Beauty gets more intimate
The final frontier is one largely absent from early GLP-1 beauty conversations: sexual wellness. As bodies change with weight loss, experts are seeing more discussion around confidence, desire, arousal, dryness, comfort, and pleasure.
Certified sexual wellness educator Kristen Tribby, who has worked in the industry for 25 years, says intimate wellbeing is being overlooked. People taking GLP-1 medications have described changes in desire, arousal, dryness and orgasm, alongside increased body confidence. “We’ve become very good at talking about weight loss, but it’s really time we started talking about what it takes to keep our bodies optimized for pleasure while they’re changing,” she says.
Tribby also argues that intimate skin deserves more attention. “Intimate tissue is still skin,” she says, pointing to the importance of hydration and barrier health as the body changes. This is where wellness brand Sutil is hoping to start the conversation and educate around intimate skincare. Its new Balm+ combines ectoin, hyaluronic acid, oat beta-glucan and perilla seed extract to help attract hydration, support the skin barrier, and improve the skin’s ability to retain moisture over time.
Pelvic floor health sits within the same conversation. GLP-1-related constipation can lead to increased straining and pressure on the pelvic floor, while some users report vaginal dryness as significant changes in body weight and energy availability can affect reproductive hormones and estrogen levels, which, in turn, can reduce vaginal lubrication. Around a third of women experience pelvic floor problems today, and with growing GLP-1 use, this figure could rise.
“Pelvic floor health can be especially important for people using GLP-1 medications. This isn’t a niche issue, it’s something we should all be thinking about proactively. It’s exactly why, at Smile Makers, we created Pelvic Partner: to make pelvic floor care simple, approachable and accessible, rather than something we only think about once there’s a problem,” reveals Samantha Marshall, head of brand at Smile Makers Collection. The fact that major beauty and wellness retailers such as Boots in the UK and Ulta in the US — the first beauty retailer to bring a Kegel trainer onto its shelves — are embracing pelvic health “is a significant shift”, says Marshall. “It’s taking pelvic health out of the clinical shadows and putting it where it belongs, as a visible, everyday part of women’s wellbeing.”
Elvie and Perifit are bringing pelvic floor care into consumer wellness through connected devices, biofeedback and app-based training. Sutil is approaching the category through intimate skincare and hydration.
Whether its pelvic floor training devices or skincare formulations, across GLP-1-related beauty and wellness innovations, personalization will be the key looking ahead. “A patient who is 28 and losing 10 kilograms gradually has completely different requirements from a post-menopausal patient losing 25 kilograms quickly,” says Dr. Jack. Age, rate and magnitude of weight loss, nutritional status, baseline skin quality, hair shedding and changes in body composition could all increasingly determine what consumers are recommended — and where beauty goes next.
