Living your best life the Holistic Way
Health supplements are moving away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ wellness and towards solutions targeting specific concerns
FOR THE LONGEST TIME, HEALTH supplements functioned to plug gaps in nutrition and wellness – vitamin C for a constantly sniffling child, glucosamine for grandma’s creaky knees. Not anymore.
Today, they have moved beyond their troubleshooting mandate to become the multipronged pathway to optimal health in the broadest sense, embracing ambitious domains that span cognitive performance, longevity, metabolic management and mental health.
There is a large movement away from “one-size-fits-all” wellness and towards targeted solutions for specific concerns.
People are no longer looking for a generic cure-all, and this is especially clear in the area of anti-ageing and cellular longevity, notes Ricky Ong, founder and managing director of JR Life Sciences.
The company distributes supplements under the Holistic Way and JR Life Sciences brands.
Science-backed efficacy
“Anti-ageing is no longer skin-deep. Consumers are asking about cellular health, energy metabolism and ageing gracefully rather than chasing youth,” he says.
That is why Holistic Way’s products include ingredients such as nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), a breakthrough anti-ageing molecule that entered mainstream consumer supplementation around 2020.
NMN is a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), the coenzyme that powers cellular energy production and collagen synthesis. When NAD+ drops with age, cells experience reduced energy production and slower DNA repair.
To create a complete formulation for healthy ageing, Holistic Way’s Bio-NMN range uses NMN with complementary ingredients.
The clamour for evidence-based supplements is fuelled by growing affluence and better educated consumers, who are willing to pay more for enhanced formulations.
“The discerning consumer doesn’t want an ‘anti-ageing gummy’,” Ong notes.
“They want to understand why hydrolysed marine collagen differs from regular collagen, or why medicinal mushroom blends support both immunity and mental performance. Our premium range respects that intelligence.”
The brand’s best-selling Premium Gold Diamond White Collagen combines hydrolysed marine collagen – believed to be more bio-available because of its small particle size – with L-glutathione and NMN to address multiple ageing concerns, such as cellular energy, hydration and brightening.
Transparency and safety
As consumers grow in affluence, they also become more willing to pay premium prices for products – but only when the costs can be justified on multiple fronts. The top criterion is efficacy with evidence.
Ong says consumers want to see the science in the supplement – be it NMN, South Korea-patented vegan collagen or standardised extracts – because they know the science is backed by research.
They also want clean, transparent ingredients – no artificial fillers, no proprietary blends masking sub-therapeutic doses.
Says Ong: “Singapore consumers are reading labels and cross-referencing. Our transparency on sourcing, with manufacturing in Canada and New Zealand, and our ingredient dosages have become our selling point.”
Another key concern: safety and medical compatibility. Consumers with health conditions want to know how supplements interact with their cholesterol or hypertension medication, for example.
Ong says his team has been trained to address such concerns accurately and confidently.
Ethical choices
The demographic demanding evidence-based efficacy is also giving rise to ethical affluence, the notion of aligning purchasing decisions with personal values.
In other words, the wellness consumer now asks: What do my choices say about my values?
In the health supplements industry, features such as plant-based ingredients, sustainable manufacturing and transparent sourcing have become the touchstones of ethical credentials.
This values-driven consumption, combined with dramatic advances in collagen technology, led Holistic Way to make its debut in the plant-based premium supplements category with its Bio-Elixir Vegan Collagen.
This combines a South Korea-patented collagen derived from hibiscus with NMN and rice ceramides.
Ong notes that the product signals Holistic Way’s appreciation for affluent, educated consumers who view sustainability and plant-based options not as a compromise, but as a premium choice.
“Our vegan collagen is not cheaper than our marine collagen line. Why? Because affluent consumers don’t think of vegan as a budget alternative,” he adds.
“They see it as the coming together of premium ethics and premium science.”
Singapore concerns
When Ong established JR Life Sciences in 2007, the Singapore supplements market was bifurcated: the choice was between expensive, imported foreign brands – typically formulated for Western body types and temperate climates – and unregulated local products of inconsistent quality.
He set out to change all that.
“Right from the start, we wanted every Singapore household to have access to quality supplements that were well-curated, evidence-based and, most importantly, adapted to the needs of Singaporeans.”
One area crying out for a locally calibrated intervention was skincare. Singapore’s hot and humid tropical climate leads to skin problems such as hyperpigmentation, dehydration beneath oily skin, as well as rapid ageing.
“Existing supplements on the market at the time did not seem to work well in Singapore’s heat and humidity,” says Ong. “We adapted our formulations to include squalene for deeper hydration and ingredients that support pigment balance.”
“Our Diamond White Collagen was specifically engineered to suit Singapore’s demographics and climate,” he adds.
The company also chose to lean into many Singaporeans’ inherent trust in time-tested traditional Asian medicine – such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda – but with stringent protocols to ensure product safety, purity and potency.
Three of Holistic Way’s Premium Gold range products – Royal Imperial Lingzhi Blend, Deer Placenta 15,000 mg and Crown Care Hair Food – are rooted in TCM.
Breadth and beauty
Over the last 19 years, Holistic Way has grown its product stable from some 30 to 40 products across three categories to more than 100 products spanning over 15 categories.
The brand's multicategory portfolio now spans skin, sleep, energy, weight management and immunity in multiple formats, from liquid shots, powders and gummies to capsules and tablets.
Says Ong: “Our customers have grown with us and now range from two-year-olds to seniors. They get to choose which supplements are best suited to their season in life, and how they want to take them.”
The most dramatic growth story within Holistic Way’s portfolio is the exponential growth of the beauty-from-within category. It did not even exist in the company’s business before 2015, and now it contributes 25 to 30 per cent of revenue.
The South Korean beauty industry and its “glass skin” movement are largely behind this change in consumer psychology. Singapore women no longer ask if supplements help their skin; instead, they seek out specific collagen formulations that are best suited to their skin type.
Ong notes that “it is the premium tiers of beauty supplements with active ingredients such as NMN, squalene and antioxidants that are outperforming standalone collagen”.
“Consumers aren’t just buying collagen; they’re also buying formulation strategy,” he says.
Holistic Way now ranks as Singapore’s No 1 vitamin, mineral and health supplement brand, based on NielsenIQ data. Ong’s raison d’etre remains as clear today as it was at the start.
“At Holistic Way, we don’t want to turn back the clock. We want to see our consumers thriving at every age.”
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