COVID-19 has forced people to stay at home and countries to be in various stages of lockdowns to help contain the virus. With shifting to working from home, many were seen to ‘let go’ and instead focus their energies on work and surviving this pandemic. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case, according to research conducted by Lycored.

On the contrary, people looked after themselves more during lockdown, with a focus on self-care through nutrition. About 48% of participants located in the U.S. and the U.K. paid attention to their physical appearance, while more than half saw how important following a healthy diet was linked to better overall health.

Additionally, going on video calls and on-camera meetings have made people more conscious about how they look. The Lycored researchers refer to this as the “Zoom effect”. Consumers mostly checked the smoothness of their skin, hair, skin tone and skin radiance or glow.

Zev Ziegler, Vice President of Brand & Marketing at Lycored, said: “When lockdowns were a new thing, there was this idea that people would just give up on self-care. Our research shows that the opposite was true for many consumers, perhaps because the pandemic has made clear the duty of care we owe ourselves, as well as others.”

Zev Ziegler added: “It’s unsurprising that so many consumers plan to purchase more beauty-from-within products in the future. Ingestible skincare is firmly in the mainstream and, as this research shows, interest in the link between diet and beauty has increased during the pandemic.”

Besides increased interest in ingestible skincare, people are looking to build habits like skincare routines, exercise and healthy food.

Lycored is a science-based company that harnesses the power of nature to create ingredients for nutrition and wellness. One of their proprietary offerings is   Lycoderm™, made with tomato phytonutrients and rosemary leaf. This ingredient provides lycopene, phytofluene and carnosic acid that boosts the skin’s natural collagen levels.