Spray sensation: Suntory’s in-house venture program creates supplements in aerosol spray format

Marketed as “IN MIST”, the range currently consists of three SKUs that support beauty-from-within, general health, and sleep.

Packed in an 80ml aerosol spray dispenser using the Bag-on-Valve (BOV) aerosol technology, IN MIST’s products are sold in Ohlala Ashiya (ウララ芦屋) spa, ikon gym, and Do-Clinic which specialises in orthopaedic and musculoskeletal rehabilitation since February.

The brand also came under the spotlight for winning the health tech category at Startup Japan Expo held at Tokyo Big Sight on May 15 to 16. IN MIST will now advance to the finals set to take place in November.

In fact, IN MIST is a concept that came out of Suntory Holdings Limited’s in-house venture program “Frontier DOJO”.

Aimed at generating innovation for the company’s future, Suntory has been running the program with corporate accelerator 01Booster Inc since 2021. For example, 01Booster’s involvement in IN MIST includes overseeing its sales and distribution.

IN MIST’s products were developed by Tomoya Osada, an employee from Suntory’s future business development department but is now on secondment to 01Booster representing IN MIST.

Responding to queries from NutraIngredients-Asia, ​Osada said challenges associated with taking supplements in the traditional formats have inspired him to creating IN MIST.

Difficulty in swallowing, the need to take supplements with drinking water, forgetting to take the supplements, and tasteless are the four key challenges that he has pointed out.

Using aerosol spray, he said that some of these challenges could be solved, as it’s “easy to swallow”, “easy to make it into a habit”, ​and is convenient, since the products could be “taken anywhere with a single push of a button”, ​he said.

Each spray gives out 1ml of liquid mist.

A single spray of its beauty-from-within SKU, ClearWhite Lemon, for instance, will provide 100mg of vitamin C. The product contains lemon peel extract that acts as a source of vitamin C.

There is no recommended number of sprays and consumers are encouraged to use the product as and when they like.  

Another advantage of mist supplements is that it could come in tastier profiles, said Osada.

Its sleep support SKU, Goodnight HerbTea, for instance, comes in Jasmine flavour and contains L-theanine as one of the key ingredients.

On the other hand, its general health support SKU named Vitamin Maintenance, is formulated with eight vitamins, including vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin (vitamin B3), and pantothenic acid (vitamin B5).

So far, the products are well-received especially among women in their 30s. Osada said this could be because the products were easy to swallow and were flavourful. 

Each bottle, which could be used for about one month, is sold at JPY$2,980 (US$19).

“We have also started taking orders from OEMs, as we can mix various ingredients [to make them into an aerosol spray format],” ​he said.