A Glimpse into Upcycled Beauty World
Sustainable Concerns are No Longer Niche
The demand for sustainable cosmetic products and ingredients has never been higher. Increasing attention is being paid by both consumers and businesses to ethics, moral values, social and environmental issues, says Euromonitor1.
This translates into decisions framed by the desire to positively impact communities and people to purchase more mindfully. These considerations are increasingly important in the Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) consumers’ decisions to adopt a more eco-conscious behavior.
According to Mintel, consumers are pushing beauty brands for bigger moves to reduce their environmental impact. As an example, 71% of French consumers would like to see more innovative sustainability ideas from the brands. They seek new products and more transparency to meet their sustainable expectations.
Mintel2 adds that growing interest has been seen in products using plant-based, upcycled materials such as discarded fruit, as well as those with refillable packaging or minimal packaging designs, such as solid cosmetics products. On-pack claims regarding carbon emissions, ingredient sourcing and other sustainable benefits will become key in remaining appealing to consumers.
Upcycling as Part of the Movement
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)3 points out that roughly 30% of all food is wasted, contributing mainly to solid waste landfills. Climate change and overpopulation put more pressure on food resources: finding other sources of raw materials is a sustainable solution to avoid competition with them.
Because most consumers want to do their part, research and storytelling about upcycled ingredients and circular product concepts are growing.
A team of experts from Harvard Law School, Drexel University, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, ReFED, and others officially defined “upcycled food” in 2020 for use in policy, research, and more:
“Upcycled foods use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment.” Indeed, they prevent waste by creating new, high quality products.
The Upcycled Certified™ Program is the world’s first third-party certification program for upcycled ingredients and products. Developed by the Upcycled Food Association, the mark highlights upcycled ingredients and products procured and produced with surplus food or food by-products from manufacturing, that use verifiable supply chains and have a positive impact on the environment.
They define three categories: Upcycled Ingredient (≥95% upcycled uniform diverted inputs by weight), Product Containing Upcycled Ingredients (≥10% certified upcycled ingredients by weight or threshold met for total tonnage diverted) and Products with Minimal Upcycled Ingredient Content (<10% certified upcycled ingredients).
Partnerships between companies of different sectors are created to enhance food and biowaste as an ethical source of ingredients and as a promotion to zero waste way of working. This connects wider with clean beauty and green concepts that consumers are looking for - now more important than ever.
Univar Solutions’ – Clean by Design Concept
As a global leader in chemical and ingredient distribution, Univar Solutions is committed to its sustainability journey and to continuous improvement. In 2020, the B&PC department took a stance to supports customers in meeting their sustainability goals.
By leveraging its strong innovative portfolio of solutions, it developed its Clean by Design4 concept, based on six internal clean beauty rules to guide formulations and ingredient selection.
Since then, this concept has been part of each SIM campaign (Strategic Ingredient Marketing), created several times a year. Coming to life as sophisticated kits of finished formulas, they illustrate the latest market trends while highlighting hero ingredients of the portfolio.
Each of the rules are integrated into every new development, from Formulation Process that saves time and energy to Marketing that provides transparent INCI list and education.
Ethics is a rule promoting programs for responsibly sourced ingredients, like Cargill’s Red Seaweed PromiseTM for carrageenan texturizers or Waxy Corn PromiseTM for starch based texturizers and sensory enhancer.
Last but not least the Sustainability rule includes low environmental impact ingredients like Biosynthetic Technologies’ emollients issued from a carbon negative manufacturing.
Consumers are ready for new products, new formats, new ingredient stories and new beauty routines. Armed with that knowledge, it’s the job of the cosmetic companies to exceed their expectations through disruptive approaches, finding ways to innovate with unique and more sustainable formulas and materials.
This is where the expertise of the technical specialist is key, as natural formulations bring their own challenges. Waterless products, found in several galenics for different applications, is a hot topic: they help conserve water by keeping excess resources off the shelves.
Whether they adopt a powder, anhydrous balm or lotion, bar or stick galenic, they shall deliver the desired benefits. In the case of a solid format, the ratio of waxes, butters, emollients, rheology modifiers and structuring agents needs to be carefully adjusted to provide a pleasant use experience.
DIY (Do It Yourself) is another valuable trend: it allows personalization according to the customer needs while minimizing waste. The laboratory development step provides guidance to ensure the formula is easily customizable.
The color, odor, sensorial properties of the finished product are all parameters to pay attention to, even more if the formulator deals with green materials quite new on the market. The proper choice of ingredients stays crucial, being an integral part of the first development step.
When speaking about natural formulations, advantages are given to sustainable, plant based, organic or fair-trade raw materials. Upcycled ingredients take this approach to the next level. Univar Solutions is pleased to bring to the B&PC market several of these latter. Discover them below.
EarthOil also represents Down Under Enterprises and their range of native Australian hydrosols: Lemon Myrtle, Sandalwood, Lavender, Tea Tree and Fragonia ®.
Hydrosols are naturally produced during the steam distillation of essential oils. They are considered a by-product of the process and would otherwise be waste material. Saturated solutions of the plant’s water soluble components, they exhibit the same olfactory character as the oils, yet in a milder format, and deliver delicately fragranced ingredients.
Poth Hille offers Natural Vegan Beeswax Substitute PHC 9677, a blend of natural wax components. Each one adds value to an existing supply chain by utilizing material that would otherwise go to waste.
Rice is the world’s most common crop, but a large part of the plant is typically discarded. Rice Bran Wax is obtained from refining crude wax, a result of the upstream refining
process of the rice bran oil. Sunflower seed oil is one of the most important vegetable oil in the world in terms of volume.
Unrefined oil contains approximately 0,3% of wax that would normally be disposed, but here it gives rise to Sunflower Wax. Sumax Wax is a by-product of lacquer production.
With consumers paying more attention to the environmental impact of their products, how they are sourced and created, interest in sustainability will continue to grow. The desire for consistent communications from the major players is expected.
As wasting food becomes more socially unacceptable, what once were niche product concepts are now becoming mainstream. Please get in contact with Technical Account Managers and visit UnivarSolutions.com/Suppliers to discover our range of ingredients, be inspired by formulation examples and request more information or samples.
Sources
1: https://www.euromonitor.com/article/megatrend-ethical-living
2: Mintel: Global Market Research & Market Insight | Mintel.com
3: https://www.fao.org
4: Clean By Design | Univar Solutions
Translated by:
Pınar Yeşim Doğan
Technical Account Manager
Beauty and Personal Care
Univar Solutions
Author:
Morgane Ezanno
Supplier Development Manager
Beauty and Personal Care EMEA
Univar Solutions
