Speaking with Jon Virgoe, Business Development Director at Lambson, he tells CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that it means raw material suppliers have to pay close attention to consumer demand in order to formulate products and solutions that best meet these needs.
“Sun care is a very competitive market – it can be difficult to differentiate or have a completely unique product. It is also difficult to invent something completely brand new due to all the regulations in place,” he says.
Jon continues to explain that it is almost impossible because the ingredients palette for sun care and cosmetics is almost complete, and given the process to add and test new ingredients, this will not change very quickly.
Combined with some ingredients being questioned for safety and actually removed from permitted ingredients lists and he says it is limiting what you can do.
This means that following consumer trends and taking these opportunities where you can is more important, and Jon says that as Lambson, which is a specialty chemical manufacturer of polymers and UV absorbers, is a slightly smaller company it makes it easier to spot trends and respond to them.
Free-from opportunity?
This is what the UK-based company has done with its latest range of three ingredients for the Vida-Care sunscreen line.
The Vida-Care USB-25, USB-30F, and USB-50+ have all been launched having observed the latest consumer trends with the latter two also adding claims to being Cinnamate- and Benzophenone- free, and Avobenozne-free respectively.
While the free-from trend has been hotly debated among industry experts on both sides of the argument, Jon says that while not wanting to encourage this, it does also present a market opportunity as it is what consumers, and ultimately customers, are asking for; and Lambson has adapted to this.
“Sometimes from a scientific perspective it is difficult when you have things like ‘free-from’ claims having a big influence on consumer behaviour,” he continues.
“If it’s a niche that is there, we would be daft not to approach it and develop a solution. Free-from can be an opportunity. What the market wants is not always driven by science, sometimes its public perception.”
Sensorial demands
Another thing worth listening to for the latest ingredient launches is how a product will feel and how it can be formulated into a final product, which again highlights the importance of tracking trends, staying relevant, and modifying the offering, says Virgoe.
“It is important to make sunscreen bases feel good as you don’t want it to be detrimental to the feel of the product,” he says.
“We also make our bases so that they work in all formats too eg. Sprays, lotions, creams etc, otherwise we would need a massive range of products.”
“We are confident of product stability and can do the SPF testing ourselves if needed to make sure to maintain the efficacy of the final product,” Jon adds.