Latest in naturals trend in Europe

At the midpoint of 2017, we take a look back at the major developments seen across naturals and organics so far.

Increasingly competitive​

Although a great area of growth over the past several years, things are now starting to slow up as the naturals segment becomes increasingly saturated.

This was explored in a recent report particularly on the UK market by research firm Ecovia Intelligence.​

The report noted that while the UK naturals beauty market has seen sales increase by nearly 30% since 2012, this is beginning now to slow.

Ecovia Intelligence suggests this is linked to an uncertain political and economic climate, related to the Brexit vote.

Other factors are at play too, the firm notes, including retailers becoming more cautious in introducing or expanding natural & organic personal care product ranges.

Industry standard​

When it comes to labelling, the newly reinforced collective profile of the COSMOS certification has been a key feature in terms of harmonising the segment across the European market.

The COSMOS international standard has been around for a while, but at the start of this year, several national accreditation bodies agreed that any product these partners certify now have to meet the COSMOS standard, allow for regional consistency. Here’s our overview of the certification.​

Sustainability: a driving force​

One area that is encouraging the continued growth of the trend is where sustainability meets naturals.

This can be seen, for example, in the push to find natural alternatives to plastic microbeads as they increasingly fall foul of consumer appetite and government regulation.

Indeed, a supplier of natural ingredients for the cosmetic industry, Lessonia, earlier this year released its list of key natural alternatives to microplastic particles.​

The list from Lessonia includes: shells and kernels (i.e. from almonds, coconuts, apricots, etc), minerals (including corindon, garnet and pearl), seeds (such as blackcurrent, cranberry and kiwi), flowers and leaves (including olive, lavender and jasmine) and fruits (like apple, grape and lemon).