This article has been researched and written by Arelang Naturals® in-house writers.
5 Years of Watching Wellness Trends Come and Go.
Here's What Actually Lasted.
Key Takeaways
Which wellness trends actually work, and which ones are simply social media hype? As Caim turns five, this guide looks at some of the biggest wellness trends in India and globally, including sleepmaxxing, orthosomnia, collagen water, Korean glass skin, raw carrot salad for hormone balance, adaptogens, and plant-based supplements, and examines what happens when these popular health and wellness trends are looked at through the lens of science. The article explores whether sleepmaxxing can actually improve sleep, what orthosomnia means, whether collagen water really improves skin, what collagen supplements can and cannot do, whether raw carrot salad can balance hormones or lower estrogen, and why viral wellness hacks should not always be treated as health solutions. It also looks at the growing interest in natural wellness, plant-based nutrition, Ashwagandha, Shatavari, and other botanical ingredients, particularly as traditional Indian wellness ingredients receive more attention from modern research.
The second half of the guide looks at the wellness principles that have lasted beyond the trend cycle: root-cause health and wellness instead of symptom management, evidence-based plant-based supplements instead of choosing ingredients simply because they are natural, and functional supplement formats that make daily wellness easier to maintain. It covers stress management, sleep support, hormonal health, women's wellness, men's health, adaptogens, daily nutrition, and supplement consistency, while explaining how these ideas come together in Caim products such as Restore Your Sleep, Restore Your Peace, Replenish with Greens, Rekindle for Women, and Rekindle for Men. For anyone searching for natural supplements in India, plant-based wellness products, sleep and stress support, women's hormonal supplements, men's wellness supplements, or evidence-based alternatives to viral wellness trends, the guide asks a simple question: when the social media hype fades, what actually holds up?
Five years ago, when Caim was just launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wellness industry was already loud and everywhere. Every week, it seemed as though every fleeting social media microtrend brought with it a new wellness trend, a new rule to follow, a new hype to hop on - an ingredient, a new format, a ritual that promised to fix sleep, balance hormones, clear skin, and energy, all in one go.
So we examined every little shift, every move in the industry closely, spending the past 5 years researching, listening, and talking to thousands of our customers about how they actually live. And one of the things we realised over the course of 5 years is that to build something worth trusting, you have to understand not just what works, but what doesn't - and more importantly, why it doesn't.
Post-COVID, we’ve all witnessed the cyclical nature of trends but not every trend deserved to stick around. The ones worth paying attention to are the ones that hold up when you look past all the loud marketing and ask what the evidence actually says.
Here's what we watched come and go and what we've learned stays.
The Trends That Didn't Last
Sleepmaxxing — Optimising Your Way to Worse Sleep
Somewhere around 2023–2024, Sleepmaxxing arrived: the idea that you could stack enough habits, gadgets, and supplements to engineer perfect sleep. Mouth tape. Sleep trackers. Weighted blankets. Red light therapy. Magnesium plus melatonin plus cherry juice plus a specific pillow angle. For Indians, not too long ago, a good night's sleep just meant eight hours of sleep, maybe a glass of warm milk before going to bed, or being told to stop worrying so much.
The idea behind sleepmaxxing (and we called it) wasn't wrong; it came from a desire to seek a better night's sleep and to give your mind and body the rest that it needs, so sleep awareness does deserve attention. But researchers have described a pattern that develops around this anxiety of creating the perfect sleep data, and termed it “orthosomnia.” Sleep specialist Dr. Nathaniel Gordon of Old Dominion University has cautioned that turning sleep hacks into formal treatment options without proper evidence could be harmful. The biology of sleep simply doesn't respond to pressure. So, the better question was never "How do I fall asleep faster?" It was "Why am I struggling to sleep in the first place?"
That's exactly why we created our bestseller Restore Your Sleep, which is Caim's plant-based complete sleep support. The formulation combines Walnut, Passion Flower, Valerian Root Extract, Jaiphal, and St. John's Wort, selected to support relaxation and healthy sleep processes without adding melatonin. The aim isn't to force sleep. It's to relax the mind and body before bed, support the body's own melatonin production, encourage healthier sleep cycles, and promote longer time in the deep sleep phase. Comes in a dark chocolate format without added sugar and with no risk of becoming habit-forming.
