Earlier this month, the UK hosted the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow – an annual event designed to bring global stakeholders together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, limiting global warming to well below 2°C, amongst a raft of other environmental actions.
So, with climate change and environmentalism front-of-mind as we edge towards the end of 2021, what sort of focus did some of the global beauty markets have on sustainability? Had the COVID-19 crisis impacted any intentions in this space? And what were some of the other key trends shaping the global beauty and personal care category?
CosmeticsDesign-Europe attended the SCS Formulate Trends from around the world conference session to find out.
Click through to learn more on:
1. Spain
2. UK
3. Middle East
4. Nigeria
5. South Africa
6. India
7. Korea
8. Japan
9. Australia
10. Brazil
11. USA
12. Bahamas
Beauty markets around the world are sharply focused on sustainability, with substantiated claims, smart lifecycle analysis and closer-to-home sourcing some of the top priorities.
Earlier this month, the UK hosted the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow – an annual event designed to bring global stakeholders together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, limiting global warming to well below 2°C, amongst a raft of other environmental actions.
So, with climate change and environmentalism front-of-mind as we edge towards the end of 2021, what sort of focus did some of the global beauty markets have on sustainability? Had the COVID-19 crisis impacted any intentions in this space? And what were some of the other key trends shaping the global beauty and personal care category?
CosmeticsDesign-Europe attended the SCS Formulate Trends from around the world conference session to find out.
Click through to learn more on:
1. Spain
2. UK
3. Middle East
4. Nigeria
5. South Africa
6. India
7. Korea
8. Japan
9. Australia
10. Brazil
11. USA
12. Bahamas
Dr Blanca Martinez, R&D manager at Provital, said consumer expectations around sustainable beauty were fast-evolving.
“Sustainability concerns at the consumer level are moving from ‘doing no harm’ to actually ‘having a positive impact on the environment’,” Martinez said.
And whilst ingredient sourcing, product lifecycle assessment and sustainable packaging development was often complex, she said it was important industry worked hard to “avoid greenwashing”.
“Consumers are expecting an honest and transparent communication around these issues, and tools like blockchain are starting to be applied.
“…The requirement to have claims with a solid substantiation is expanding globally, and here, brands need to also consider how these are reproduced in digital and social media,” she said.
Carmina Casas, senior account manager at DSM Nutritional Products, agreed, stating the ongoing COVID-19 crisis had meant Spanish beauty businesses and consumers were “quickly adapting to online”.
“Today, organisations have had to embrace digital transformation, faster technologies and future business models,” Casas said.
Dr Tony Gough, incoming president of the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists (IFSC) and director of innovation for sustainability at Innospec, said consumers were increasingly focused on sustainability in all walks of life, including beauty, which was “influencing their purchasing decisions”.
Formulators and manufacturers, therefore, were looking for “evermore sustainable ingredients”, Gough said, which required plenty of change moving forward.
“The key things we will need to do are to revolutionise the energy and chemical supply chains, so more energy comes from renewable sources and raw materials come from renewable or recycled sources which are truly sustainable. Cleansing formulas will also need to be made more compact – less water and less packaging,” he said.
Whilst the technologies to make these changes wouldn’t become a reality overnight, he said the UK beauty industry was certainly on “a journey of sustainability” set to take companies to a better and greener place.
Arie (Yoki) Giniger, head of scientific development at Taburit Group, said Middle Eastern beauty continued to pivot on local ingredients, notably Dead Sea minerals and medicinal plants. What had changed was that brands were now working to back these actives with science and supported claims, particularly startups, Giniger said.
“Currently, Israel has become a startup nation, and thus new materials and new technologies are the basis for new products and skin care devices,” he said.
But, as new product development efforts advanced, sustainability had to remain a central priority, he said. “Life on our planet is encompassed in two contradictory time cycles. On one hand, we have the extremely fast technological cycle that introduces new materials and technologies, and these are to be adapted by the extremely slow biological cycle affecting life, vegetation, ecology etc.”
Whilst it was “very difficult” to balance this, it was important the cosmetics industry and governments worked hard to do so, he said.
Dr Mohammad Baghaei, founder of the Dr Baghaei Cosmetic Academy in Iran, said moving forward, innovations in the Middle East would likely play into the growing new trend of dermocosmetics.
“For acne, hyperpigmentation and wrinkling, today, the dermocosmetic products are very, very present here.” Baghaei said.
And as NPD efforts in this space advanced, he said there would be movement towards organics, local herbals – Iranian and Persian – and smart delivery systems.
Grace Abamba, founding president of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists Nigeria, said a key category offering opportunities and experiencing plenty of innovation in Nigeria was hair care.
“The biggest market is hair care, with trends around natural, speaking on conditioners, shampoos, styling products, [hair] masks etc. And also, products that look after hair extensions,” Abamba said.
Within this category, and beyond, she said there had been a rise in local brands using locally sourced and indigenous ingredients like coconut oil and shea butter. This move to source locally was, in part, because of import difficulties and skyrocketing raw material costs due to COVID-19, she said.
“International companies with a local presence that are willing to invest in local cosmetic manufacturers by providing essential materials and more flexible minimum orders could gain a further competitive edge,” Abamba said.
Charmaine Du Preez, president of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists South Africa (Coschem) and product manager at Chemsystems AECI, said sustainability was certainly “fundamental” for most beauty businesses.
“We have seen an increase in the demand for sustainable products. Customers are exploring all options and making lots of effort to incorporate sustainability,” Preez said.
There had been growth, for example, in waterless, recyclable and degradable beauty formats, and natural had now become “increasingly necessary” for all sustainable formulations, she said.
