Click through to read the most read articles on CosmeticsDesign this week.
Prohibited chemicals are the top regulatory and legal concerns for small to mid-sized cosmetic and personal care businesses according to IBA.
Some of the biggest challenges are coming from class action lawsuits and consumer-enforced accountability around contaminants and substances deemed unsafe for consumers rather than from Federal Drug Administration requirements, Donald Frey, president of the Independent Beauty Association, told CosmeticsDesign.
One of the prominent issues for Frey is recent recalls of benzene-related products ensuing from analytical testing performed by Connecticut-based pharma and analytics company Valisure. In that case, Frey said recalls were not driven by FDA action, but by the “court of public opinion.”
“The levels detected were very low but there was a lot of press about it which has caused some companies to withdraw their products from the market until they can figure out what is causing it,” he said. “Benzene is obviously a safety concern, but these are cases where it was not knowingly or intentionally added.”
Men might be from Mars and women from Venus, but when it comes to natural cosmetics, it could be outdated to suggest that women shop differently than men.
Their purchasing behavior is very similar, with both motivated by environmental concerns and neither deterred by price, finds a study of cosmetics users in India.
Both male and female consumers liked purchasing cosmetics made of natural ingredients and were more inclined to purchase natural products if they knew that doing so would benefit the environment, reported Anusha Tengli et al. in the journal Cosmetics.
“The results show that there was not much difference in male and female consumers’ purchase intention and purchase behavior towards natural cosmetics,” Tengli et al. said. “Both male and female consumers had a positive attitude towards cosmetics made of natural ingredients.”
SuperOrdinary paved its way in beauty helping US brands move into the Chinese market, and as Honest Co begins that journey lessons can be learned by the industry.
The clean beauty-focused brand announced in September the company would be expanding into the Chinese market with the help of SuperOrdinary, which has guided more than 30 brands through similar moves into China and other markets in Southeast Asia.
CEO and founder of SuperOrdinary Julian Reis said after being closely involved in the rise of social commerce in China, the company aims to be a partner for brands it determines viable in Asian markets.
Before moving forward with a brand into foreign markets Reis said it’s important that a company has the appropriate corporate infrastructure to withstand organizational stresses like cash flow and demand planning.
Q&A
Cosmetic formulation platforms like Novi Connect and The Good Face Project have entered the R&D process hoping to make access to data easier and more simple.
CosmeticsDesign spoke with Stacey House, chair-elect of the New York Society of Cosmetics Chemists, about what these types of platforms mean for formulators today.
Click here to read more about Novi Connect and The Good Face Project.
Tell me a little bit about what the initial impact of these types of platforms is for formulators.
There are different buckets that we’re able to put these tools in.
L'Oréal has launched two new technologies for mass-market consumers and stylists, developed to circumvent hair coloring problems “only technology could solve.”
The company announced the Colorsonic and Coloright technologies on Monday, ahead of CES 2022. Both products, Colorsonic for consumers and Coloright for hairstylists, address ease-of-use with color application.
Head of the L'Oréal Global Technology Incubator Guive Balooch said they’re particularly excited about making these innovations in the hair coloring space, which the company launched more than a century ago.
“What we've seen in the past 100 years is lots of innovation in the types of formulas and colors to get to the right chemistry,” Balooch told cosmetics design. “But the way of actually applying it on the hair, both at home and in the salon, hasn't really changed at all.”