Ingredient of the Year: Beauty-from-within
On the back of heightened global interest in health and wellness, the concept of ‘beauty-from-within’ has gained fresh impetus in recent years. Our Ingredient of the Year category for Beauty-from-within looks to celebrate the best the industry has to offer in tailored nutritional solutions to maintain and enhance skin, nail and hair care across all age groups.
Today’s leading ingredients go beyond appearance to support skin barrier function, hydration, elasticity, cellular vitality, and stress resilience. Eligible entries may include ingredients such as collagen peptides, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, antioxidants, adaptogens, probiotics, postbiotics, and botanical extracts - all backed by scientific substantiation and consumer relevance.
Our Judges will look at how your ingredient meets specific needs and will base their scores on your evidence to demonstrate:
- A genuine consumer demand or requirement based upon a common issue or risk factor
- Solid scientific evidence to demonstrate a unique nutritional solution to this need or problem – including peer reviewed data to back up any performance or health claims made
- Commercial success and engagement from your core target market(s). Give numbers and examples of sales and applications that are available in the market
- What gives your ingredient the ‘X factor’ – something that makes it stand out from the crowd and edge out the competition (including evidence to back up claims)
To view the requirements for this category, click here to download .
- Entries for The NutraIngredients USA Awards, Ingredient of the Year categories are required to have the ingredient in a finished product that is commercially available in the United States.
SUMBIT YOUR ENTRY FOR 2026. The price to submit an entry for this category is $369.
Take advantage of our early bird discount:
Save $50 on each entry submission if you submit before January 9, 2026.
You can continue to amend your entry until the entry closing date.
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY
Entries close on Friday, March 20, 2026 at 11.55pm CT, Chicago.
- All entries need to abide to our Entry Terms & Conditions
- Once all entries have been received they will be reviewed by the NutraIngredients USA Awards Judging Panel made up of independent judges from the industry.
- The 2026 finalists will be confirmed and notified in May 2026.
- The 2026 winners will be announced during an awards’ presentation in Chicago on Monday, July 13, 2026