UK Supplement Trends — May 2025: the base takes shape

Part of The Formulation Index, Supplement Factory’s monthly read on what UK brands are actually briefing us to make.

This is where our record begins. From May 2025 we have tracked every active ingredient brands asked us to quote, and the opening month shows the classic vitamin and mineral base taking shape as the foundation almost every UK formulation is built on.

Calcium and Vitamin B6 led at 30% of all quotes, with Magnesium and Vitamin C close behind at 28%. Zinc was the month’s fastest gainer, and the pattern underneath was unmistakable: a broad, rising base of everyday vitamins and minerals rather than any single hero active. Biotin at 16% hinted at the beauty demand that would grow through the year.

Ingredient in focus: the vitamin and mineral base

Before a brand differentiates, it builds a base, and in the UK that base is remarkably consistent: magnesium, calcium, zinc and the core vitamins C, B6, B12 and D3. May’s numbers show why this matters. These are not the actives that win a brand attention, but they are the ones that appear in formulation after formulation, quietly defining what a credible everyday supplement contains. Understanding the base is the first step to knowing where you can stand apart from it.

What else moved

The functional edge of the market was already visible. Collagen appeared in 12% of quotes, Green Tea Extract in 11% and Selenium in 12%, early signals of the beauty, metabolism and immune themes that would define the months ahead. L-Theanine, later one of the year’s biggest risers, opened at 9%.

What it means for brands

If you are formulating an everyday wellness product, May’s data is your baseline. The vitamin and mineral base is what buyers and consumers expect to see, and it is inexpensive to build well. The opportunity is not in reinventing the base but in what you add to it: the functional active that gives your product a reason to exist beyond the multivitamin it resembles. Know the foundation, then decide how you will rise above it.

This is where the story starts. Over the months that follow, the base stays remarkably stable while the actives around it tell the real story of where UK demand is heading.

The Formulation Index is built from Supplement Factory’s own formulation quotes, actives only, each ingredient counted once per quote. Explore the live Index →