Collagen Water — Drinking Your Way to Younger Skin
The general appeal behind the collagen water trend was simple enough to make anyone understand: drink collagen, and get better skin. In India, around 2024 was when the collagen water trend started surfacing on social media alongside the growing influence of Korean beauty and its widely popularised “glass skin” trend. Ready-to-drink collagen beverages, in particular, began showing up more frequently as part of the broader “beauty from within” movement. The format was easy, portable, and fit neatly into an already busy routine.
But the science behind it was less straightforward. A 2022 review in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology found that while some studies had reported improvements in skin hydration and elasticity with oral collagen supplements, many of the claims made about collagen in the media went beyond the evidence available at the time. The review also noted that more research was needed to understand how oral collagen works and how effective it really is.
That's where Replenish with Greens fits perfectly into the Caim range. It's a plant-based formulation built around ingredients including Spirulina, Chlorella, Ashwagandha, and Inulin, designed as an everyday nutritional supplement. Because Caim understands that Collagen is a very large molecule and won't just get into your system. It has to break it down into amino acids like glycine & proline—which may be rerouted to muscles, bones, or metabolism, not specifically your skin. Real collagen synthesis needs cofactors like Vitamin C & zinc—often missing in most collagen supplements. That’s because your fibroblasts—your skin’s collagen factories—have slowed down. And that’s why Replenish with Greens doesn’t give you collagen. It feeds the system that makes it. Mostly, it allows your body to do what it was built to do—just better.
So rather than presenting collagen as the answer to every skin or hair concern, the focus is on providing vegan, plant-based ingredients that boost collagen naturally, aid metabolism and digestion, and improve skin, nail, hair, and joint health as part of a broader approach to everyday nutrition and wellness.
If you're looking to support your skin and hair naturally, the goal isn't simply to consume more collagen. It's to give your body the nutrients it needs to support its own collagen production while also nourishing overall wellness from within.
The Raw Carrot Salad — When a Fact Becomes a Stretch
The raw carrot salad trend started with a concept that had at least some scientific basis. Biologist Ray Peat, who specialised in hormone physiology, proposed that raw carrots contain fibres that bind to excess estrogen in the gut and help the body get rid of it. The idea comes with some biological credibility, which is that dietary fibre can influence gut health and may play a role in how hormones such as estrogen are metabolised and excreted. But by 2022–2023, it had become a viral claim that raw carrot salad would balance your hormones.
These viral claims were then refuted by some, including Nutritionist Melissa Groves Azzaro, who specialises in hormone balance and PCOS, stating that “Raw carrot salad wouldn’t necessarily work for estrogen dominance unless the reason why you’re estrogen dominant is that your estrogen is outright high.” Cruciferous vegetables are far better studied for this purpose. Carrots are a good vegetable. They're just not a hormone treatment.
Rekindle for Women is Caim's plant-based hormonal balance supplement designed for women of all ages at all stages. Instead of relying on a single ingredient like raw carrot fibre, the formulation combines clinically studied botanicals like Flax seeds, Panax Ginseng, Shatavari, and Black Cohosh to help the body balance its estrogen and progesterone levels. Along with supporting hormonal balance across PMS, PCOD, and perimenopause, it also helps ease mood swings, irregular cycles, and the fatigue that often comes with hormonal shifts. Made as a rich, sugar-free dark chocolate, it's plant-based and free from artificial hormones or synthetic additives.
The Ones That Stayed
Root Cause Over Symptom Management
Five years ago, wellness often centred on managing how you felt in the moment. Tired? Find something that gives you a lift. Stressed? Find something that helps you switch off. Can't sleep? Find something that helps you sleep.
What most people fail to realise is that the symptom can come from very different sources
Fatigue can come from poor sleep, stress, nutritional deficiencies, illness, or other factors.
That's why understanding what's behind a symptom matters before deciding what kind of cure fits that particular symptom. Behind every Caim product formulation lies one important question: what’s causing the symptom in the first place?
Restore Your Peace is Caim's plant-based stress supplement. Instead of relying on something that just forces a feeling of calm regardless of why you're stressed, the formulation combines Ashwagandha, Gotu Kola, Valerian, Chamomile, Moringa, St. John’s Wort, and Pumpkin Seeds to regulate cortisol production at the source and help the nervous system actually reset. It doesn't numb the stress response as most other contemporaries in the market do, but works with whatever's driving it.
