My 4 Big Ideas for Cosmetic Product Development in 2023

My 4 Big Ideas for Product Development in 2023

I’ve taken in my experiences from traveling the world and monitoring trends in basic science and business to create a list of ideas that I think will influence product development in the coming year. While the list is small, some of the concepts are broad in their application. I hope you find some of these ideas though provoking and that they might help inspire you to think about how you want to approach product development in 2023!

Simplified Ingredient Lists: The “kitchen sink” approach of using numerous extracts in one product as hero ingredients is not good for sustainability or bottom lines. The active components of many extracts are poorly understood and not standardized making efficacy questionable to begin with. And while these ingredients used a low percentage may not dramatically impact formulation cost, the waste and challenges managing inventory in the supply chain add up. Time to focus formulations and streamline product offerings.

Carotenoids Time to Shine: Carotenoids are colored chemical compounds that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, and fungi. Carotenoids are responsible for the characteristic color of color of pumpkins, carrots, and tomatoes as well as flamingos, salmon, lobster and shrimp. Beta-carotene is a carotenoid that is an effective free-radical quencher, especially for singlet oxygen. When incorporated as into to skincare products carotenoids have the added benefit of providing a slight, golden color. ?Sunscreen plus a carotenoid antioxidant can be a powerful combination for skin care. Other carotenoids with skincare benefits include curcumin, lycopene, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin.

Biosynthetic Beauty: Speaking of carotenoids, beta-carotene used in food, supplements, and cosmetics has long been an ingredient produced by biotechnology because extraction from natural sources is not cost or resource efficient. It’s estimated that it would take 50 kg of carrots to produce just a few grams of beta-carotene. That’s barely enough material to make a lab scale batch of product with! ?Other carotenoids include lycopene, canthaxanthin and astaxanthin.?The key using these ingredients will be transparency in sourcing and educating consumers on the science and safety behind ingredients especially those that are synthetically produced by genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Size Matters: Some color cosmetics like lipstick contain far more applications than a consumer can use during an expected lifetime (shelf-life). A typical ~3.5-gram tube of lipstick would last over a year at an application rate of once a day, yet no consumer would wear the same color every day. Add to that the fact that the complexity of most lipstick tubes makes them nearly impossible to recycle. Mini size products reduce product and packaging waste and increase portability of these products while allowing the consumer greater choice in color to match the fluidity color trends today. A mini lipstick that could be reloaded with different colors could hit on many brand goals.

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