Cosmetics industry looks to natural actives to preserve biodiversity

Speaking at the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit in Paris, Carola Schwaiberger, sales manager at Alban Muller, stated consumers are becoming more aware of environmental issues and the importance of preserving biodiversity.

“A few years ago biodiversity was relatively unknown to the consumer, now through increased visibility they are more aware,”​ she said.

Growing use of natural actives​

According to Schwaiberger, this increased awareness has helped drive the growing use of natural actives, particularly versus chemical products and synthetics.

However, she stressed that it was not enough to be simply natural.

The demand on the industry nowadays is to provide natural extracts that are 100 per cent natural, environmentally-friendly, that avoid parabens as preservatives, along with other chemical additives, and for the recycling of manufacturing materials.

Latest innovations need to meet consumers’ requirements in terms of efficacy and proof, she said.

Consumers believe natural products to be better for them​

She echoed the results of market analyst Datamonitor’s October report that stated consumers across the globe consider personal care products formulated with natural products as being better for them, although they still have concerns over their efficacy.

Only 37 per cent of global consumers agreed with the statement ‘health and beauty products formulated with natural ingredients are equally as effective as non-natural products’.

Datamonitor says this shows marketers need to work harder to convince consumers of the efficacy of natural ingredients.

Consumer trends analyst at Datamonitor, Mathew Jones said that shoppers would be unlikely to sacrifice performance benefits in their beauty products and advised natural manufacturers to be wary of price premiums.

“Price is also a factor, as consumers will find it difficult to justify any price premiums when there is doubt as to whether they will even see good results,”​ he said.