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Plant-Based Alternatives – The Focus of Modern Beauty Consumers
Interview with Dr. Stefan Bänziger, Head of R&D and Engineering
Lipoid Kosmetik AG
Stefan, why is plant-based, vegan beauty such a trend in cosmetics?
We live in an age of ethical consumerism. This means people are making conscious decisions about what they consume and how they consume it. Growing concerns regarding environmental degradation and awareness of cruelty toward animals are major drivers of growth of vegetarianism and veganism. Originated in the food sector, the trend is taking over the cosmetic field as well. Vegan beauty has become a major trend and the fastest-growing claim in the facial skincare market in Europe in 2022 [1]. And even for consumers who do not follow a vegan diet, the vegan label is directly associated with a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Thus, products that employ the benefits of vegan ingredients align with consumers seeking out clean and natural forms of self-care.
How is vegan cosmetics perceived by the consumer?
Vegan cosmetics is closely linked to claims such as plant-based, natural, green, cruelty-free, and clean – which also drive demand across the beauty industry. Brands align with clean beauty trends by increasing transparency surrounding ingredient origin and highlighting naturalness as well as ethical and eco merits (e.g., being cruelty-free). The modern consumer wants products that deliver the promised benefits but in addition are environmentally friendly and do not harm animals in the process. Such demands from discerning customers are fulfilled by the plant-based, vegan cosmetic industry through satisfying solutions that are perceived as efficient, safe and more sustainable.
Interesting thought, can you elaborate a bit more on how we can make sure that plant-based, vegan ingredients are perceived as efficient as animal-derived or synthetic ingredients?
In the cosmetic industry there are a variety of traditional, well-tested and trusted ingredients, many of which are synthetic or animal-derived. They are popular because of their high efficacy, known activity and trustworthy marketing concept. Examples are retinol, hyaluronic acid, but also collagen or milk-based products just to name a few. At the same time, consumers prefer plant-based and vegan ingredients because they associate them with positive attributes such as clean, sustainable and better for the conscience. In addition to these positive features, the industry must show that plant-based ingredients also deliver the promised user benefits. This can be done through a direct efficacy comparison between well-known ingredients and their plant-based imitations. That is why companies like Lipoid Kosmetik take inspiration from these cosmetic ‘superstars’ and develop plant-based alternatives with a similar activity as their traditional, synthetic, or animal-derived counterparts.
Which products can Lipoid Kosmetik offer when it comes to plant-based, vegan alternatives?
As a raw material supplier with a huge variety of botanical extracts, actives and phospholipids, most of our portfolio is plant-based. By analysing consumer’s needs and market demand we tried to anticipate current and future trends and combines these with our know-how around plant-based ingredients during the product development process. This way, we have developed several products within the last years that mimic popular cosmetic ingredients usually derived from animal or synthetic sources and made our own plant-based alternative.
A perfect example is our Herbamilk® Eco product line, which offer vegan, plant-based milk alternatives. The products in the Herbamilk® Eco line combine natural plant oils and natural plant extracts with the help of hydrogenated phospholipids. Herbamilk® Eco products are the perfect ingredients to create milk-based concepts and attend the vegan and health-conscious trend in cosmetics.
Another excellent example is our active ingredient PhytoCollagen. Collagen is one of the most popular active ingredients in the anti-aging and moisturizing categories.
However, collagen is derived from animal or synthetic sources, which counteracts current cosmetic trends. With PhytoCollagen we offer a 100% natural collagen alternative derived from the acacia tree. The product combines cosmetic benefits known from animal collagen with a vegan and sustainable source, which is why it is the functional plant-based alternative to animal collagen for the modern and conscious beauty consumer.
Last, I would like to mention our active ingredient PhytoCodine®, the world’s first concentrate of plant-derived, natural matrikine-like peptides. Matrikines naturally occur in our skin, where they build up the extracellular matrix. So far, synthetic matrikines have been used in cosmetics. To create a valuable plant-based alternative, Lipoid Kosmetik isolated natural matrikine-like peptides from cedar nuts and presents them in PhytoCodine®, a novel and powerful anti-aging active.
To sum it up, the focus of product development at Lipoid Kosmetik, now and in the future, is innovation, efficacy and naturalness.
References:
[1] A year of innovation in facial skincare, 2022 - Mintel
