WATCH: Skin defence: How Endota Spa and DSM are responding to demand for protective beauty in APAC

The sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays used to be the consumer’s biggest beauty adversary, inspiring not just cosmetic products, but melodramatic sun visors and assorted beachwear.

Today, more research is showing that skin damage can be accelerated by air pollution and high energy visible light, also known as blue light, from digital devices.

Melanie Gleeson, CEO of Australian beauty and wellness brand Endota Spa, believes the drastic lifestyle changes brought about by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is generating more interest in protective beauty products.

“It’s really the way we now live our lives. We are spending so much time in front of our screens – especially in the [past few months] while everyone was in lockdown… The demand for protective beauty across is world is just going to get more and more.”​

Gleeson said the company is experience growing demand in its home market as well as overseas markets such as Thailand, Singapore and China.

Regional marketing lead for DSM personal care, APAC, Fabrice Guillemard believes the product in the market are just the tip of the iceberg.

He said that he anticipates the protective beauty category to broaden as awareness among consumers are heightened, giving rise to body and hair care products with protective claims.

However, designing a protective beauty product can be challenging given the many parameters formulators must work within.

As such, DSM has created a ‘breakthrough’ formulation simulator which can aid formulators in creating protective products that are not just effective but pleasant to use as well.

“We are able to help formulators simulate not only the UV protection of their formulation but… also look into the blue light protection and predict these kind of blue light claims. We also take into account the eco-impact of sunscreen formulations.”​

To learn more about the protective beauty trend, tune into the video above.