In fast moving and hypercompetitive markets like skincare, being on top of category trends and accelerating new product innovation is critical to compete. McKinsey’s State of The Beauty Market 2025 demonstrates how disruptor brands continue to take disproportionate share from incumbents by focusing on trends like organic and natural.
i-Genie’s Trend Spotter leverages search, social and NPD data to help marketing, innovation and R&D teams respond faster to markets based on data of what consumers are actually searching for and talking about online and applying advanced AI and predictive intelligence to understand lasting trends 18 months ahead.
Is pistachio the next great skincare trend?
One such skincare ingredient trend that should be on everyone’s radar is pistachio. Our advanced AI has determined pistachio to be one of the top ingredient trends for 18 months from now.
Now this may come as no surprise – pistachio is having a moment on the global stage. The viral “Dubai Chocolate” bar filled with pistachio cream and kataifi pastry became a global obsession thanks to TikTok, triggering a flurry of copycat desserts and products. Pistachio is also trending as an alternative milk and flavor in coffee. For example, Aldi’s cult-favorite Pistachio Crème sold out rapidly and now are stocked year-round. It pays to be on top of the trend.
The pistachio trend is a rare convergence of skincare efficacy, food culture, visual allure, wellness branding and agricultural sustainability. It thrives on social media’s spotlight but stands on substance – nutritional quality, sensory satisfaction, versatile application, and genuine market demand.
But is pistachio a lasting skincare trend or a flash in the pan? Let’s talk about how Trend Spotter measures pistachio and other skincare trends, and how it presents data to make that actionable for insights, marketing and R&D professionals.
Trend Spotter ranks every trend 18 months from now – in time for you to act!
Our predictive AI for consumer trends scores every trend based on how popular it will be 18 months from now (future factor rank) and current interest (number of searches). For skincare, you can filter by ingredients, benefits, formats, brands and skin types. I-Genie customizes the filters for each category. Filtering for ingredients, here we can see pistachio at both high future rank and meaningful current volume.
Note: we have blurred out the other ingredient trends. If you want to see them, let’s schedule a demo!
Leveraging search data identifies consumer trends 6 months earlier
For every lasting trend we’ve analyzed in the market across all categories, we typically see it appear on search 6 months earlier. For example, Matcha starts breaking out in 2018 and 2019 on search and you can see it then start blowing up on Tik Tok and Instagram in 2020 and 2021 during Covid.
Let’s look at pistachio and because of i-Genie’s exhaustive Master Data Management, proprietary LLM, sentiment and AI models per category, we can isolate pistachio volumes in skincare specifically – so we don’t get caught in the same conversation as Dubai Chocolate.
As you can see from the screenshot above, pistachio has increased 13x year over year on search! That’s incredible growth to now 2 million searches. With i-Genie, you can even dig into and analyze the specific search queries for further insights.
Social data validates the trend as a lagging indicator
Like we mentioned, social is a lagging indicator of trend formation and here you can see it starts to pick up in March and even with the recent doubling is up 4x YoY vs. 13x on Search. With the spike, positive sentiment continues to be strong and negative sentiment is miniscule at just 4%. The social surge is a surge of positivity.
Additionally, we find search data to be more complete than social data. For example, consumers don’t like to share problems and needs that may be embarrassing like dandruff, or are more likely to talk about oil and tomato stains than blood stains, for example. It’s critical to be able to make informed decision and Trend Spotter lets you dig into the verbatims of both social and search keywords to get a full view.
Here are some examples of what is being said about pistachio in skincare, highlighting key themes and you can trend them over time. While we prefer LLM summaries for verbatims, we are including a word cloud here for quick illustration.
Are competitors acting or is pistachio an untapped skincare product opportunity?
When you see explosive trends, you expect the market to respond. Have competitors taken advantage of the growing pistachio trend? Surprisingly, no!
New Product Development (NPD) launches have been small and are actually down 75% YoY. While many still rely on brick-and-mortar NPD data like Mintel, i-Genie’s AI consumer insights platform tracks every SKU online – often 5-10x the number of new SKUs – with whole market visibility.
