Nextera launches super food cosmetics

Nextera, which is a division of Woodbridge Labs, and specializes in niche personal care brands, has developed its Skin Appétit line with the help of leading food nutritionist Keri Glassman. The range has been created using what Glassman says are leading super foods that are usually essential to a balanced and nutritionally rich diet. The five product line includes moisture balm stick, detoxifying cleanser, eye firming gel, a night serum and a daily moisturizer with an SPF15. The range has been formulated using Nutrx8Complex, which includes blueberries, cantaloupe, red grapes, yogurt, honey, figs, walnuts and dark cocoa chocolate, together with the further fortification of vitamin B5, vitamin E, macadamia seed oil, vitamin C, aloe and tea tree oil. Although all of these ingredients have been incorporated into a range of different skin care product lines in the past, it is thought to be the first time that they have all appeared in the same line. Skin Appétit was developed during the course of 2007 and will start to be shipped out to national retail chains in the US in the course of the next few weeks, where it will become a sub-category of the now huge naturals market. The launch adds to a range of food-inspired beauty products by the company that also includes the 40 Carrots skin care line - enriched with beta-carotene and retinol - together with its food ingredients-inspired Bath Lounge range. Although both food ingredient-based cosmetic products and beauty foods have been creeping onto the market in ever growing numbers over the past couple of years, it is during the course of this year when the trend is really expected to make a significant impact on retail shelves, with a number of major launches mooted for the category. Horst Rechelbacher, the founder of Aveda, says he is readying a new line of cosmetic products through his most recent business venture Intelligent Nutrients. One of the most identifiable points about his new line is the fact that it will not have any petrochemicals and will be largely formulated with food grade ingredients, something that should make the line largely edible. And as is the case with the Nextera line, Rechelbacher is also working with food scientists to develop the new cosmetics line, as opposed to personal care formulators. A study published at the end of 2006 by Kline & Company found that the global nutricosmetics market was valued at $1bn, a figure the company says is set to double over the next five-year period with Euromonitor claiming it had already grown by 50 per cent between 2002 and 2006.