Powdered cosmetics, a sustainable version of our beauty ritual

Powdered cosmetics is a new approach to our beauty routine which is constantly gaining momentum. What is this new trend that is rethinking our approach to cosmetics? What more does it bring us? Does it come at the expense of product quality? This is what we will try to understand in this article.

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Coming from Korea, powdered formulas are gaining new segments such as hygiene and care, particularly for the face and hair. This new anhydrous format stands out by its lightness, its more natural composition and its higher concentration of active ingredients. But also for its ease of recharging and its response to current consumer expectations in terms of clean beauty and respect for the environment.

According to Hélène Azancot, former general manager of various brands of the L’Oréal group, the objective would be to “reach consumers who want to consume beauty differently, to take them towards conscious beauty, with minimalist formulas in which the science progress makes it possible to do new things”.

Values of eco-conception, personal fulfillment and respect for the environment, make us think of “Do It Yourself.”..

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Powdered cosmetics, an answer to the phenomenon of Do It Yourself?

As we have noticed in recent years, consumers are more and more fond of “homemade” recipes to take care of their skin. However, it is not uncommon to see some mistakes and situations aggravated with the use of these “Do It Yourself” creams. Indeed, let us recall that cosmetics is a complex universe and that it is not enough to mix a few plants with the right virtues to obtain the desired result.

This is why the brands have adapted and innovated in their turn to this phenomenon so much appreciated by the consumers engaged in their cosmetic routine. 

Thus, they no longer offer ready-to-apply products, but rather do-it-yourself powder cosmetic kits. This involves rehydrating a powder with a liquid solution such as water, milk or oil to restore the desired appearance.

In addition to these kits to make, the consumer can benefit from a real service with the sharing of recipes, ingredients in detail, and manufacturing advice. These kits place the passion and the transmission of know-how of professionals at the heart of their profession. All this while restoring confidence in the brand and security to these “home-made” products. Consumers now feel that they are actors in their own beauty ritual and ambassadors of their brand, who know how to meet their ecological, practical and economic expectations.

More than an achievement, powdered cosmetics is above all a way to assert the consumer in his choices and give meaning to the products.

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What about their effectiveness?

Powdered cosmetics seems to be part of an ecological and economic approach.

Ecologic

  • Absence of water in the composition, which makes this galenic ecological
  • Possibility to keep the bottle and to refill it with sachets
  • Absence of preservatives in the formula
  • A “zero waste” perspective

Economic

  • Long-term conservation of the product (without alteration of the care).
  • Precise dosing to avoid waste

Products in the form of rehydration powder are therefore part of an eco-responsible approach and help reduce our environmental impact. However, the perceived value of these products from a consumer point of view was rather low. Today, it is possible to create powder cosmetics with very high quality active ingredients. In particular with active ingredients such as snow algae powder, or apple cells, which will bring all their effectiveness after rehydration.

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In practice:

Several options have been developed to produce a range of powdered care and hygiene products:

For the care products, for example, you can work from a 100% natural cream base, ideal for daily care. Simply reconstitute this emulsion with water, an aqueous extract or a hydrolat. During rehydration, the polymer solubilizes and the oil droplets are released to form an emulsion again.

The final texture of the cream will depend on the concentration of powder added. From a cream base, various textures will be possible. To obtain a body lotion or a very fluid cream, it will be necessary to add 25 to 30% cream base. Conversely, to obtain a rich nourishing cream, more than 40% cream base will be used.

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For hygiene products, we could imagine working with natural surfactants in powder form. They bring foam and smoothness to your recipes while being very soft and well tolerated by the skin. For example, derived from coconut vegetable oil, SCI (Sodium cocoyl isethionate) comes in powder form and is very easily used in your natural cosmetic recipes. It is integrated from 5 to 60% of the total weight of your preparation in your formulas. It is soluble in water but insoluble in oil.

The advantages of these bases:

  • Simple and fast: ready in 2 minutes without heating
  • 100% natural and without preservatives
  • 100 % quality: long-lasting product preservation and optimal preservation of the components until use
  • Fully customizable: possibility to add active ingredients, dyes and fragrances

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What recyclable packaging can be offered with these formulations?

If you want to go all the way with this concept, you will surely like this packaging adapted to powders and made from recyclable materials.

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These new formulations, already widely used in other parts of the world, are therefore interesting new avenues in terms of sustainable and eco-responsible cosmetics. This is a concrete innovation case, that responds to new consumer aspirations without neglecting product quality.

You wish to be accompanied by experts from R&D to the commercial launch of powder cosmetics?

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