Years ago, the beauty industry started promising consumers that better skin, shinier hair, and healthier aging all start from within. But there's one part of the body it has largely ignored: the brain.
For more than a decade, researchers have explored the relationship between diet, mood, and mental health. But can it help the skin? Even as beauty increasingly embraces longevity and "inside-out" wellness, the question isn’t really about whether the science exists; it's about whether the industry will use it.
At the 2026 L'Oréal–UNESCO For Women in Science Awards, Dr. Felice Jacka, Director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia, and credited with establishing the field of nutritional psychiatry, was honored as one of this year's Laureates. The recognition marked more than a personal achievement for the founder of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research; it's a broader shift in how wellness is being understood across industries.
For nearly three decades, the awards have recognized women whose research has transformed their respective fields. Jacka has spent much of her career pursuing one central question: Does what we eat influence our mental health?
A decade ago, the idea felt fringe. Today, it feels almost obvious compared to when Jacka first began publishing research linking diet quality to depression and other mental health disorders.
So what does that have to do with beauty?
Now that beauty has moved beyond solely skin-level concerns, brands have expanded their research into neuroscience, inflammation, brain health, and the microbiome. These fields share a common understanding that the body's systems are all integrated, with one influencing the other.
For Jacka, this convergence feels almost inevitable.
"It signals a broader shift in how we define wellness [in beauty]—away from purely cosmetic concerns and toward brain, body, and planetary health across the lifespan," she told BeautyMatter. "If we can harness that interest responsibly, it could help bring nutritional psychiatry and prevention into the mainstream."
Across populations and age groups, Jacka consistently observed patterns in the data. People who consumed healthier diets experienced lower rates of depression and anxiety, even after researchers controlled for factors including income, education, and smoking.
In 2017, she led the landmark SMILES (Supporting the Modification of Lifestyle in Lowered Emotional States) trial, the first randomized controlled study that found that an improved diet could significantly reduce symptoms of clinical depression. Participants receiving dietary support experienced greater improvements than those receiving social support alone.
"That told us that targeting diet quality was a legitimate avenue for prevention and treatment in mental health," she said.
Nearly a decade later, the conversation has shifted from defending nutritional psychiatry as a legitimate field to asking how it can shape healthcare policy and clinical practice.
The beauty industry is beginning to ask many of the same questions, even if they’re coming from a different direction.
Beauty's growing interest in brain health is already here. L'Oréal has expanded its research into the skin-brain axis, exploring how psychological stress affects the skin and how neurocosmetic ingredients may help support skin well-being. Other companies, including Shiseido, have also invested in neuroscience research to better understand how emotions and sensory experiences influence the skin. This interest is built on a similar systems-based understanding on the same foundation as nutritional psychiatry: the brain and body should not be understood or treated in isolation.
Yet despite this shift, beauty often continues to market health through increasingly targeted solutions. From powders and pills to beverages and nootropics, brands are promising to optimize individual aspects of well-being through an "inside-out" approach, marketing the idea that one ingredient can help with one specific outcome.
Jacka's research suggests otherwise. Take chronic inflammation. She points to it as a contributing factor in depression, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and yes, even skin aging. But she warns against interpreting that connection as an invitation to chase the latest anti-inflammatory trend. These conditions are shaped by overall dietary patterns and lifestyle, not specific interventions.
"Nutritional psychiatry naturally overlaps with conversations about skin health and longevity," Jacka said. "It is the whole pattern that matters, though. You cannot out-supplement a diet dominated by ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks. When we focus on nourishing the body as a system, benefits show up across many domains."
For beauty and wellness brands eager to capitalize on the next generation of health claims, Jacka's message may not be the easiest to commercialize, as she puts it. But it's where the evidence points.
"We are often distracted by what is added to products, and not paying enough attention to the basics: cooking more, eating a variety of plants, and reducing exposure to ultra-processed foods. It is not a very sexy message, but it is the only one that is consistently supported by science."
Jacka’s work constantly looks at the root of longevity, the industry’s current favorite buzzword. Her perspective shifts the focus away from lifespan alone and toward healthspan. Within nutritional psychiatry, protecting brain health is not just one component of longevity; it's the foundation. Mental illness, cognitive decline, and emotional well-being all shape how people age, making brain health something to nurture throughout life as “something we build daily,” rather than address later, according to Jacka.
For brands, there's a real opportunity to promote wellness from this perspective, but it comes with immense responsibility to respect the science. Jacka suggests the most impactful actions can come from reformulating products to reduce ultra-processed or nutritionally poor components, funding independent research, and supporting access to whole foods.
For an industry built on innovation, Jacka is asking brands to think more broadly about the role they play in shaping conversations around health. And as beauty continues to borrow from medicine, nutrition, and neuroscience, scientific credibility is becoming just as valuable as product efficacy.
"It is perfectly acceptable to say, 'This is a promising area. Here's what we know so far. Here's what we don't yet know, and here's how we're supporting better science.'"