Interestingly, the pistachio skincare product launches thus far have been poorly received with an average rating of just 3.4 ⭐️. You can load each NPD product and explore why that might be. For more in-depth analysis, you can cross-reference the products and reviews with CX Bench to better understand the drivers of good and bad reviews and avoid the pitfalls.
For example, you can see a lot of the negative reviews are being generated by Lakerain Body Bum Cream, which is a knock-off of a similar Sol De Janeiro product with higher reviews. In this market authenticity matters. Finding the right angle to leverage pistachio aligned with your product portfolio and brand promise is key.
Big opportunity. Low competition. Understanding the pistachio trend opportunity with trend associations.
So pistachio is an untapped opportunity. Let’s deep dive into it and think about how to make the most of it. Pistachio’s top body parts are body and lips. You can dig deep into the brands that are most associated with it, and look at what’s working or not with their product portfolios.
The biggest claims and benefits include fragrance scent, moisturizing hydrating, and silky smooth soft emollient. You can now look at your existing portfolio and see where it makes the most sense to align it, for example to add it to products that are moisturizing. The top formats include cream, oil based and butter, further helping you identify opportunities. Trend Spotter also shows what ingredients most often go with pistachio (sandalwood and caramel, for example) and what skin types, where interestingly Brazilian is number one and not surprisingly dry skin is number two.
Occasionally, you might see a lack of association with an area where you can win a market. It all starts with data and if you really want to understand a trend, there’s no better AI than Trend Spotter.
Note: many elements have been blurred out. If you want to see the full list, schedule a demo.
So what product should you launch? A brief Introduction To Innov8
i-Genie is a complete consumer insights AI platform. Trend Spotter is often coupled with Innov8 to leverage trends data to provide the best product innovation ideas scored by uniqueness and predictive consumer demand. Let’s show you how!
Step 1: Innov8 creates a universe of tens or hundreds of thousands of ideas based on every combination of ingredient, format, claim/benefit, etc. In Skincare, Innov8 has created over 50,000 products last month.
Step 2: Innov8 scores these ideas by predictive consumer demand and SPOTS the ones that are worth exploring, narrowing the idea space down to 2,800 ideas. You can filter these by volume or growth of searches or reviews or by ingredient. For example, you can search just for pistachio product ideas. Here we selected a med consumer demand product with low uniqueness.
Note: we have picked a sample idea with lower uniqueness and predictive demand to protect i-Genie clients who pay for the platform.
Step 3: Once you curate your top ideas, Innov8 SCREENS them with consumers in days, not weeks. For a major CPG, they tested 10 Innov8 ideas against 20 internally sources ones and Innov8’s ideas were 9 of the top 10.
Step 4: Innov8 SIZES the market opportunity. We’ve blurred out the ideas to respect customers.
Note: we have blurred out the product ideas
The pistachio skincare trend is more than a passing fad, it’s a data-backed opportunity waiting to be seized. With search interest skyrocketing, social buzz building, and minimal competitive activity so far, brands that act now can claim first-mover advantage. Powered by i-Genie’s Trend Spotter and Innov8, you can turn early insights into winning product ideas and bring them to market faster, smarter, and with greater confidence. The future of skincare innovation is here, so don’t let it pass you by.
FAQs
Why is pistachio trending in skincare?
- Pistachio combines skincare benefits like hydration with global food culture buzz, social media appeal, and sustainability—making it a powerful, multi-category trend
How does i-Genie’s Trend Spotter work?
- Trend Spotter analyzes search, social, and product data using AI to predict which trends will dominate 18 months ahead, giving brands time to act strategically
Is the pistachio trend proven or just hype?
- Search data shows a 13x growth in interest year-over-year, while social conversations are surging with overwhelmingly positive sentiment, signaling real consumer demand using i-Genie’s propreitary algorithms
Are competitors already launching pistachio products?
- Competitors have yet to take advantage of the magnitude of the trend —NPD launches remain low, meaning brands have a rare chance to lead before the market becomes saturated
How can brands use trends data for innovation?
- With Innov8, companies can generate, test, and prioritize product ideas powered by predictive demand data, reducing guesswork and accelerating time-to-market
