Durana Elmi, Co-Founder & COO of Cymbiotika
Cymbiotika
As a journalist, I’ve always found fashion week exhausting. The excitement of the first few shows fades after your third sleepless night, when the blur of sequins and espresso shots starts to feel like a test of endurance. But something has shifted backstage and in the goody bags and even the conversations happening between shows. Alongside the makeup artists and hair stylists running on fumes and prayers, something new is in the room: collagen powders lined up next to the coffee station, liposomal supplement sachets tucked into model kits, recovery drinks replacing the post-show champagne.
Vital Proteins set up an entire diner during NYFW 2026 just to keep the backstage crews – the stylists, the nail techs, the estheticians – functional enough to make it to the next show. It’s less a trend and more of a takeover. Wellness has earned a seat at fashion’s most exclusive table, and it’s long overdue.
No one knows this better than Durana Elmi, the co-founder and COO of supplement brand Cymbiotika. From the brand’s inception, Elmi has positioned Cymbiotika at the intersection of wellness and beauty.
“At Cymbiotika, we’ve always prioritized wellness at the deepest level. That looks like maximizing nutrient absorption, cellular function and how the body actually performs,” she said during an interview over Zoom. “But what’s become undeniable over the last few seasons is that wellness and beauty were never separate conversations. The same internal processes that drive longevity, energy, and balance also determine how you look. What we’re doing now is making that connection explicit, reintroducing Cymbiotika not just as a wellness brand, but as a foundation of any modern beauty routine.”
The brand has sold over 100 million liquid liposomal supplement packets worldwide, across categories including energy, fitness, brain and gut health. Its subscriber base has grown by over 3,000% in five years, according to the company – an indicator of how embedded the products have become in daily routines.
The broader shift is one the industry has been inching toward for years: the idea that what you put in your body matters as much as what you put on it.
“‘Beauty from within’ sounds like a trend, but it’s really a return to intelligence. For decades, the industry profited off surface-level solutions while ignoring the biology underneath. But your skin is a mirror of your internal state – your nutrient levels, your stress, your inflammation. You can’t out-serum a depleted system,” says Elmi. “What’s happening now is a correction. Consumers are no longer asking ‘what should I apply?’ They’re asking ‘what does my body actually need?’”
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And Cymbiotika isn’t the only brand noticing that shift. CEAN is embedding lymphatic drainage technology into everyday clothing – leggings, bodysuits, and underwear that function as a wearable massage. Therabody, a brand that built its reputation in athletic recovery with the Theragun, has since expanded aggressively into beauty with its TheraFace line – LED masks, microcurrent devices, and a Depuffing Wand that was named a TIME Best Invention of 2025.
The supplement, the garment, and the device are all starting to speak the same language and the consumer is building a stack. A liposomal vitamin for radiance, compression leggings for lymphatic flow and an LED mask for a lift. The brands that understand this aren’t competing within a category. They’re competing for a slot in the consumer’s daily protocol.
As of this March, Cymbiotika became available on Ulta.com, followed by an in-store rollout to over 1,000 Ulta Beauty locations. It’s the brand’s first national beauty retail placement. The four-product lineup, NAD+, Liposomal Glutathione, Liposomal Vitamin C, and Magnesium Complex, was chosen deliberately. Each one maps directly to something the beauty consumer already cares about: radiance, detox, elasticity, and sleep.
Cymbiotika’s NAD+, part of the brand’s four-product lineup at Ulta Beauty.
Cymbiotika
“Target is about accessibility, which is incredibly important and relevant. Ulta is where intention lives,” says Elmi. “It’s where the customer is already in a mindset of investing in themselves, refining a routine, and understanding efficacy. Introducing Cymbiotika there wasn’t about expansion – it was about meeting the customer at the exact moment they’re ready to think deeper about beauty.”
The exclusive Ulta launch of Cymbiotika’s NAD+, its most advanced longevity and healthy aging innovation, was no accident. It positions Ulta as one of the first major U.S. beauty retailers to scale ingestible skincare at a prestige level. Ulta’s VP of Wellness Laura Beres has said the retailer approaches wellness with the same rigor as beauty – grounded in efficacy, education, and accessibility. That’s a significant institutional bet, and the Cymbiotika partnership is its clearest expression yet.
The fashion conversation is also shifting. We’re seeing it in discussions on fabrics, designs that support movement, and collections that ask not just how something looks but how it makes you feel. The supplement sachet tucked into a model’s kit is part of the same conversation as the compression-infused blazer on the runway. They are both answers to the same question: what does it actually mean to look good?
The answer, in 2026, is increasingly the same as asking what it means to feel good. Retailers are taking sides and the brands willing to bet on that convergence early are the ones positioning themselves at the front of what comes next.
“In five years, the idea of separating wellness and beauty will feel outdated,” explains Elmi. “You won’t have a ‘supplement routine’ and a ‘skincare routine’ – you’ll have one integrated approach to how you live. And the brands that understand that will lead. Because ultimately, beauty isn’t something you chase. It’s something you sustain.”
By the time I leave Fashion Week next season, I’ll still be tired. But I’ll be reaching for my magnesium, and maybe tucking into a recovery room between shows.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com