge.
Here’s a closer look at the three ranges in this forward-thinking collection, the trends that inspired their development and the spotlight ingredients leading the way.
1. Longevity: Slow-ageing
Consumers, particularly younger generations, are embracing a new approach to skincare: shifting from treating visible signs of ageing to preventing them before they start. This growing preference centres on supporting skin health at the cellular level, enhancing the skin’s natural ability to renew and repair and defending against early signs of ageing.⁸
In response to this shift, Meiyume developed Longevity, a skincare collection crafted to preserve the skin’s natural strength and radiant glow. Created for the new generation of beauty consumers, Longevity combines cutting-edge biotech with gentle, skin-compatible innovation to support and protect the skin before the first signs of ageing appear.
2. NovaTouch: Pregnancy and postpartum care
Safety is increasingly at the heart of personal care – especially during pregnancy and postpartum. Consumers are actively seeking products that are free from harsh chemicals, and prioritising those that are dermatologically or paediatrician-tested to ensure they are gentle enough for both mother and baby. In this sensitive stage of life, trust and reassurance matter as much as efficacy.⁸
NovaTouch is Meiyume’s answer to this need – a thoughtfully developed body care collection designed to support women through pregnancy and postpartum. Each formula is carefully crafted by combining scientific ingredients with natural ones to deliver both safety and performance.
Avocado, jojoba, olive and carrot oils nourish, soothe and improve skin elasticity, while Immortelle Oil and Magnesium Complex promote skin renewal and comfort. Shea Butter, Squalane and DeepMoist Complex provide deep hydration and reinforce the skin barrier.
3. BloomTots: Baby and child care
Parents today are seeking more from baby care – favouring products that offer gentle cleansing, lasting hydration, barrier support and relief from irritation or itchiness, all while promoting healthy skin development. Prebiotics have emerged as effective ingredients to support these needs by helping to balance and protect the delicate skin microbiome.⁸ Despite their potential, this approach remains underutilised in baby and child personal care, presenting a valuable white space opportunity.
In response to this gap, Meiyume developed BloomTots, a gentle, science-backed skincare and haircare range for babies and young children. Created to support microbiome balance, barrier repair and everyday protection from heat, pollution and sunlight, the range features BioEcolia®, a natural prebiotic, alongside spirulina maxima and ectoin to deliver antioxidant-rich, cell-protective care. This powerful combination helps restore delicate skin while providing daily defence against environmental stressors such as sunlight, heat and pollution.
Turning trends into tangible innovation
As the beauty landscape becomes increasingly shaped by informed, ingredient-conscious consumers, brands must shift from reactive trend-chasing to proactive, intelligence-led innovation. Ingredient transparency, multifunctionality and efficacy are no longer optional – they’re expected.
With tools like Meiyume’s BIP and the expertise of its in-house end-to-end development teams, beauty brands have the opportunity to move beyond surface-level trends and instead create meaningful, high-performance products that resonate deeply with today’s consumer.
But insight alone is not enough. Brands must also work with manufacturers who not only understand the trends, but also have the ingredient access, supplier reach and technical capabilities to bring those concepts to life.
With its newly announced partnership with Intercos, Meiyume strengthens its position as a go-to partner for beauty brands, offering an extensive global supplier network and proven formulation expertise. This combination of intelligence and access enables Meiyume to meet the evolving demands of beauty brands, making it the supplier to look to for end-to-end beauty solutions that are grounded in insight and built for impact.⁹
Meiyume is a global beauty solutions provider specialising in product innovation, formulation, packaging and manufacturing. By combining data-driven insights with deep industry know-how, Meiyume enables brands to bring compelling, consumer-relevant products to market – faster and smarter. The 2025 ODM collection is not just a showcase of trending actives, it is a testament to what happens when data meets creativity, and insight meets execution.
For beauty brands looking to stay ahead, the path forward is clear: formulate with intention, guided by intelligence.
References
- Euromonitor. Top 5 Trends in Beauty & Personal Care.
- Personal Care Insights. Age of ingredients: Innovating actives for efficacy, function and format.
- TheIndustry.beauty. New data reveals top skincare ingredients of 2024.
- Allure. The Biggest Skin-Care Trends of 2025 Will Level Up Your Routine.
- Formula Botanica. Top 10 cosmetic ingredients for 2025: Your exclusive guide.
- Meiyume. Beauty Intelligence Platform Case Study.
- Meiyume. The Blueprint for 2025 Beauty: A Showcase of New Formulations, Packaging & Partnership.
- Meiyume’s Beauty Intelligence Platform.
- Meiyume. A New Alliance Is Born in the Beauty World.
