Panthenol rushed into the top three ingredients - the market logic behind the barrier repair just needed

In the beauty ingredients market in Q1 2026, there was big news - Panthenol (a precursor to vitamin B5) rushed directly to third place in the ingredients ranking, after sodium hyaluronate and niacinamide.The number of brands used reached 33,000, and more than 280,000 pieces of related products were filed.This set of data, placed three years ago, is inconceivable.

Having worked as a raw material and foundry for 25 years, I have seen too many "ingredient ups and downs".Hyaluronic acid fires for ten years, nicotinamide fires for five years, and ceramide fires for three years.But this uptick in panthenol is completely different from the logic of the previous "flow components" - it is not fuelled by a certain brand, it is "forced" by market demand.

1. Look at the data first: the outbreak of panthenol is not accidental

According to the ingredient filing data of Beautiful Practice in Q1 2026, the number of panthenol-related filing products increased by 67% year-on-year, and the brand penetration rate jumped from 18% in 2024 to 34%.One of the more critical data points is that the penetration rate of panthenol in "repair" products has surpassed that of ceramide, becoming the first raw material ingredient for repair circuits.

Why Panthenol?Three reasons.

1. The base of barrier-impaired people is expanding

The proportion of people with impaired skin barriers in China has been rising for several years.Over-cleaning, scrubbing, surging demand for post-op care - these scenarios are all creating a “barrier repair” just in need of users.According to our Micropeptide Group's feedback data of 120 + brands in 2025, the number of new products labeled as "barrier repair" increased by 82% year-on-year, of which more than 60% chose panthenol as the core ingredient.

2. The safety window for panthenol is wide enough

Everyone who has made the formula knows that panthenol is a "golden oil" ingredient - very low irritation (the patch test stimulation index is close to 0), strong compatibility (it does not conflict with most active ingredients), and good stability (it can remain active in the pH range of 4-9).More importantly, panthenol covers both makeup and mechanical tracks.In medical dressing formulations, panthenol is a standard ingredient in postoperative maintenance products, which has been repeatedly emphasized in the revision of the Medical Device Classification Catalogue in 2025.

3. Consumer education in place

The name panthenol may be unfamiliar to consumers, but "vitamin B5" is known to everyone.After five or six years of education by the Constituent Party, the cognitive foundation of panthenol has long been established.Unlike the ingredients such as ectoin and blue copper peptide, the efficacy data is good, and consumers can't remember the name and can't push it.Panthenol does not have this problem - it naturally has the triple attributes of "good understanding, good memory, and good dissemination".

2. Why did the barrier repair become "just needed"?

Back to the megatrends.The barrier repair changed from a "niche appeal" to "just needed by the public", and there were three forces pushing behind it.

Stage 1: The "postoperative repair" brought about by the outbreak of light medical beauty just needs

In 2025, the scale of China's light medical beauty market exceeded 400 billion yuan, and the annual growth rate of photoelectric projects (photon skin rejuvenation, thermal maggot, ultrasonic cannon, etc.) remained above 25%.Every consumer who completes a photovoltaic project needs a post-operative repair product - and the core of post-operative repair is barrier reconstruction.These consumers do not buy regular facial masks, they buy mechanical brand medical dressings, medical repair essence.Panthenol is almost irreplaceable in this scenario - its ability to promote the proliferation of epithelial cells is supported by data in a large number of clinical literature.

Strand 2: Continuous expansion in sensitive muscle groups

According to data from the China Dermatologists Association in 2025, the incidence of sensitive skin in Chinese women has exceeded 36%, and the post-95 group is close to 42%.That figure was only 28% five years ago.The core problem of sensitive muscles is impaired barrier function, and panthenol, as a classic barrier repair ingredient, has a very solid position in this circuit.

Third share: Efficacy supervision forces the brand to return to "true repair"

After the full implementation of the new "Cosmetic Efficacy Claim Evaluation Specification" in 2024, brands can no longer simply label "repair" - you have to produce human efficacy evaluation data to prove it.Under this knife, a large number of "conceptual repair" products have been cut, and all that remains are products with real efficacy data support.And panthenol happens to be one of the most comprehensive repair ingredients in the efficacy data - in the open literature, there are more than 200 clinical trials in which panthenol promotes wound healing and improves skin barrier function.The ingredients selected by the brand side are the ingredients that can be "over-tested".Panthenol fits perfectly.

III. What does it mean for the brand and the foundry?

After talking about so much market logic, back to the question that the brand is most concerned about: how to catch this wave of panthenol?

Product strategy: divided into "makeup" and "mechanical" two lines

The advantage of panthenol is that it can be used in both calligraphy and mechanical size products.The brand side can completely do the product matrix of "cosmetics combined" - makeup font number to do daily repair essence and cream (through e-commerce and CS channels), and mechanical font size to do medical dressings and repair fluids (through medical and cosmetic institutions and pharmacy channels).One recipe idea, two product lines, omnichannel coverage.

We at Micropeptide Group have a natural advantage in making joint products for cosmetics.The Group holds 100 + Class II medical device registration certificates. At the same time, it has a mature makeup product line. The brand can go from formulation research and development to registration declaration to mass production delivery, and the whole process is completed.Panthenol repair formula, we have 20 + mature programs, brands can choose directly or make customized adjustments on this basis.

Formulation suggestion: Don't just do "single panthenol", do "panthenol +"

From a formula-practice perspective, there is limited room for differentiation in a single panthenol product.What the brand wants to do is the "Panthenol + X" compounding scheme -

• Panthenol + recombinant collagen: barrier repair + collagen supplementation, suitable for postoperative repair scenarios, which is also the core technical direction of our micropeptide group.
• Panthenol + ceramide: two-channel repair, suitable for daily maintenance of sensitive muscles.
• Panthenol + ectoin: repair + anti-stimulation, suitable for seasonally sensitive and urban pollution scenarios.
• Panthenol + sodium hyaluronate: repair + moisturizing, basic but most accepted in the market.

The key to compounding is not "stacking", but "synergy".The amount of each ingredient added, the ratio, and the pH environment are paid attention to, which are the manifestations of the foundry's formulation capabilities.

Supply Chain Advice: Find a factory with a "double certificate" capability

Panthenol products must go through two lines of makeup lettering and mechanical lettering at the same time. The foundry must hold both a cosmetic production license and a medical device production license.At present, there are no more than 50 factories in the country that can meet these two conditions at the same time, and it is even rare for them to truly have the experience of 100 + mechanical font registration certificates.When selecting factories on the brand side, be sure to verify the qualifications and the number of registration certificates of the factory, and don't just look at the quotation.

IV. Write at the end

Panthenol flushing into the top three ingredients is not an accidental event, but an inevitable result of the just-needed barrier repair.The outbreak of light medical beauty, the expansion of sensitive muscles, and the tightening of efficacy supervision - these three forces have superimposed, pushing panthenol to the center of the stage.

For brands, the window for this trend is around 18-24 months.When all the brands keep up, you can only enter the stadium to fight the price war.Now entering, there is room for differentiation.

If you have OEM/ODM OEM needs, please consult with us.Micropeptide Group has been focusing on the OEM of medical dressings and efficacy skin care products for 15 years, with 12,000 + mature formulations, 100 + Class II medical device registration and certification experience, and 100,000 square meters of production capacity in four major factories, providing full-link support for brands from formulation research and development to registration declaration to mass production delivery.