Singaporean actor Pierre Png received an unexpected confidence boost while getting ready for the Singapore launch of Swisse Nutra Cellular on 14 July, and he couldn’t wait to tell everyone about it.
Image courtesy of Swisse
As his hairstylist worked on the 52-year-old ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ star’s famously well-coiffed locks, she suddenly exclaimed: “Hey, his hair is growing! His hair is growing!”
Png admitted that he couldn’t really see the difference himself. Still, he was more than happy to accept the glowing review — and spill his secret.
“So I’ll be very honest: Swisse Nutra works. I’ve been taking it for about three weeks now,” he grinned, fulfilling his brand ambassador duties like a pro.
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
The new supplement range from Australian health and wellness brand Swisse targets hair and skin concerns from within.
Png had been taking Swisse Nutra Cellular Hair Growth Men, one of four products in the range, formulated with pumpkin seed oil, biotin, and zinc to support healthy hair growth, strength, and density.
The line-up also includes Swisse Nutra Cellular Hair Growth Women, Swisse Nutra Cellular Skin Hydration, and Swisse Nutra Cellular Skin Vitalise Men, which target concerns including hydration, firmness, and elasticity.
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
Beyond the flattering hair update, Png was candid about how quickly age-related changes can creep up on you, handsome celeb or not.
“At my age, your eyesight becomes bad, you start to lose hair, you have insomnia, and a lot of other things that you weren’t prepared for hit you faster than you expected,” he said.
These days, he focuses on what he can control. “I don’t sweat the small stuff,” he said. “I concentrate on the things that I can control, which is my health and my mental well-being.”
That same proactive mindset is what drew him to Swisse Nutra Cellular, and his advice to others was equally straightforward:
Don’t wait. Don’t procrastinate. Just go ahead, start taking care of yourself, and take responsibility for yourself.
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
This proactive approach also ties into a wider challenge for Swisse: getting more consumers to realise that ingestible beauty products are an option in the first place.
According to Nick Mann, Rotating Group CEO and CEO for Asia, Australia, and New Zealand at H&H Group, which owns Swisse, the biggest hurdle facing the category is not necessarily scepticism, but awareness.
“I don’t think enough people know they exist yet,” he told MS News.
Unlike products that are applied to the scalp and face, Swisse’s Nutra Cellular supplements are taken orally and designed to support what the brand calls “the cells that create beauty in the first place”.
At the same time, Mr Mann stressed that ingestible products are not meant to replace serums, moisturisers, sunscreens, or other topical treatments.
“I think they’re both fundamentally important,” he said. “If you’ve got a ‘problem’ to solve, you need to come at it from as many angles as you can.”
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
He pointed to UV protection as something that must be addressed from the outside, while noting that some topical products may not penetrate deeply enough to reach certain elements of the skin.
In those cases, ingestible products can offer another route.
“They’re both obviously important, and we wouldn’t recommend one without the other,” he said. “They work synergistically.”
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
Mr Mann cited hyaluronic acid, collagen, and PDRN as examples of ingredients that first gained prominence through injectables before being developed into topical skincare and ingestible products.
Ceramides, which feature in the new Swisse Nutra Cellular range, have followed a similar path.
The idea, then, isn’t to choose between topical and ingestible beauty, but to address the same concern through different channels.
But with so many products making similar promises, how can consumers separate credible research from marketing and social media hype?
Mr Mann acknowledged that the sheer volume of content makes this difficult.
He described the wellness space online as a “minefield”, where scientific claims, personal testimonials, and viral trends all compete for attention.
“There are 200 million TikTok videos watched in Asia a month,” he said. “How do you stand out amongst 200 million?”
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
While social media platforms can remove claims that breach local regulations, Mr Mann said brands must also choose credible ambassadors and translate complex science into information shoppers can understand.
“A lot of the burden is on us to choose great ambassadors, and to make the scientific message really good,” he said. “Ultimately, we just have to consistently do what’s right, not what’s easy, and hope that consumers will make the right choice.”
For its part, Swisse says the Nutra Cellular range is formulated with clinically trialled ingredients targeting specific skin and hair concerns.
Swisse Nutra Cellular Skin Hydration contains Ceramosides, sodium hyaluronate, and vitamin C.
In a clinical study cited by the brand, Ceramosides improved skin hydration by 23.4% and elasticity by 14.9% after 15 days, with the figures rising to 37.2% and 36.6%, respectively, by day 60.
Ceramosides also feature in Swisse Nutra Cellular Hair Growth Women. According to another study cited by Swisse, the ingredient reduced hair shedding by up to 47.9% over 12 weeks.
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
Meanwhile, the pumpkin seed oil used in Swisse Nutra Cellular Hair Growth Men produced a 25% net increase in hair count after 12 weeks, rising to 30% after 24 weeks, in a study involving men with mild-to-moderate hair loss.
Judging by Png’s hairstylist’s excited reaction to his hair growth after just three weeks, it looks like he may already be seeing encouraging signs way ahead of schedule.
That focus on evidence may matter especially in Singapore, where Mr Mann described consumers as highly educated, considered, and willing to pay a premium, but only when a product can prove that it works.
You can’t survive in Singapore unless your products are of the highest quality. You’ll get no repeat purchases.
Swisse appears to have passed that test so far. The brand has been in Singapore for more than 10 years, and Mr Mann said it is now among the country’s best-selling vitamin brands, with its beauty-from-within products ranking near the top of the category depending on the week.
Image courtesy of Swisse Singapore
“I think it’s quality,” he said. “We’re being successful because it’s high quality, backed by science so they work, and then we match it by promising to be not only innovative but exciting. I think that’s the combination.”
Unlike some neighbouring markets that lean more heavily towards beauty supplements, Singapore has a more balanced interest in wellness.
Mr Mann described local consumers as particularly exercise-conscious, pointing to the popularity of fitness events such as Hyrox, alongside strong demand for products associated with stress, sleep, and muscle recovery.
Magnesium has become a particularly strong seller here, he said, while supplements supporting bone, joint, and cardiovascular health also perform well.
Singapore’s position as a regional hub makes it especially valuable to Swisse too, as visitors from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam often take shopping cues from what they see here.
“So there’s that double benefit of doing a really great job for Singaporeans first and foremost,” he said, “but also the fringe benefit of being such a regional hub.”
The Swisse Nutra Cellular range is now available online and at selected Guardian stores across Singapore.
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Featured image courtesy of Swisse Singapore.