3 beauty trends from Natural Products Expo West

Beef tallow, honey, skin care for all skin tones and simplified beauty routines were on the list of our editors' top takeaways from Natural Products Expo West 2025. Find out more.

March 18, 2025

With 6.7% growth in 2024, the natural beauty and personal care space is hot. Thanks to factors such as the rise of Gen Z's purchasing power, social media and increased consumer scrutiny around the ingredients in personal care products, this is currently the fastest growing category in the natural products industry. Below, our editors share three stand-out trends from the new Conscious Beauty pavilion and other booths at Natural Products Expo West.

It’s official: The TikTok beef tallow trend has gone mainstream. This year, we saw a proliferation of brands promoting tallow products that weren’t just for the frying pan. Proponents say using beef tallow can help moisturize and protect the skin barrie,r due to its occlusive nature. Three brands that caught our editors' eyes include Moo Elixir, a skincare line focused on integrating beef tallow into different applications for the face, such as toning mist, moisturizer and cleanser; Rumina Naturals, a skincare brand for new moms, which has a tallow cream made to sooth pregnant bellies; and Fatworks, an early pioneer in pasture-raised cooking fats and skincare. But trust us, there were many more.

Beef tallow is no longer just for frying. These are just some of the skin-care brands using the ingredient.

Related:The Natural List - Key takeaways from Natural Products Expo West

We also noticed brands incorporating the nourishing benefits of beef tallow and honey (another popular ingredient throughout the Expo halls) into one jar. The Vanman Company and Stoked Beekeeping Co. both had a honey tallow balm on display, with Stoked Beeking Co. sourcing Manuka Honey from New Zealand, and the Vanman Company offering both a beef or bison tallow option.

Beauty and skin care routines are time consuming. Those of us who lack the time or consistently forget to complete a multi-step regimen (oops), were happy to see brands stacking multiple benefits into one product.

On the makeup front, ATTITUDE’s Lash Serum Mascara is made with microalgae to increase lash density and flower oils rich in omega-6 to revitalize them, so if you're someone who occasionally falls asleep with mascara on, ATTITUDE has you covered. This Lash Serum Mascara also won a NEXTY Award in the Beauty and Skincare category.

These products prove a beauty routine doesn't need to be complicated.

We were also pleased to see that wearing SPF has never been easier thanks to multifunctional sunscreens. Legacy brand Badger’s Face Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30, which won a NEXTY Editor's Choice Award, stood out because it felt more like a daily face moisturizer than a zinc oxide sunscreen. While not an Expo West exhibitor, NEXTY finalist Daybird’s 4-in-1 tinted serum SPF 50 also stood out as a magic multitasker with serum, moisturizer, tint and SPF all packed into one convenient tube.

Related:Scouting the next generation of supplement solutions and innovation at Expo West

For far too long, not all consumers saw their skin tone represented in the beauty and skincare aisle. If they did, it was obvious the product was neither formulated nor tested by a person of color. That is changing thanks to brands like Mudita Earth, founded by mother-daughter duo Pooja and Jessica Chopra. The Chopras noticed a gap in the lack of affordable, clean beauty products for women of color like themselves, so they took matters into their own hands by formulating products for melanin-rich skin tones.

Brands like Mudita Earth and Black Girl Sunscreen are focused on products for melanin-rich skin tones.

Black Girl Sunscreen is also on a mission to bring affordable sun protection to women of color. Frustrated by sunscreens that left a white residue on her skin, founder Shontay Lundy created a sunscreen specifically formulated for darker skin tones—giving rise to Black Girl Sunscreen. We hope to see brands like these continue to grow.

Related:Plant-based meats and alt sweeteners shift gears, find balance

From beauty trends going viral on social media to products making skincare routines cost and time effective for all, innovation in the personal care space is in the midst of a Renaissance. Ultimately, products prioritizing convenience, clean ingredients, inclusivity and affordability reigned supreme at Expo West.

Meredith Kaufman

Associate Editor, New Hope Network

Meredith Kaufman is an associate editor at New Hope Network, where she covers a range of topics including product trends, CPG brand profiles, the NEXTY Awards and natural products industry news.

Kaufman has a bachelor’s degree in religion from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and a juris doctorate from the University of Colorado, Boulder.