Plant-Based Over Synthetic
Plant-based isn't the new trend. Synthetic is. Plant-based wellness has been around for centuries. Ashwagandha and shatavari, for example, have been used in India for generations for hormonal and stress support, long before "adaptogen" was even a word, let alone a market category. What has changed now is the amount of research going into these ingredients. Some of the herbs that were traditionally used are being studied for their active compounds, how they work in the body, and where they may actually be useful. Hence, mainstream medicine started taking these ingredients seriously. That's what the market numbers are really showing: the adaptogens market was worth $11.92 billion in 2025, and it's expected to hit $22.46 billion by 2034.
That said, being plant-based doesn't tell you whether something will actually work. Natural doesn't automatically mean effective, and synthetic doesn't automatically mean bad. What matters is the ingredient, the preparation, the dose, the evidence behind it, and how it's used.
For example, Rekindle for Men takes a plant-based approach to men's wellness, combining Ashwagandha, Safed Musli, Panax Ginseng, Gokhru, and other botanical extracts. Many of these botanicals have been traditionally used for men's health and are now being explored through modern research.
Format That Fits Into Life — Not Around It
A supplement only works when you remember to take it, and taking a supplement once in a while isn’t going to be as fruitful as taking it consistently every single day. That's where format and the way a supplement has been packaged can make a huge difference. A powder means finding a glass, measuring it, and mixing it every day. Capsules can mean adding a few more pills to a routine you already have. Caim's formats are designed to make that daily step easier to stick to, whether that's a chocolate square, a gummy, or a dragée ball. A supplement only works if you remember to take it. That's the whole idea behind the format at Caim. You have to take it every day. It just doesn't feel like another chore, but more like a chocolate or a gummy that you look forward to.
Five Years Later
Five years later, the wellness industry is still changing just as fast as it was the week we launched. New ingredients, new formats, new trends will keep showing up, some useful, most forgettable. What hasn't changed is the question we keep asking before anything gets made: does the evidence actually hold up, not just how good it sounds on paper?
That question is really the whole story of these five years. Every product starts with a root cause instead of a symptom, plant-based ingredients instead of synthetic shortcuts, and a format people actually want to take every day instead of a chore they have to remember. Those three things aren't rules we're following. They're just what's actually held up, five years running.
And none of that happened on its own. It's been five years of a small, hard-working team asking the same stubborn questions, making sure every product actually does what it says, not just something that appeals to the trends.
References:
Carr, K. (2025, September 17). Sleepmaxxing: Why influencers can’t replace Sleep Medicine. Old Dominion University Pulse.
Shelf Life Story. (2025). The Rise of Collagen Ready-to-Drink Beverages: How Collagen is Evolving into the Next Functional Beverage Wave. Medium.
Rustad, A. M., Nickles, M. A., McKenney, J. E., Bilimoria, S. N., & Lio, P. A. (2022). Myths and media in oral collagen supplementation for the skin, nails, and hair: A review. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 21(2), 438–443.
Azzaro, M. G. (2022, September 18). TikTok’s viral raw carrot salad trend claims to balance your hormones—here’s what nutritionists think. CNBC.
Purdy, L. (2023, January 10). Does TikTok’s raw carrot salad actually balance your hormones?. Bustle.
Fortune Business Insights. (2026). Adaptogens Market Size, Share, Growth, Report, 2026-2034 (Historical Data for 2025). Fortune Business Insights.
Malekijahan, F., Razavi, S. H., Nouri, M., Shafiepour, M., & Afraei, M. (2025). Unlocking nature's potential: The power of adaptogens in enhancing modern health and wellness.
Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 24, 102501. ScienceDirect.
FAQS
Everything you were wondering but weren't sure how to Google.
1 What is sleepmaxxing and why is sleepmaxxing controversial?
Sleepmaxxing is the practice of combining multiple sleep hacks, sleep supplements, sleep trackers, and wellness gadgets to try to optimise sleep, from mouth taping and weighted blankets to red light therapy, magnesium, melatonin, and sleep-tracking devices. The idea comes from a reasonable goal: improving sleep quality and getting better rest. The concern is that constantly monitoring sleep data or trying to achieve “perfect sleep” can create anxiety around sleep itself, a pattern researchers call orthosomnia. Sleep is not something that always improves with more tracking and more rules; for people struggling with sleep, understanding what is affecting their sleep in the first place may be more useful than adding another sleep hack.
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2 Do detox teas actually remove toxins from the body?
