The inside-out beauty boom? Nutricosmetics start-up D+ For Care says ‘the whole world is ready’

Founded in March 2018, D+ For Care started out with its Made in France Day+ liquid dietary supplement ‘sticks’ targeting improved skin, hair and nail health. Made from a blend of collagen, organic spirulina, hyaluronic acid, pomegranate, zinc and organic lemon essential oil, the concentrates had been designed to drink directly and daily.

This week, the company stretched its offering further with the launch of a second supplement product – a ‘Dodo’ sleep spray, made from a blend of melatonin, lemon balm, passionflower, chamomile, griffonia 5-HTP and reishi, designed to be sprayed directly into the mouth to aid sleep.

“We actually have ten products set to be launched this year,”​ said Claire Despagne, founder and CEO of D+ For Care. “…To me, it feels like the whole world is ready for nutricosmetics to be the biggest thing ever,”​ Despagne told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.

Holistic wellness – moving beyond traditional beauty​

Asked what type of products could be expected from D+ For Care in the coming months, she said: “The one thing that is really important is that I’m not going to be solely focusing on beauty, for many reasons. I strongly believe Day+ is the perfect beauty supplement for women aged 30-75, so at this stage there isn’t much more I can contribute there.” ​

There was, however, a plethora of other areas in life that contributed to ‘beauty’, she said, such as stomach health, stress management and sleep, and this would be the direction D+ For Care would take in future product developments.

“I really want to go towards a more holistic and global approach to beauty, by creating supplements that every single time are innovative, playful, easy to take, tasty, efficient and also just as cool as possible,”​ she said.

“…If you combine the right holistic approach to your cosmetics and what you eat and how much you sleep, you honestly have the best combination ever. More than ever, I think people are looking for a natural solution to be prettier and younger, because of Instagram and all those pretty ladies out there. There has never been a more appropriate time.”​

Regulation ‘still a bit behind’, consumer education still necessary​

Whilst D+ For Care incorporated a vast range of active ingredients in its beauty supplements, Despagne said the company had opted for natural messaging and a wellbeing focus rather than making any beauty claims, because of the regulatory environment in Europe.

“We are actually lobbying to try and make things change in that space​,” she said, to enable claims to be made on key actives like spirulina and collagen, for example.

“It’s just crazy because there’s so much demand and so much happening in the supplements area, but I think regulation is still a bit behind,” ​she said.

However, this didn’t dampen the level of opportunity in the beauty supplements space, Despagne said. “The amazing thing about supplements is that people who take them, generally, are strong believers and they just know and do their homework on the benefits of x, y and z plants (…) It’s an amazing industry; consumers are very understanding and want what is best for themselves, and they’re open to conversation.”​

There was still space for consumer education, though, particularly as business grew, she said.

“There’s this little thing called ‘the internet’ where everybody thinks they know everything. There’s a lot of good things online, but a lot of crap online as well, so we have to be super honest. We’re very transparent about our ingredients and where we source them.”​

Maintaining ‘the amazing time’ for nutricosmetics​

As nutricosmetics grew in general, Despagne said there would also be a need to monitor products and companies more closely. “Competition has come in, which is great because you can’t transform a market on your own – you need competitors, however, I think the opportunity is also combined with the most dangerous and biggest challenge: that a lot of bad products are being created and sold.”​

For every single ‘good’ product on the market, she suggested there were another ten ‘bad’ ones that risked a negative image being built up around beauty supplements. “That, for me, is the greatest challenge. We should not allow people to make products that have basically the minimum of a mineral, just so they get a claim.”​

“…I just wish everybody would be self-conscious about the fact we need to be putting good products out there, otherwise this amazing time that nutricosmetics is having is not going to last,”​ she said.

Asked where she hoped D+ For Care would be in the next five years, Despagne said: “It’s going to sound a bit cocky, but I want D+ For Care to just be the biggest supplement brand in the whole universe (…) Eventually, my dream is that every single family member of every age can find something for them within my brand. I want to be a wellness brand making a difference and providing people with amazing solutions to make them feel better.”​

D+ For Care would also invest heavily in being eco-friendlier and more socially responsible, she said.