However, South Africa’s beauty market continued to face widespread supply chain difficulties, rising raw material costs, import issues and surging unemployment rates due to COVID-19, placing many new product development projects “on the backburner”, she said.
Dr Renuka Thergaonkar, president of the Indian Society of Cosmetic Chemists, said the ongoing COVID-19 crisis had created a wave of change in India’s beauty market.
“Industry has changed tremendously over the past year, especially after the pandemic. It was a time to sit at home, look at the products being sold on the market, and think deeply on needs and demands, and the objectives of using our products. This actually led to the opening of new categories, as well as changing from a need-based to an essential category,” Thergaonkar said.
As brands invested in essential innovation, she said the need for improved efficacy had been sharpened, as had the focus on sustainability. “There is a lot of demand for these types of ecologically advanced products using natural ingredients.”
And Thergaonkar said last year’s New Cosmetic Act created by the Indian government had helped all this because, under the act, the quality of products being manufactured, marketing and imported into India’s cosmetics category had become “the most important aspect”.
Sungho Lee, president of Sunjin Beauty Science, said there were interesting movements on the consumer side in Korea that were important for industry to understand.
“The most important trend in Korea is that consumers are becoming more and more knowledgeable in cosmetics, especially cosmetic ingredients,” Lee said. Regular consumers knew plenty, for example, about emulsifiers, preservatives and emollients, he said.
And this, he said, was fuelling the clean beauty movement in Korea. “It means that for cosmetic ingredients, we need to have new types of ‘clean beauty’ soluble ingredients. We need to replace conventional preservative systems, conventional emollient systems etc.”
Dr Katsunori Yoshida, president of the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists (IFSC) and chief technology officer and chief quality officer at Shiseido, said there was clear growth being seen in skin care across Japan and in other Asia-Pacific (APAC) beauty markets.
“Makeup is struggling still because people are wearing a mask and staying home (…) But I believe, after COVID-19 is gone, makeup will come back soon,” Yoshida said.
Skin care, by contrast, was soaring in Japan and other APAC markets, specifically products that addressed skin troubles caused by protective face coverings, he said.
Consumers in Japan were now also increasingly focused on health and wellness, Yoshida said, which opened opportunities beyond topical skin care in ingestibles targeting “inner beauty”.
“That means not only physical wellness but also the mind is another important thing for our consumers. So now, we do like to provide holistic beauty wellness care to our consumers.”
Robert McPherson, business manager for beauty and home at Lubrizol, said the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had also fuelled a surge in skin care across Australia, away from colour cosmetics.
“As people are being locked down and working from home, there are less requirements for coloured cosmetics and we’re seeing the spend moving to the skin care section where consumers are looking for skin care treatments and spending a bit more money,” McPherson said. Self-care and self-indulgent products like beauty face masks had boomed, for example, he said.
On top of this, and across Australia’s wider beauty market, masstige was rising fast as consumers became more conscious about what they were spending their money on. Australian-made products were also seeing a re-growth, he said, particularly active skin care products that used native extracts endemic to the country and brands that were positioning as A-Beauty (Australian-Beauty).
Prof. Dr. Vânia Rodrigues Leite e Silva, professor of cosmetology at Brazil’s Federal University of Sao Paolo, said an important and over-arching trend in Brazil’s beauty market was the rise in consumer interest for environmental claims.
“Consumers seek product claims that show companies’ commitment to the environment in general,” Silva said. But they were especially interested, she said, in any claims related to the connection between cosmetics and soil, water, fauna and flora.
It was therefore important industry questioned carefully how it needed to adapt to meet “the sustainable challenges of the future”, she said.
“The evolution of the cosmetics industry is constant and must be integrated with other industrial processes. It’s not only the products, but the packaging, production process, tests involved for safety and efficacy, communication with the consumer; in short, the process as a whole.”
Educating the consumer was especially important within this, she said – “industry has a big responsibility in the dissemination of information”.
Peter Tsolis, executive director for Clinique Skincare at Estée Lauder, said new product development and new formulations continued to be the “lifeblood” of the global cosmetics market, including in the USA, so advancing technologies were key.
“Everything from the raw material tech enables formulation technology to further advance over the years. This trend is always needed to accommodate new actives and formulation deliveries of these new actives. New formulations are always going to be a necessity, and that is going to be the drive of companies, and also create the identity and philosophy behind these incredible companies across the globe,” Tsolis said.
But beyond the formulation, he said it was important beauty continued to invest in packaging, particularly how products looked online with the surge in e-commerce due to COVID-19.
“That visual cue or visual explanation of the product is going to have far more meaning. I think the scientific explanations that the product features need to be crystal clear and simplified to the consumer.”
Shea Stubbs, a consultant specialised in the Bahamas, Caribbean and West Indies, said trends in the Bahamas beauty market closely followed those seen in the US.
“Here, we have a saying that goes: ‘when America sneezes, the Bahamas catches a cold’. I don’t think we’re alone in that,” Stubbs said.
The market relied on and was influenced heavily by US-created content, she said, which had propelled sun care into the spotlight across the Bahamas, for example.
“Even though we literally live in the sun, and we’ve bought into over the years that this is a category that is reserved for persons of whiter complexions or Caucasians (…) we find US-based, science-based influencers have doubled-down on the effects of sun exposure. You are seeing more and more consumers here in the Bahamas buying into the idea that sun care needs to be a priority.”
And within this, and the wider beauty market, she said organic and natural had gained ground. “This trend has been emerging prior to the pandemic. However, since then, we’re seeing more and more consumers prioritising products that fall under one of those two labels.”
