Tru Niagen, the California-based market leader for NAD support supplements, is betting on the power of young beauty consumers with its newest launch.
“When we began [eight years ago, the customer] was over 60 years of age and hyper concerned with aging,” Robert Fried, CEO of Niagen Bioscience, told Glossy. “But sometime in the last two to three years, it dramatically shifted down.”
As previously reported by Glossy, the NAD support product category made waves in wellness and beauty this year after fully infiltrating the longevity sector. NAD is shortened for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, a co-enzyme that naturally occurs in every cell of the human body but begins to diminish with age. The market is mostly occupied by OTC oral NAD+ precursors that boost NAD levels.
Earlier this month, parent company Niagen Bioscience reported a quarterly sales increase of 33% to reach $34 million. Tru Niagen sales made up $26 million of this sum and grew 44% year over year.
Fried told Glossy that the company’s fastest growing demographic is people in their 30s. “These are highly-educated people that are investing in their health,” he said. Also rapidly growing are women looking to conceive, professional athletes and people who exercise regularly.
“Wellness has evolved,” Fried told Glossy. “It’s gotten much, much younger, and it has expanded beyond the idea of not aging to [the act of] looking after our general health, and general health means a lot of things, including recovery from workouts, beauty and even fertility.”
Fried and his team hope to create an approachable entry point for new, young consumers through its beauty launch while also growing purchase size with existing consumers.
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Announced Thursday, the newest offering is called Tru Niagen Beauty and includes a cocktail of ingredients to support skin elasticity, moisture retention, and the appearance and strength of hair and nails, all while boosting NAD+ levels. A 30-day supply retails for $62. It launched DTC, although Tru Niagen products also sell at Target and Amazon.
“You see [skin care and skin health] rising in the marketplace, but the skin is almost an afterthought [when it comes to the power of NAD+ support],“ said Andrew Shao, Ph.D., svp of global scientific and regulatory affairs at Niagen Bioscience.”But the skin is the largest organ and very NAD-dependent.”
Dr. Shao believes there is white space in the market for anyone concerned with their skin health to be taking NAD support supplements. To supercharge the new beauty formula, the team utilized hyaluronic acid, biotin, grape seed extract, vitamin E, astaxanthin and Niagen, the company’s signature NAD+ booster, in a 100-milligram dose that easily stacks onto a user’s current Tru Niagen regimen. For example, a classic Tru Niagen dose is 300 milligrams, with some consumers taking up to 1,000 milligrams per day. The beauty supplement adds just 100 milligrams to one’s overall routine.
Tru Niagen leads the NAD category but has been slow to add a beauty-focused offering compared to its contemporaries. For example, within NAD-focused brands, Elysium offers a beauty-focused supplement called Mosaic; L’Oreal-backed Time Line released a skin-care line 2023; and new supplement darling Cymbiotica has a Beauty Glow drink mix.
Niagen Bioscience also owns Niagen Plus, which offers NAD support products formulated for an IV drip administered at wellness facilities like Next Health, Remedy Room and Drip Hydration.
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As the NAD market has grown, so has the research supporting new product development. “We know of research that’s going to come out in the next 12 months [that will] … exponentially grow the industry,” Fried said. Until then, “if somebody gets into the space because they’re interested in beauty, that’s good, but they’re going to back-door into better health, as well.”
