NAD+ Searches on Olive Young Are Up 542%, And That's Not Even the Biggest Jump

Search volume for NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), an anti-aging compound involved in regulating cellular aging, rose 542% year on year on CJ Olive Young's online platform through last month. The related search term "NAD" climbed even faster, up 1,418% over the same period.

Those numbers, cited by the beauty industry on the 25th, are the sharpest expression of a trend that has been building for some time: consumers in Korea are no longer leading with a brand name when they search for skincare. They are leading with an ingredient.

The numbers behind the shift

The Olive Young data covers the period from January through last month. Alongside the NAD figures, searches for niacinamide, a whitening and brightening staple, rose 90%. PDRN (polydeoxyribonucleotide), a skin-repair compound that crossed over from clinical aesthetics into mainstream skincare, showed growth across every product format tracked: PDRN mist was up 1,595%, PDRN cream 233%, and PDRN sheet masks 196%.

The pattern is not limited to Korea. On Amazon in the United States, searches for peptides in the first quarter of this year were up 1,717% compared to the same period in 2025. NAD+ and copper peptide queries showed similarly sharp increases over the same window.

What is driving it

Industry analysts point to two converging forces. First, the overall quality of cosmetics has risen to the point where product performance within a category is broadly comparable, which means brand prestige carries less weight than it once did. Second, consumers have become markedly more literate about how ingredients work, which moves the purchase decision from the label to the formula.

The result is a more demanding buyer. Even among products that share the same active ingredient, a growing segment of shoppers is now comparing specific concentrations and evaluating how individual ingredients interact within a formula.

One beauty industry insider put it plainly: "Marketing language is shifting away from brand loyalty and toward leading with the ingredient itself. There is a view in the industry that whichever brands manage to popularize and commercialize a new ingredient first will be the ones that reshape the competitive landscape."

For brands accustomed to building consumer trust around heritage and packaging, that is a meaningful recalibration. The clearest sign of where this is heading may be the search bar itself: shoppers are arriving already knowing what they want, and the brand name is increasingly optional.

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