Clean Beauty In London : The new Beauty Era | Better for the people and the planet

No definition, no label, no defined regulatory framework, how can consumers trust Clean Beauty?

An already demanding European regulation

“Today, Clean beauty is not standardized yet. As there is no framework, no rules of formulation, customer expectations are varied, especially between the US and Europe where regulations are not the same” explains Anne Rutigliano, Marketing and Communication Director of Anjac Health & Beauty Group. In Europe, regulations are already very demanding with more than 1600 banned substances compared to what exists across the Atlantic. Nathalie Dessirier, Marketing Manager at MS BEAUTiLAB, points out “If we follow the European regulations, we are already on the right track to formulate products that comply with the Clean Beauty“. Since July 1st, 2019, an additional constraint has appeared in the European regulatory landscape with the prohibition to use the “free” claim, which was a selection criterion for many consumers and a way for brands to highlight the clean character of their products. According to Mintel, the number of “free” claims had increased in all geographical areas in recent years, with a predominance in the western part of the world (USA, UK, Germany) but also to a lesser extent in Asian markets. For example, paraben-free had a growth of +10.9% between August 2017 and July 2018 in the UK, +6.9% in the US and +2% in Asia. Today, Brands have to do differently to promote their formulations. “This is a very important paradigm shift. The brands concerned will have to focus on claims based on the positive effects of ingredients rather than on the use of “free” claims that tend to denigrate certain categories of ingredients” explains Lucile Manteau, Senior Manager Regulatory Affairs at Symrise.

The power given to distributors and to products deciphering apps

Distributors who have contributed to the diffusion of Clean Beauty are more and more becoming referents. Some of them, such as Sephora, apply internal labels such as “Clean at Sephora” which validates a selection of products free of 54 ingredients that the brand has judged negatively. In France at the end of 2019, Carrefour opened in the Marais in Paris the store Sources dedicated to Clean Beauty. “We have banned 75 controversial ingredients from the market in the products we offer to consumers” explains Valentine Fournier from Carrefour Group Purchasing. “Basically Sources aims at reassuring consumers” adds Pascal Clouzard, Executive Director for France. Product decoding applications also play this role and even become prescribers. According to the “Women’s Facial Skincare Consumer Report” by the NPD group (1): in the USA, 50% of women surveyed seek information online before buying a product in store. Mustela with #legrandscan (2) could not say the opposite: the iconic baby brand that celebrates its 70th anniversary highlights the scores given by applications (Yuka, INCI Beauty, QuelCosmetic, Clean Beauty) to praise the benefits of its formulas. This is certainly a way to modernize its image but also to recognize and validate the power taken by these applications. In the long term, could these apps replace a regulatory framework that is being settled too slowly?

(1) Women’s Facial Skincare Consumer Report 2019, NPD Group, Inc. Sur la base de l’analyse de comportements d’Américaines interrogées du 24 avril au 28 mai 2019, le rapport indique où celles-ci obtiennent des informations sur les soins de la peau, ainsi que sur le lieu où elles effectuent leurs achats et les facteurs qui sont importants lors de la prise de décision
(2) https://www.mustela.fr/nos-produits-notes-par-les-applis

Written by Régine FRICK

Simple formulas, rigorously selected ingredients, necessary know-how, does clean beauty necessarily cost more?

A rigorous selection of ingredients

“The year 2015, according to Elsa Sassi, Marketing Manager at Pharma & Beauty Group, marks the beginning of blacklist editions among the principals. At that time, only a few players with a strong focus on organic and clean products were questioning us in this direction. Today, there is an acceleration of this approach for all our formulation axes, both in prestige and massmarket for small and large companies”. To meet this demand for products meeting the Clean Beauty standards, companies have reviewed their working methods and have strengthened their criteria for ingredient selection “There is a lot of work upstream of the formulation on the selection of ingredients that must be ethical, responsible, traceable and if possible multifunctional” explains Nathalie Dessirier, Marketing Manager at MS Beautilab. An opinion also shared by Pharma & Beauty Group “we have implemented a drastic selection of ingredients which requires a longer and more meticulous work in order to receive more information from our suppliers and to go beyond the requirements of the cosmetic regulation standards. However, the target costs remain roughly the same as for classic products and we have to find solutions to enter into these price targets“.

