Even if you’re not exactly a seafood fan, chances are you’ve seen at least one trending TikTok video describing skincare benefits someone on the internet received from eating tinned fish—and likely sardines in particular. Millions of viewers are just now starting to wrap their minds around the idea, but others, like New York City’s acne whisperer Sofie Pavitt and supermodel Anok Yai , have sworn by the oily fish for years. Nowadays, beauty enthusiasts are curating their product routines in favor of glowing from the inside out, thanks to a healthy boost of omega-3s. The sardine buzz really kicked off around 2023, but since then it’s transformed into other, even more viral iterations of itself, with trends like sardine girl summer and the sardine fast quickly catching fire. Thanks to a growing cultural interest in wellness, it’s perhaps no surprise that we’ve reached the sardine skincare era. Millstein says her company saw a rise in overall sales in December 2025 and reached juggernaut status in early 2026. “It's just generally hard to attribute just general business growth to a trend,…
- Why this mattersAn emerging thread to track; we'll surface it again if the signal strengthens.
This intelligence brief synthesizes reporting from beauty and dermatology industry publications.
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