Trending Ingredients for Natural Beauty

In our label-reading age, it’s no longer jarring to spot shoppers prowling supermarket aisles, scrutinizing food and beverage labels with magnifying glasses and ingredient “watch” lists compiled, if not by reputable advocacy groups, then at least by the latest beauty blogger du jour. And judging from what winds up in their baskets and what stays on shelves, it’s pretty clear that 1) a not-insignificant number of these shoppers has gone all-in on the notion that “you are what you eat,” and 2) they neither want to eat nor to be a bunch of scary-sounding chemicals.

By that same token, it should come as little surprise that such consumers aren’t especially interested in rubbing scary-sounding chemicals all over their faces, elbows, or hair, either. And indeed, the success of “naturally” formulated skincare, haircare, and cosmetic products leaves little doubt that the power of product purity extends beyond the kitchen and into the powder room, as well.


Bright Spot in Beauty
Indeed, despite seeing sales decline in 2015, the U.S. facial skincare and antiaging market is basking in the glow of a very bright spot-growing consumer interest in natural formulations that supplant unpronounceable “chemicals” with trusted, familiar ingredients, according to new research from Mintel.

Casting even more light on the category are results of the second annual Green Beauty Barometer survey, commissioned by Seattle-based ”eco-luxe” brand Kari Gran and conducted online by Harris Poll in August 2016. Among the findings: 35% of women surveyed plan to purchase more all-natural beauty products over the next two years, with Millennial women expressing that intent at a rate of 48%.

Their support makes sense to Paula Simpson, nutricosmetic formulation and branding expert and principal, Nutribloom Consulting (New York and Toronto). “Natural skincare is the fastest-growing market in personal care in the U.S.,” she says. The belief-Simpson calls it a philosophy-that “living clean will help you look and feel your best is stimulating the growth of natural nutricosmetic and beauty brands that abide by naturally derived and clean-based products,” she says.


Good Enough to Eat
And it all comes back to the public’s increasingly unified theory of how to live well. As Paige Leyden, a natural products researcher at SPINS (Chicago), says, “Clean or natural eating has been a gateway to being healthier overall, and that approach has taken on an even more holistic nature to include more aspects than just diet-which is why simpler skincare and beauty are thriving.”

Leyden definitely detects a correlation between concerns about what’s in food and beverage choices and the ingredients that are in “all types of products.” Clean eating and clean beauty “go hand-in-hand,” she believes, and just as consumers “look for products with fewer or easier-to-understand ingredients when it comes to food, I believe that’s becoming apparent in beauty and skincare, too.”


Clean-Beauty Compromise?
Of course, clean comes at a cost, and Simpson is quick to note that “in the past, natural-based products fell short on shelf life and stability,” while also often lacking sufficient clinical evidence for their efficacy. More recently, however, “Industry formulators, researchers, and manufacturers have improved this to the point that many natural-based ingredients and products have similar stability profiles and are shown to be equally efficacious compared to many traditional products,” Simpson concludes.

Is it magic? Hardly-but if consumers choose to think of it that way, so be it. “I believe consumers enjoy the idea that an ingredient found in nature has ‘magic-like’ qualities,” Leyden says. “It’s almost like searching for the fountain of youth-finding something effective and sourced from nature that has comparable benefits to something created in a lab.” These days, that’s no longer wishful thinking.

Ahead, we highlight some natural beauty and skincare ingredients that will convince even the skeptics.


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