A century ago, Weleda launched a thick herbal cream designed to soothe dry, damaged skin. In 2026, that same product, Skin Food, sits backstage at fashion weeks, inside celebrity makeup kits, and across Gen Z TikTok routines. Evolved from what UK Managing Director Jayn Sterland described to BeautyMatter as a “best-kept beauty secret” into one of the beauty industry’s most enduring cult products, Skin Food’s simplicity and efficacy keep generations of consumers coming back.
For many heritage beauty brands, longevity alone is no longer enough. Legacy products today face a relentless pressure to reformulate, reposition, and repackage themselves for every new generation of consumers. Yet Skin Food’s centenary arrives at a moment when the product feels unusually contemporary, not despite its age, but arguably because of it.
“Skin Food was launched 100 years ago this year, and over time it became a best-kept beauty secret—passed down from mother to daughter,” said Sterland, adding that with the recommendations of many make-up artists, it has become a ubiquitous skin “problem solver,” offering super-hydration and soothing for dry and damaged skin.
So far, the brand’s social presence has been impressive, especially since its inviting of the younger generation. On TikTok and Instagram, it’s hit 19.6M impressions in 2024, up 215.3% from 2023; 22.3M views in 2024, up 2,472% from 2023; 19.1K audience gained in 2025, up 55.8% from 2024; and 2.1M impressions in Q1 alone in 2026, up 74.8% in comparison to Q1 2024.
In an era increasingly defined by fast-moving skincare trends and algorithm-driven product cycles, Skin Food’s success points to a growing appetite for what beauty insiders often describe as “forever products,” those trusted staples that transcend trends through familiarity, efficacy, and emotional attachment.
Sterland attributed much of that staying power to simplicity. “Its great value for [the] money and simple formulation has created a cult following across generations,” she said. “Recently, Weleda Skin Food has been ‘discovered’ by Gen Z, and it now commands a rarity within the beauty industry, [and is] a cult classic with advocacy at cultural moments, [like] the iconic green tube appearing regularly at key global events such as Paris Fashion Show and RHS Chelsea Flower Show.”
The phrase “cult classic” is frequently overused in beauty marketing, but Skin Food occupies a distinct category within the industry’s heritage landscape. Skin Food has achieved something many modern launches struggle to replicate: multigenerational relevance without dramatically changing its identity. That resistance to reinvention has been deliberate, at least in part.
“Yes and no,” Sterland said when asked whether preserving the original formula was a conscious long-term business strategy. “The Skin Food original formulation hasn’t been changed because it simply works and is made from the highest quality ingredients directly from nature.”
She pointed to the wider industry’s motivations for reformulation with unusual candor. “In general, beauty products are reformulated for three primary reasons. There is a more effective ingredient or efficacy claim; to make it cheaper; or the ingredient is either no longer available or is banned. None of those apply to Skin Food.”
For Sterland, Weleda’s philosophy is rooted in formulation restraint rather than constant optimization. “At Weleda, we take time to get the formulation right, and we grow our ingredients organically in the field, not in the lab. What’s to change?”
That positioning has become increasingly resonant as consumers grow more skeptical of perpetual “newness” within beauty. While many brands chase innovation through increasingly complex actives and rapid product turnover, Skin Food’s appeal lies partly in its refusal to behave like a trend product at all. Its rise within fashion and celebrity beauty culture also happened largely outside the conventional influencer marketing playbook.
Long before TikTok skincare routines propelled the product to younger audiences, Skin Food had become deeply embedded within the professional makeup artist community. According to Sterland, that relationship fundamentally reshaped the brand’s trajectory. “We began in 2009 with a simple strategy: place Weleda Skin Food into the hands of the experts who needed a rich, effective, skin primer—make-up artists. Today, according to Sterland, 99% of MUAs have a Skin Food product in their kit.
Crucially, Sterland insisted that the product’s fashion and celebrity visibility were never aggressively engineered. “Was it a planned strategy? No, it was organic and authentic,” she said. Instead, she identified a technological shift as a key turning point: the arrival of high-definition television. “If I were to pinpoint a key event for us, it would be the advent of high-definition TV. From that point onwards, skin had to be flawless, without imperfection, and the MUA focus switched from concealing with cosmetics to enhancing with great skincare.”
That transition helped reposition skincare from backstage preparation to a visible component of makeup artistry itself. In that environment, Skin Food’s intensely emollient texture became valuable not only as a moisturizer but as a complexion-enhancing tool. “MUAs are the true skin experts,” Sterland added. “They offer treatments, advice, and samples.”
The makeup artist endorsement network has also enabled Weleda to navigate one of the beauty industry’s more difficult balancing acts: maintaining relevance across generations without alienating existing customers. “Our communication navigates the generations using a targeted messaging strategy—right message, right channel,” Sterland said. “It helps that we have so many role models to work with. But above all, it’s the ‘expert’s expert,’” she continued, adding that it is championed by makeup artists, who use the brand on their clients, across generations, in music, TV, film, fashion, and the media. “As its use and users are ubiquitous, so is its appeal.”
Commercially, Skin Food’s evolution over the past decade is proof of the pivot occurring across heritage beauty, and that is the transformation of singular hero products into expandable franchise brands. “For many years Weleda only produced one formulation for Skin Food, and that is the ‘original,’ which has a dense, creamy texture designed to create a protective barrier for the skin,” Sterland said. “We were often asked to create a lighter texture, and thus the range was born.”
Today, the Skin Food line comprises 18 products spanning multiple textures and categories, including Glow Oil and Lip Butter, while retaining the “healthy glow” aesthetic that Sterland described as central to the brand’s equity. “As the range has expanded, so has its usage, with Weleda Skin Food moving from a ‘product’ to a ‘brand’ in its own right.”
That expansion shows a careful balancing act between protecting the integrity of the original product while allowing the franchise to evolve operationally and commercially. “Alongside other ‘classic’ heritage beauty products, Skin Food has a clearly defined position within the beauty industry,” Sterland said. “It is a super-hydrating so-called ‘miracle cream’ which soothes and moisturizes, leaving skin with a healthy glow. This essence is at the core of Skin Food and will never change.”
What will change, however, is how the product is delivered and manufactured. “We have recently switched from a post-consumer-waste plastic tube back into recycled aluminum, as this breakthrough technology delivers significant environmental benefits,” she explained. “We are looking at new, larger formats to reduce packaging waste further and to satisfy market demand.”
Future innovation, Sterland suggested, will focus less on radically altering the product’s identity and more on extending its core functionality to different demographics and use cases. “For us, any brand stretch must include delivering the essence of moisturizing, so tweaking formulation for different users—think babies, toddlers, and tweens—is an obvious evolution.”
But above all else, she concluded, “Weleda will continue to ensure every tube of Skin Food purchased will both contribute positively to the planet through sustainable farming practices, whilst harmonizing the skin back into healthy balance.” For a product born in 1926, Skin Food’s greatest achievement may be that it still feels culturally current without appearing to chase relevance.
