Sustainable Cosmetics

September 2018

Paris Summit Features New Technologies and Green Materials

The European edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit will feature green materials, new
technologies, and marketing developments.

For the first time, the executive summit will look at the disruptive influence of new technologies on cosmetic formulations and marketing. Organised by Ecovia Intelligence, the summit will be hosted in Paris on 5-7th November.

The opening session (Sustainability Update) covers the broader sustainability issues in
the beauty industry. Kurt L. Nübling, CEO and Co-Founder of Primavera Life, will give a
keynote on “Cosmetics for a Sustainable Tomorrow”.

Primavera is one of the pioneering  natural cosmetic & aromatherapy companies in Europe. It is involved in a number of ethical sourcing projects and its purpose-built headquarters in southern Germany has been carbon positive since 2011.

Hannah Pitts from the Natural Capital Coalition will introduce the concept of natural
capital, how it can be measured, and its implications to cosmetic and ingredient firms.

Chris Sayner from Croda will give an update on sustainability reporting best-practices.
P&G has made a pledge to have all its manufacturing sites zero waste to landfill.

Jacques Euler, Beauty Sustainability Program Leader at P&G will give insights into how the
cosmetics multinational is undertaking waste reduction programmes, while Grupo Boticário,
one of the largest cosmetic companies in Latin America, will share its experiences in
tackling sustainability, discussing its key environmental and social priorities, and how they vary from European companies?

Monique Simmonds from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London kicks off the Green Materials session. She will give details of new botanical actives that are making their way into personal care products.  Royal Botanical Gardens is renowned as one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, having around 7 million dried plants and over 19,000 living plant species. 

DuPont will explain how food side streams are becoming a rich source of cosmetic ingredients.

Other topics include sustainable ingredients for hair conditioning, ethical alternatives to plastic microbeads, and bio-based polymers for personal care products. The session adjourns with industry experts discussing solutions to common green formulation hurdles.

Session 3 looks at how New Technologies are having a disrupting influence on production, processing, supply chains, and marketing of cosmetic products.

Elodie Mauger, International Sales and Product Manager, Mibelle Biochemistry, will show how
plant cell technology can be utilised to create novel actives. Its MossCellTecTM material is based on the protonema culture of the moss Physcomitrella patens.

Another speaker will highlight the use of new technologies to create vegetable oils from sugars. The
potential of blockchain technology will be discussed, whilst another speaker explores the use of artificial intelligence for customisation of beauty products. The panel discussion will involve speakers debating the transformational effect of these new technologies.

The final session discusses the latest Marketing Developments associated with
sustainable cosmetics. Oliver Gothe, CEO of Fair Squared, will explain how the vegan
trend is permeating into the personal care industry. He will introduce vegan labels and
outline the re-formulation challenges when removing non-vegan ingredients.

With growing interest in skin biomes, Marie Drago from Gallinée will show how natural
skincare products can maintain healthy skin eco-systems.

Silvija Špehar, Co-Founder of Hemptouch, will outline the opportunities provided by cannabis-based ingredients in personal care products. Other topics include cosmetic sustainability claims, changing
consumer lifestyles, and targeting the millennials.

Co-hosted alongside the European edition of the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit is the 2018 Sustainable Beauty Awards. Taking place on the evening of 6th November, the awards reception will honour those who are pushing the boundaries of sustainability in the beauty industry.

Natural & Organic Cosmetics Conference: Diversity in Beauty at the Ellington Hotel, Berlin.

Advertising and commercials for cosmetics as well as the product offerings have formerly been dominated by a certain type of beauty ideal – and were targeted to specific target groups. But the customer groups have undergone changes in their ethnic background, and their  standard of what is considered “beautiful“ has evolved as well.

Catwalk show embracing diversity at Pure London July 22-24 at London Kensington Olympia.
Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018

So whatever orientation their consumers are, be they have darker skin, or from Asians or Latino background, or even transgender, several major players of the international beauty market have been in the limelight to offer a broad range of colours for various skin tones, and this new approach is also compelling the organic cosmetics industry to act and demand new vantage points for brand orientation.

The 11th edition of the international Natural & Organic Cosmetics Conference, slated for September 25-26, 2018, in Berlin in cooperation with the NürnbergMesse, organizer of the VIVANESS, will put one of the focal points on the current topic of Diversity in Beauty.

“Our world is changing and becoming more diverse and colourful. The changes bring along both opportunities and challenges. The Natural & Organic Cosmetics Conference wants to provide new impulses for new developments within the natural and organic cosmetics industry“, states Wolf Lüdge, Program Chairman and organizer of the Conference.

Lüdge considers cultural diversity and the desire for bespoke products to be economical key factors of the future: “Those wanting to be successful on a long-term basis will need to satisfy the diverse customer groups also with a broad and personalized product offering. This requires a general willingness to address this issue."

Elfriede Dambacher, an expert in organic cosmetics and Program Chairwoman of the Natural & Organic Cosmetics Conference, and owner of the consulting company naturkosmetik konzepte, says diversity in beauty is a great opportunity to further strengthen the market position of natural and organic cosmetics: “Ethical considerations, that also include diversity, today are just as important as organic ingredients. The natural and organic cosmetics industry has the opportunity to address diversity reputably and with credibility and thereby authentically implement the usage of the term diversity in the beauty market“, explains Elfriede Dambacher.