Valuable know-how

Moreover, “Formulating minimalist products requires special know-how if we want to maintain a beautiful sensoriality and great efficiency. Our proposals for solid cosmetics for all stages of the skin care routine required months of development,” says Anne Rutigliano, Marketing & Communication Director at Anjac Health & Beauty. It is clear that the cost of the product goes far beyond the ingredients used. For MS BeautiLAB, the observation is the same: “For certain categories of highly technical products such as mascaras and primers, meeting the requirements of clean beauty is very challenging and requires a high level of technicality and knowledge of the profession”. MS Beautilab has recently taken up the challenge by developing the 1st IncrediGreen Lashes mascara containing 99.7% natural ingredients and meeting vegan and clean requirements. Clean beauty by asking to get to the essentials requires companies to refocus on the business, keeping in mind as Steve Jobs said “Simplicity may be harder to achieve than complexity: you have to work hard to think right and keep it simple”. And that comes at a cost.

Towards a democratization of clean beauty

Nevertheless, according to P&B Group, “All brands, regardless of their positioning and price range, are now interested in Clean beauty. We are witnessing a real democratization of Clean Beauty without doing compromises on formulations’ stability & sensoriality”. And it is not so much the number of ingredients that will make the price of the formula but all the know-how that has been implemented to offer a product that meets the customer’s demands.

Clean Beauty will perhaps allow the cosmetics industry to put the expertise of the men and women of the profession back at the centre of the product’s value, an interesting way in these times when the world is asking to change.

Written by Régine FRICK

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN THE EPISOD

In-conversation with … a business podcast from Global Cosmetics News is a panel discussion about interesting things with interesting people all whom just happen to have a connection with the cosmetics industry. Sponsored by INOLEX – Posted by Global Cosmetics News

Hosted by Georgina Caldwell, Global Cosmetics News Editor who was joined in this episode by the following guest:

Christine Chang – Co- CEO & Co-Founder – Glow Recipe

Sarah Lee – Co-CEO & Co -Founder – Glow Recipe

Elsie Rutterford – Co-Founder at BYBI Beauty

Dominika Minarovic – Co-Founder at BYBI Beauty

Audrey Wesson – Marketing Manager at INOLEX

For some years now, the big trend in cosmetics has been called Clean Beauty. Every brand is interested in it, every ingredient and packaging supplier is looking at how to meet this growing demand. But where does this movement come from?

It is difficult to define precisely the emergence of Clean Beauty as it brings together elements that already exist, namely consumer demand for environmentally friendly products and the need for safe products that respond to the resurgence of sensitive skin. Between 2002 and 2017, according to Ecovia Intelligence, worldwide sales of natural and organic cosmetics have increased from almost nothing to 10.2 billion dollars. At the same time, more and more people consider having sensitive skin. According to the Bioderma brand, 1/3 of the adult population would be concerned. (1) Clean beauty can also be seen as an extension of the Clean Eating nutritional concept, which recommends eating fresh, seasonal, regional, natural, unprocessed and healthy products. In 2010, an American nutritionist, Tosca Reno, began writing several books, all of which have become best sellers on the “Eat-Clean Diet”, which has since become very popular in the United States and has been relayed by stars such as Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman. There are 42 million hashtag cleaneating (#cleaneating) on Instagram. Clean Beauty seems to follow this path since between 2016 and 2019 the hashtag cleanbeauty (#cleanbeauty) has increased by 623% in the USA (2).

The American distributors, spearhead of the Clean Beauty

The American distributors played an important role in the Clean Beauty concept creation by selecting the brands on their shelves according to their own lists of authorized ingredients. One of the first actors is Follain (3) which opened its first store in Seattle in 2013 and then in Boston, New York, Dallas. Its founder Tara Foley explains: « My quest for a healthy life has focused first and foremost on the consumption of appropriate food. At the same time, I have always thought about what I put on my face and body. Not satisfied with the answers I received, I decided to go for Clean Beauty ». In 2019, Follain opened 10 more stores. Their list of banned ingredients is made of about thirty substances. Another major player, the US-based Credo (4) launched in San Francisco in 2015, has now 8 shops and spas across the United States. In 2018, the “Clean at Sephora” label further democratize Clean Beauty, widely distributed, particularly in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Very recently, the Carrefour group opened in Paris a beauty store, called Sources, dedicated to Clean Beauty, a sign that the trend is becoming established in Europe. Asia still seems to be little concerned by Clean Beauty, but not for long…

(1) https://www.bioderma.fr/fr/votre-peau/peau-sensible-intolerante
(2) Mintel US Clean Beauty 2019 & Deloitte Millenial Survey
(3) https://follain.com/
(4) https://credobeauty.com

Written by Régine FRICK