Ozempic face opens a new cosmetics category as Vichy, O Boticario and Mantecorp target weight-loss users

A market built on side effects

The rapid spread of weight-loss injectables is creating a new product category for the beauty industry, aimed at consumers who welcome the result on the scale but not the change in the mirror. According to Época Negócios, sagging skin, loss of facial volume — the phenomenon known as “Ozempic face” — hair loss and weakened nails are among the effects associated with accelerated weight loss that are now driving cosmetics development.

Vichy, O Boticário and Mantecorp Skincare are folding this audience into their strategies through products aimed at skin firmness, hair strengthening and nutritional supplementation. The approach combines ingredients such as peptides, vitamins and minerals with artificial intelligence, laboratory testing and research into the effects of rapid weight loss on the body.

The commercial logic follows the sales curve of the drugs themselves. Between May 2025 and April 2026, weight-loss injectables generated R$14.6 billion in Brazil's formal market, more than double the figure recorded in the previous 12 months, Época Negócios reported. Including unmonitored sales, the estimated value reaches R$27 billion. Itaú BBA projects the market could reach R$61 billion by 2030.

Peptides, elastin and AI screening

At O Boticário, planning for facial firmness products began at the end of 2024. The company was already investigating actives to improve facial contour when it concluded that the popularity of weight-loss pens could widen the audience for such formulations. “We researched the pathways of the weight-loss pens and identified how our actives could act on those mechanisms. The objective was to demonstrate the product's benefits for skin firmness,” said Bettina Gruber, a research and development specialist at the company.

The result reached the market in June 2026 in two versions, a facial serum and a gel-cream for the eye area. Both are built on peptides, short chains of amino acids that act as messengers to skin cells. The strategy also involves actives linked to elastin, the protein responsible for skin elasticity. Gruber said company tests pointed to a 300% increase in elastin production, and O Boticário developed a methodology to identify how ingredients act on mechanisms associated with use of the drugs, which led it to file a patent application last year.

Vichy, a L'Oréal brand, arrived from a different direction. Its firming range launched in August 2025 with a facial serum, a cream and an eye treatment, and the brand recently added a gel version for younger skin. Nathalia Harnam, director of scientific communication at L'Oréal Brasil, said development began before the recent popularisation of weight-loss medication, with an original focus on ageing, longevity and collagen preservation. “Collagen is a very large molecule and would not penetrate the skin. That is why we work with peptides, which can generate communication between cells and stimulate collagen production,” she said. Artificial intelligence tools helped analyse almost 9,000 molecules during ingredient selection for the line. At O Boticário, AI is used in the initial screening of raw materials, after which bioinformatics tools simulate the interaction between actives and skin-related biological structures.

Belisa Avena, general director of Vichy in Brazil, said the move came from the perception that users of these medicines have needs similar to those of other people who lose weight quickly. “It is much more about rapid weight loss than a direct association with the pen. People who had bariatric surgery or went through accelerated weight loss can also present sagging and hair loss,” she said. The brand has started clinical evaluations with dermatologists and patients in real-use conditions, including women using the injectables, and tests are planned with a group of 300 consumers covering skin and hair care.

Hair and nails open a second front

If loss of facial volume drives firming products, hair loss opens a separate business line. Carla Presti, dermatologist and medical manager at Mantecorp Skincare, said abrupt changes in diet and weight can affect the hair growth cycle. “Hair is not a priority structure for the body. In situations of metabolic stress, such as rapid weight loss or insufficient nutrient intake, available resources are directed to vital functions,” she said. The phenomenon can trigger telogen effluvium, in which more strands enter the resting phase early, while nails can become brittle and slow-growing.

Mantecorp linked that scenario to products already in its portfolio and relaunched a range combining a shampoo and a hair lotion for scalp care, strand strengthening and improved hair volume and density. “When we talk about hair growth and strengthening, there is no isolated solution. The result is directly related to the balance of the organism as a whole,” Presti said, citing reduced calorie and protein intake among patients using the medicines.

Evidence still limited

Specialists warn that the presence of peptides in a cosmetic does not by itself mean clinically relevant results. Reinaldo Falavigna Tovo, a dermatologist at Hospital e Faculdades Sírio-Libanês, told Época Negócios that the molecules are promising because they can participate in cell signalling and other biological functions, but the quality of evidence varies with the compound, the formulation and the type of study. “Studies are scarce and mostly carried out in vitro or ex vivo, on specific cells or tissues. There are few relevant tests in humans and few publications in high-impact scientific journals,” he said.