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Yasmin Ahmed
Held at The Brewery, a historic London venue, the two-day event hosted 25 exhibitors, showcasing a range of forward-thinking innovations across skincare, body care, haircare, toiletries, and makeup – from ingredients and formulations, to private labelling and packaging. The newly launched InnoZone showcase area previewed 20 of the best innovations, putting the spotlight on 'Green Chemistry', 'Eco Conception', and 'Natural and Renewable Materials'.
The show’s conference programme featured an impressive lineup of 26 industry leaders, demystifying key concepts within the 'clean' movement, and exploring trends and solutions. A jam-packed session, entitled 'Creating a Regenerative Beauty Future', featured the managing directors of Haeckels, Charlie Vickery, and Dr. Bronner’s UK, Cliff Moss. Emphasising the value of "collaboration over competition", the lively conversation explored the approaches that both brands have taken to build a regenerative and ethical supply chain, from Haeckels' hyper-local harvests and lab-grown ingredients, to Dr. Bronner’s international network of smallholder farmers and co-ops. Moss aptly summed up the essence of the movement, declaring that "regenerative farming is about healing the earth".
Admittedly, the concept of 'clean' beauty remains ambiguous, with no regulation to ensure brands are excluding key ingredients or meeting a minimum threshold of others, leaving the term, and its cousins - organic, natural and green - open to interpretation and misuse. Key events such as Clean Beauty are attempting to streamline the sector, but considering the large number of plastic-packaged products on offer, we think there's some way to go until this growing beauty cohort is free from greenwashing.
Despite this, trends like waterless formulations, single-dose systems, and rechargeable products shone a light on what the future of beauty could look like. While it might be business-as-usual for some, find out how five forward-thinking creations are disrupting the world of beauty.
Launched in March 2023 by Lucas Meyer Cosmetics, Regenight is an active ingredient made from the upcycled byproduct of the company’s own Australian tea tree waste stream. The fully traceable, field-to-beauty product is made from the leftovers of the distillation process of Melafresh T96, an antimicrobial tea tree extract manufactured by the brand. The patented product is said to offer nighttime skin recovery, hydrating, protecting, and restoring skin barrier function, while also improving sleep quality by boosting melatonin gene expression. Regenight’s efficacy has been tested with a scientifically validated biometric system, and holds a number of certifications: it is preservative free, COSMOS approved, and vegan.
Essential oils have reemerged as a popular alternative to chemical-laden cosmetic products, and are championed for their medicinal properties. But the yield of essential oil from plant matter ranges from 0.05 to 18%, and it’s estimated that one tonne of tea tree branches and leaves produces six to 10 kilograms of oil. By repurposing its own waste stream rather than depleting virgin resources, Lucas Meyers Cosmetics is paving the way for circular innovations in beauty. The company’s formulation lab has developed over 150 ingredients and 35 patent families.
Availability: Commercially Available
Spanish cosmetics brand Valquer Laboratorios presented a range of solid and waterless products for hair, body, and skin care. Its collection includes shampoo, exfoliant and shower gel in solid, powdered, and tablet form, and its skincare offering of micellar water bars and foamable gel bars pushes the solid beauty trend even further. The highlight of its collection is the solid hair mask bar designed to look like a chocolate bar, with each breakable tablet delivering enough product for one mask. To add to its sustainable credentials, Valquer’s packaging is entirely plastic free, opting for kraft Paper boxes, tubes, and sachets. The brand also stocks a keepsake Aluminium travel case.
Solid cosmetics are by no means a new concept – Lush was the first market player to introduce its patented solid shampoo bar back in 1988. But the humble soap bar is making a popular comeback with fresh iterations. Waterless formats save on packaging, product weight, transportation costs and emissions, and eliminate the need for synthetic ingredients. They also conserve water – beauty and personal care products have a typical water content of between 60 and 95%. At our current consumption rate, two thirds of the global population may face water shortages by 2025 due to water scarcity. Valquer’s minimalist and multipurpose bars are a step in the right direction.
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SCENTOUCH is a patented fragrance sampling solution that employs scented paper technology. Shaped as a perfume bottle, the mono-material solution is made from 100% FSC-certified paper, but can also be made with recycled paper. It features a strip that can be pulled out of the bottle-shaped case to sample the scent or apply it on skin. The scent miniature preserves the fragrance, and can be produced in a variety of formats and finishes. The fully recyclable solution, which is entirely produced in France, has been used by a number of international fragrance brands as a promotional tool, including Narciso Rodriguez, Guerlain, and Shiseido.
The global beauty industry relies heavily on sampling to sell, with insight from Euromonitor revealing that the third-most mentioned reason for buying a full-size item is samples, but this practice comes with a lot of waste. Fragrance samples are predominantly packaged in hard-to-recycle Glass and plastic mini perfume bottles, but iD Scent's sustainable sampling solution provides a plastic-free, cost-efficient alternative. The company has developed over 20 years of expertise in scented paper technology for the fragrance market, and was acquired by Aptar Beauty in March 2023.
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FR&Partners showcased an impressive range of rechargeable and recyclable packaging solutions for makeup products. The Swiss company’s most recent launch is a Cork solution – the Sue line – made from the bark of cork oak trees. The renewable material is breathable, impact resistant, and offers formula protection. Designed to be a keepsake container that can be endlessly refilled, it can hold solid and waterless cosmetic products, from makeup compacts to baked powders. The booth featured other sustainable offerings: Heather Pulp, a rechargeable makeup palette made from a mixture of Cellulose fibres and water; aluminium lipstick tubes and tins with a locking mechanism; paper makeup palettes and tubes; and keepsake ceramic dispensing bottles and lipstick tubes made from kaolin, clay, feldspar, and quartz sand.
According to the British Beauty Council, brands are committing to 100% recyclable cosmetic packaging by 2025 in light of the UK Plastics Pact. Positioning itself as a one-stop shop for beauty brands, FR&Partners has established an in-house design and product development team, and handles every aspect of the packaging, from sourcing materials to manufacturing quality controls. A bespoke service with endless options facilitates the transition that brands will have to make to meet their sustainable commitments.
Availability: Commercially Available
Swiss cosmetics subcontractor Cosmotec unveiled its Less is More collection, developed in accordance with the company's Ultra Clean Beauty criteria. Each product features 10 active raw ingredients or less, keeping each formula composition simple yet efficient. Its pared-back range includes a face cream, serum, mask, foaming cleanser, eye gel, and body cream. The formulations contain between 91.9% and 100% ingredients of pure, natural origin. Rather than adding preservatives, the company uses a fermentation process to ensure product longevity and stability. Cosmotec says it has observed increasing market demand for 'clean' ingredients, refining its manufacturing process and challenging its suppliers to become more savvy and transparent about how their ingredients are sourced.
Cosmotec is proudly Swiss, championing hyper-local materials and production lines across its value chain to reduce its ecological footprint. All the company's ingredients and products are made in Switzerland, and its lab and production site is directly supplied with alpine spring water. The company has 11 private label collections and created more than 15,000 formulations in its three-decade history, specialising in plants native to the Swiss Alps. The brand's unique approach to cosmetic formula-making is seen as a synergy between nature and art, a unique mindset that could usher in a truly 'clean' era for beauty.
Availability: Commercially Available
