2025 is officially here and one innovative dairy company is aiming to support consumers’ New Year’s resolutions with its newly launched ‘beauty kefir’.
Lifeway Foods is the market leader in the US kefir market, with a share over 60%. The company's sales were up by 18.7% in 2024 - the fifth year in a row that it has enjoyed strong growth, thanks to its focus on innovation in flavours, creative marketing and growing consumer interest in "real foods", such as kefir, with its probiotic benefits for gut and immune health.
Lifeway's new four-strong range of smoothies are based on lactose-free dairy kefir that delivers 5 grams of collagen per serving. The product comes in 4 flavours: plain, matcha latte, berry blast and tropical fruit. It contains 12 live cultures, delivering 25-30 billion CFUs per serving. It also provides a healthy dose of vitamins A, B and D as well as protein and essential fatty acids.
Launched as part of Lifeway’s New Year New You campaign, the company says that the product line has been in development since 2021. It is said to be the first probiotic collagen smoothie with kefir cultures.
The line is promoted on a beauty platform, with the bottles carrying the slogan “beauty inside and out” and the collagen content is highlighted in big bold letters on-pack. But it’s not just the collagen that brings the beauty benefits; in a press release, Lifeway claims that “Research shows that gut and skin health are interconnected through a two-way communication system known as the gut-skin axis, which plays a crucial role in maintaining overall health.”
According to Julie Smolyansky, president and CEO of Lifeway Foods, the benefits of kefir “have been one of the best-kept secrets in the beauty, wellness and celebrity industries for years.” This goes all the way back to ancient Egypt where, according to Smolyansky, it is said that Cleopatra used to bathe in kefir to help soothe and smooth her skin. In modern times, kefir is said to have played a role in the “natural movie star glow” seen on Margot Robbie in the Barbie movie.
Indeed, the idea that kefir may benefit skin health has gained some traction lately and there is a range of videos on TikTok where consumers credit kefir with having helped them get rid of acne and other skin problems. Lifeway noticed this increase in awareness and interest and decided that this was a good time to launch the smoothies.