No. There is no good evidence that detox teas remove toxins from the body or provide a special detoxification benefit. Your liver and kidneys already carry out the body's normal detoxification and waste-removal processes. Many detox teas contain ingredients such as caffeine, laxatives, or diuretics, which can cause temporary changes in water weight and bowel movements but are not the same as removing harmful toxins. The popularity of detox teas and detox drinks has also led to regulatory scrutiny over unsupported health claims, including the FTC's 2020 action against Teami LLC.
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3 Does drinking collagen water improve skin?
Collagen water may support skin health, but the way it is often marketed is much simpler than the science. When you drink collagen, your digestive system breaks the protein down into smaller peptides and amino acids before absorption; it does not simply travel from the drink to your skin as intact collagen. Research into oral collagen supplements has found some potential benefits for skin hydration and elasticity, but the evidence is not strong enough to support every claim made around collagen drinks, collagen water and “beauty from within.” Skin collagen production also depends on factors such as fibroblast activity, nutrition and micronutrient availability.
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4 Does raw carrot salad help balance hormones or lower estrogen?
The raw carrot salad for hormone balance trend started with a biological idea that dietary fibre could influence how estrogen is processed and eliminated through the gut. There is some biological plausibility to the role of dietary fibre in hormone metabolism, but that does not mean eating raw carrot salad will automatically balance hormones, lower estrogen or treat estrogen dominance. The viral claim became much broader than the evidence behind it, and there is no conclusive evidence that raw carrot salad alone lowers estrogen levels. Carrots can absolutely be part of a healthy diet; they just should not be treated as a hormone treatment.
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5 What does root-cause wellness mean and why does it matter?
Root-cause wellness means looking at why a symptom is happening instead of simply trying to suppress the symptom. Feeling tired, for example, can be linked to poor sleep, stress, nutritional deficiencies, illness, or other factors, so the right kind of support depends on what is actually causing the fatigue. The same applies to sleep problems, stress, hormonal changes, skin concerns, and low energy. Understanding the cause behind a health concern can help you choose more appropriate wellness support, nutrition, and supplements instead of treating every symptom in exactly the same way.
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6 Why are plant-based adaptogens becoming popular in wellness?
Plant-based adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, Shatavari, Valerian and Passionflower have been used traditionally for generations, including in Indian wellness practices, and are now being studied more closely for their active compounds and potential effects in the body. Their growing popularity is part of a wider interest in plant-based supplements, natural wellness, and adaptogenic herbs. But plant-based does not automatically mean effective, just as synthetic does not automatically mean harmful. What matters is the ingredient, preparation, dosage, evidence, and how it is used.
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7 Why does supplement format matter as much as the ingredients?
A supplement only has a chance to work when you actually take it consistently. Powders need measuring and mixing, capsules add another step to an already busy routine, while a familiar format such as a chocolate, gummy or dragée can feel easier to incorporate into everyday life. This is why supplement format matters alongside ingredients: daily supplement adherence is influenced not just by what is inside the product, but by how easy it is to remember and use. Functional formats are increasingly being used to make daily nutrition and wellness feel less like another task.
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8 Why did detox tea and collagen water brands shut down?
The stories behind detox tea brands and collagen water brands are different, but both show the limits of building a wellness product around a strong marketing promise without equally strong evidence. Detox teas have faced regulatory action over unsupported health claims, while collagen drinks have faced questions around how oral collagen is digested, absorbed, and used by the body. Some early ready-to-drink collagen brands discontinued their products during 2022–2023. The larger lesson is that wellness trends can lose momentum when the science and the marketing promise don't match.
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9 How does Caim decide which wellness trends to build products around?
Caim looks beyond whether an ingredient, wellness trend, or health claim is popular and asks whether the underlying biology and available evidence make sense. Over five years, the brand has watched trends such as sleepmaxxing, detox teas, collagen water and raw carrot salad move through the wellness cycle. The approach is to understand what the body needs, what an ingredient can realistically do, and whether the evidence supports the claim before turning an idea into a plant-based supplement or wellness formulation.
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10 What makes a wellness brand's claims trustworthy rather than trend-driven?
A trustworthy wellness claim should be supported by evidence that matches the claim being made. That can include clinical research, scientific studies, regulatory findings or well-established traditional use, depending on the ingredient and the claim. A common problem with viral wellness trends is that one plausible scientific fact gets stretched into a much bigger promise—for example, dietary fibre becoming a claim that raw carrot salad can balance hormones. Looking at the ingredient, dosage, formulation, mechanism and evidence gives a more useful picture than relying on before-and-after results or influencer recommendations alone.
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