RiboBeauty Debuts as Plant-Based Alternative in the Beauty-From-Within Market

At Natural Products Expo West, Nutritional Outlook spoke with Sebastian Balcombe, founder and CEO of Specnova, about the company’s latest innovation, RiboBeauty, a plant-based ingredient targeting beauty-from-within applications. Backed by a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, RiboBeauty is designed to support visible improvements in skin aging and hair health, including reducing fine lines, wrinkles, crow’s feet, and hair shedding.

Balcombe emphasized that the study was highly consumer-focused, with easily understood outcomes that resonate with end users. The formulation combines extracts of red currants and black currants with biotin and strawberry extract, creating a synergistic blend aimed at supporting hair, skin, and nail health. Unlike traditional collagen-based beauty ingredients derived from animal sources, RiboBeauty offers a plant-based alternative that can be used as a standalone product or alongside other ingredients.

A key differentiator is its low effective dose—just 500 milligrams daily—making it practical for a variety of formulations. Balcombe noted that the ingredient’s pleasant tart flavor and visual appeal enhance its versatility, allowing it to be incorporated into formats such as powders, gummies, capsules, and chews, with potential expansion into ready-to-drink beverages.

From a scientific perspective, Specnova believes alkaloids, rather than polyphenols, may be responsible for the ingredient’s bioactivity, particularly in supporting healthy aging outcomes. This novel mechanism adds to the ingredient’s differentiation in a crowded beauty-from-within market.

Balcombe also positioned RiboBeauty within Specnova’s broader strategy of developing clinically supported, innovative nutraceutical ingredients that prioritize efficacy, ease of formulation, and consumer appeal. By aligning scientific validation with market demands for plant-based and convenient solutions, Specnova aims to provide brands with differentiated ingredients that meet evolving consumer expectations.

A transcript of his conversation can be found below.

Nicholas Saraceno: Ladies and gentlemen, we're here live at Expo West, the 45th annual Expo West. Nico Saraceno, senior editor of Nutritional Outlook here. I'm joined by Sebastian Balcombe. He is the founder and CEO of Specnova. So Sebastian, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today. I know it's organized chaos at the show, so I really do appreciate it.

Sebastian Balcombe: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, and love talking anything natural product ingredients, so let's go.

Saraceno: Alright, let's do it. There's a lot on the agenda right now. So let's start with RiboBeauty. It's hot off the presses. You guys have this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, that’s supporting it. Would you mind identifying some of the key findings of the study when it comes to the visible skin aging and the hair shedding, and things of that nature? Would you mind just sharing that with us?

Balcombe: Absolutely, it's a really consumer-focused study, maybe the most consumer-focused study we've ever done, where the endpoints or the outcomes were very easy to understand, relevant to the end consumer, improving skin surface, reducing fine lines, wrinkles, crow's feet, reducing hair shedding. Everybody can understand what that means.

We're super excited and happy with the outcome of the study. RiboBeauty is a specialized extract of red currants and black currants, along with biotin and strawberry extract. It's really those four together. People are used to taking collagen peptides, animal-based products, which, of course, are great, but some people might not want an animal source for some of those beauty-from-within ingredients. This is a perfect example of a plant-based product that you could add to one of those, or it could be a standalone—it's a powerhouse on its own.

We believe it's alkaloids—not polyphenols—in these red and black currents that are driving the bioactivity on these healthy aging outcomes, the hair, skin, and nails outcomes. It's a small dose. It's only 500 milligrams. It's not some, four or five-gram dose that you need to take. Five-hundred milligrams once a day, and on its own, it tastes so good, looks beautiful. You can mix it in water, a drink mix. We've seen it used in at least pilot scale in gummies, so there's a lot of formats it can work in.

Saraceno: That's great. I mean, that's what I've been noticing as well. It's the innovation, or the willingness to adjust with the delivery formats. I think you’ve got to really listen to the consumer, really determine what they want. You mentioned the strawberry too. That actually sounds really good. Sweetens the pot a little bit there.

Balcombe: Absolutely. I mean, it alone can improve the flavor profile of anything that is put into it. You could take it, eat it, and love it. It has that nice tart, currant flavor. On its own, it's incredible, and it's going to enhance other ingredients as well. But it's an amazing story that a plant-based product can have such a profound effect on beauty-from-within hair health, skin, nails. We're super happy with the study. It was done over in Europe. Just a very relevant population, very well-controlled study, and we really hope people can utilize it and formulate it in all these different formats out there.

Saraceno: Wow, that's very exciting. And I'm curious too, you've shared a lot about RiboBeauty, so thank you for that. How would you say it fits into Specnova’s broader strategy when it comes to developing these clinically supported nutraceutical ingredients for beauty-from-within formulations? Where does it fit and complement all your other offerings?

Balcombe: It's a good question. We've always been in this beauty-from-within space, knowing how effective it is and impacting hair, skin, and nail health. We just want to always look through this lens of what value, what can we bring in terms of new innovation to the table, not just for the sake of innovation, but higher efficacy, while being super innovative and being easy to use in a practical sense in the formulation process. It's really following those three things, which fits into our whole model of how our ingredients are built.

Saraceno: Oh, that's fantastic. You mentioned some of the delivery formats. Are there any other plans that maybe that you didn't get into from the product development perspective? I believe you mentioned the gummies to start. Are there any other plans use it in other delivery formats?

Balcombe: I would love to see it in a ready to drink. Already capsules, tablets, gummies, chews. Liquids is probably the only place that I haven't seen it being starting to be formulated. That's where I would like to see it next.

Saraceno: That’s going to be exciting. I'm sure it's not too far away, so I’ll stay tuned. Thank you, Sebastian. I appreciate the time.

Balcombe: Appreciate it, thank you.