The beauty of food: lük beautifood hopes to expand in Asia as clean beauty trends takes off

As consumers demand for quality products without the synthetic dyes, fragrances, preservatives, petroleum oil or toxins like mercury increases, brands like lük beautifood have been gaining more popularity in the cosmetics market.

One eye on Asia

The brand has been available globally with footprints in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and Hong Kong.

With only a small team, the brand admits there’s a limit to what it can do, but it is slowly working towards expanding its presence in Asia as the trend is accelerating very quickly in the region.  The company shares that on average, the natural beauty trend is growing 1% faster across the globe.

“We’ve spent time getting the foundation right in Australia, our home territory, but now we have more time to put focus on Australasia,”​ it said.

Recently, the Australian-brand has found a distribution partner in Korea and is in talks to move forward in Taiwan. While the brand has not been in Korea long, it has already been featured in Korean Vogue, signalling healthy interest in their toxin-free products in the market.

“There’s a lot of consistency [in the markets] with clean beauty being such a big focus. The emerging trend of clean beauty is forming a strong foundation. There’s a real synergy globally as people become more informed and shoppers are able to make more informed choice.”​

More interest, more players

As the trend continues to generate interest, it is inevitable that large beauty conglomerates like Unilever and L’Oréal have begun dabbling in the natural beauty trend.

Regardless, the company said that all brands will have to learn to co-exist in the shared space. “Bigger brands use us to understand the trends that are emerging in clean beauty, and any interest in the category will benefit all of us.”​

Inspired by the kitchen

Founded five years ago, lük beautifood was established by Cindy Lüken, an entrepreneur with food science, product design, and culinary backgrounds. Previously, Lüken founded Lüken & May, a successful brand of biscuits which she has since sold.

After inadvertently witnessing how lipstick was being made, Lüken came to a realisation that these colour cosmetics that have become part of our daily lives were more like “chemical cocktails” ​instead of healthy, skin-loving recipes.

What she saw made her question what exactly she was “feeding” her skin and wonder how it impacted the people around her, namely her two young children.

She came to realise that “what we feed our skin today, walks and talks tomorrow”. ​This epiphany led her to start experimenting with food as cosmetic ingredients without added chemicals or synthetics.

The result was a range of 12 lipsticks made with a potent mix of active food ingredients that nourish and protect the body and provide a guilt-free beauty experience.

Among the skin-loving ingredients used in lük beautifood lipsticks are whole nuts, seeds, grains, fruits and vegetables that work together to provide consumers with products that contain antioxidants, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and phytonutrients.

The importance of story

The narrative of an empowered mother disrupting the beauty space to create something that protects and nourishes the body instead of harming it is a simple story that all consumers can relate to, said the company.

“There’s a synergy there with how people feel. It’s how they feel they want to be aspirationally, like they want to do something for themselves. With the brand, what it can offer is to be a part of something, a person trying to do a little better.”​