Google Trends in Cosmeceuticals

Summary: Social media usage has risen rapidly, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Dermatology has been of extreme interest and cosmeceuticals are among the most trending topics.. Awareness of trending cosmeceuticals offers dermatologists insight into patient interests to help prepare them for common patient inquiries and shed light on the online content most likely to be valued by our patients. Our objective was to utilize Google trends to evaluate searches for common cosmeceutical agents and assess for correlation with viewership of related content on TikTok. A Google Trends search from January 2004 to December 2023 was performed on retinol, bakuchiol, salicylic acid, glycolic acid, azelaic acid, hydroquinone, niacinamide, vitamin C serum, and hyaluronic acid. Google trends data shows that search volume interest in cosmeceuticals experienced the largest increase from 2020 to 2021, corresponding with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second largest increase was from 2022 to 2023. When comparing Google search interest to TikTok views, cosmeceutical search volume corresponded with popularity on TikTok. Both platforms demonstrated that retinol is the most popular cosmeceutical search. The results in this study reveal that curiosity about cosmeceuticals is constantly increasing and that interest correlates with what consumers are viewing on social media. Therefore, dermatologists should be familiar with trending cosmeceuticals and informed about the efficacy and side effects of popular skin care trends.